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Seventy-five pages into the “C” notebook, in spring 1838, Darwin’s confidence swelled. Grappling with these questions, he admitted, was “a most laborious, & painful effort of the mind,” the difficulties of which would never be solved without long meditation or by someone prejudiced against the whole notion. But once you grant that species “may pass into one another,” then the “whole fabric totters & falls.” Look around the world, Darwin coached himself. Study the gradation of intermediate forms. Study geographical distribution. Study the fossil record, and the geographical overlap between extinct creatures and similar living species. Consider all this evidence, he argued excitedly, and “the fabric falls!” The fabric was natural theology. For him it had fallen. Behind where that drapery had hung, Darwin saw the reality of evolution. It wasn’t just a matter of mockingbirds, rabbits, and skinks. It was the whole natural world. “But Man—wonderful Man,” he wrote, trying out ideas on this most dangerous point, “is an exception.” Then again, he added, man is clearly a mammal. He is not a deity. He possesses some of the same instincts and feelings as animals. Three lines below the first statement about man, Darwin negated it, concluding firmly that, no, “he is no exception.” From that terrible insight, despite pressures and implications, Charles Darwin would never retreat.
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
David Quammen
Consequently, as I moved on in life, this MO often left me with too much empathy for my opponents. No matter how far you took it, I was always trying to understand where you were coming from, see your point of view, walk in your shoes. I later told my children, compassion is a wonderful virtue but don’t waste it on those undeserving. If someone has their boot on your neck, kick them in the balls, then discuss. My surfeit of empathy was great for songwriting but often very bad for living or lawsuits.
Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen
Bargain-priced stocks (and markets) can still disappoint. In the periods when the S&P 500 was trading in the cheapest quintile of market P/Es, ten-year compound real returns were as high as 19.4 percent, but also as low as 0.3…
Big Money Thinks Small
Joel Tillinghast
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