The importance of life is independent of the length of life. For if it were dependent, a longer life would have more importance than a shorter life, which makes no sense (even to turtles).
Further, the importance of life, the Saunterer believes, is the same for all species. An insect’s life means as much to it as a human’s life means to it. Put these two ideas together and you have William Oldys’ poem “The Fly”
Busy, curious, thirsty fly,
Drink with me, and drink as I;
Freely welcome to my cup,
Could’st thou sip, and sip it up;
Make the most of life you may,
Life is short and wears away.
Just alike, both mine and thine,
Hasten quick to their decline;
Thine’s a summer, mine no more,
Though repeated to threescore;
Threescore summers when they’re gone,
Will appear as short as one.
(William Oldys’s poem is quoted from the front matter of The Hungry Fly: A Physiological Study of the Behavior Associated with Feeding, by V. G. Dethier. Harvard University Press, 1976.)
For years we had undergraduates read Vincent Dethier’s book, To Know a Fly. Short and interesting, it painlessly taught students a dry subject, the hypothetico-deductive method of testing research hypotheses.
For a brief biography of William Oldys, click here. For a brief biography of Vincent Dethier, click here.
Further, the importance of life, the Saunterer believes, is the same for all species. An insect’s life means as much to it as a human’s life means to it. Put these two ideas together and you have William Oldys’ poem “The Fly”
Busy, curious, thirsty fly,
Drink with me, and drink as I;
Freely welcome to my cup,
Could’st thou sip, and sip it up;
Make the most of life you may,
Life is short and wears away.
Just alike, both mine and thine,
Hasten quick to their decline;
Thine’s a summer, mine no more,
Though repeated to threescore;
Threescore summers when they’re gone,
Will appear as short as one.
(William Oldys’s poem is quoted from the front matter of The Hungry Fly: A Physiological Study of the Behavior Associated with Feeding, by V. G. Dethier. Harvard University Press, 1976.)
For years we had undergraduates read Vincent Dethier’s book, To Know a Fly. Short and interesting, it painlessly taught students a dry subject, the hypothetico-deductive method of testing research hypotheses.
For a brief biography of William Oldys, click here. For a brief biography of Vincent Dethier, click here.
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