A Natural History of Art

Not so long ago I came across a passage I had copied in longhand from one of Loren Eiseley’s (1907-77) books written in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The naturalist-philosopher-poet beautifully described that when we went from all fours to walking upright the message of hereditary transmission had already been incised in our brains: “Suddenly, we saw designs in feathered skies and in black