Natural History – Page 4

The use of natural

The use of natural history is to give us aid in supernatural history: the use of the outer creation, to give us language for the beings and changes of the inward creation. Ralph Waldo Emerson

In a cabinet of

In a cabinet of natural history, we become sensible of a certain occult recognition and sympathy in regard to the most unwieldy and eccentric forms of beast, fish, and insect. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We cannot describe the natural history of the soul, but we know that it is divine. All things are known to the soul. It is not to be surprised by any communication. Nothing can be greater than it, let those fear and those fawn who will. The soul is in her native realm; and it … Read more

If the world were

If the world were to end tomorrow and we could choose to save only one thing as the explanation and memorial to who we were, then we couldn’t do better than the Natural History Museum, although it wouldn’t contain a single human. The systematic Linnean order, the vast inquisitiveness and range of collated knowledge and beauty would tell all that is the best of us.
A. A. Gill