origin of systematics

[Robert Robbins]

On Sun, 26 Mar 1995, John McNeill wrote:

> Wow!  Not bad for a Sunday night.  This debate on the origin of
> systematics - Adam; the first Aborigine; hard-wired [in the first
> _Homo_] - makes all that stuff over the past few weeks on species (and
> Linnaean taxonomy /nomenclature) a bit passe<'.

[ things deleted ]

>  Maybe the recent debate did
> generate some new ideas, and when I re-read what I dumped in a "Species"
> folder, I may find them, but, for the moment, I go with the writer of
> Ecclesiastes that "there is no new thing under the sun".

As long as we're going to bring in old Ecclesiastes this Sunday evening,
let me suggest a verse that seems always appropriate in these contexts:

           For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that
           increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

                                       Ecclesiastes 1:18




ÿÿ    Re: origin of systematics                                              R