Over the weekend I ordered a copy of the 2nd edition of Ankel-Simons’ An Introduction to Primate Anatomy. At this point I have only glanced through it, but two things stand out. First the preface is ended with a wonderful line drawing of an Aye-Aye – which shows impeccably good taste. Second, this quote by Thomas Huxley:
Whatever my hearers might do, I myself always learned sometimes by lecturing. And to those who have experience of what a heartbreaking business teaching is – how much the can’t-learns and won’t-learns and don’t-learns predominate over the do-learns – (sic)will understand the comfort of that reflection.
The above quote comes from Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature
Filed under: Evolution
Great quote, but I’m curious: why the (sic)? Yours or his?
It was Ankel-Simons’ (sic). I haven’t tracked down the quote in the original yet to find out why.
It’s a grammatical (sic). If you take out the parenthesis, the sentence reads “And to those who have experience of what a heartbreaking business teaching is[,] will understand the comfort of that reflection.”
You could fix the sentence by taking out the “to.” (I.e., “And those who have experience will understand.”) I suspect that Huxley was being interviewed and lost track of where his sentence had started. It happens to the best of us.