Today's the 200th anniversary of the birth of two giants: Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. I wonder if anyone celebrated the two together fifty or a hundred years ago? The accident of their coincident birthdays has tempted some to discren some other, more substantive link - were they both empiricists, both moved by a sense of the unity of human kind, both path-breaking nonfiction writers? - but that would be just silly (indeed, an instance of the kind of thinking which Darwin discredited). Let's just enjoy the celebration - a new penny for the great emancipator, and a somewhat naughty set of stamps for the great naturalist. Not that we'll get away with just a day. The bookstores are full of Lincoln books, and the web is overflowing with announcements of Darwin conferences, symposia, etc.
