At first, the earth ceased to be the center of the universe; then the evolution of organisms became mutually accepted; and as the human fetus was shown to repeat at certain stages in its development aspects of the life cycles of other species–to possess in fact some of the features of fish and frog–it was denied that human beings could pretend to be different from other living matter.

~Czeslaw Milosz, “Speaking of a Mammal,” from To Begin Where I Am