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When I lent, I was friend; and when I asked, I was unkind, so of my friend a made a foe, therefore I will no more do so.

Proverb for the Day: When I lent, I was friend; and when I asked, I was unkind, so of my friend a made a foe, therefore I will no more do so.

This proverb reminds me of another: Homo lupus homini. (O homem é o lobo do homem).
In our earthly existence, human relationships are certainly one of our paramount* problems. Take as an example the behaviors of the apes** known as chimpanzees towards other chimpanzees, compared to the behavior of other primates, namely the species homo sapiens towards other members of the same species.

Chimpanzees

Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

Subfamily: Homininae

Tribe: Hominini

Subtribe: Panina

Genus: Pan

Human Fossil range: 0.2–0 Ma ↓ Pleistocene – Recent

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

Genus: Homo

Species: H. sapiens

Subspecies: H. s. sapiens

Trinomial name

Homo sapiens sapiens

It is interesting to notice that Linnaeus did not included, besides KINGDOM, PHYLLUM, CLASS, ORDER, FAMILY, GENUS and SPECIES the classification RACE. There is nothing similar to white race, black race, yellow race, red race, etc. But the common homo sapiens was not satisfied with such short classification and immediately included the color of the skin as a differential among men.

Carl Linnaeus (sometimes confused with his less well-known son, Carolus Linnaeus the Younger (Swedish original name Carl Linnæus, also Carl Nilsson Linnæus, Latinized as Carolus Linnæus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné , Latinized as Carolus a Linné, 23 May1707 – 10 January 1778) was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.

Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. Linnaeus got most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735–1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 60s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, and published several volumes. At the time of his death, he was renowned as one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.

The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth". The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist". Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called "Princeps botanicorum" ("Prince of Botanists"), "The Pliny of the North" and "The Second Adam".
In botany, the author abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is simply L.

In 1959, Carl Linnaeus was designated as lectotype for Homo sapiens, which means that following the nomenclatural rules Homo sapiens was validly defined as the animal species to which Linnaeus belonged.

To finish my article today, I would like to remind you of the music composed by Paul McCartney and Steve Wonder, EBONY AND IVORY. Now, I ask you to spend 5 minutes and brighten your day by reading the lyrics and listening to the wonderful hymn to solidarity, by following the link below:
http://www.lyrics.com/ebony-and-ivory-lyrics-paul-mccartney.html

I wish you all a brilliant future, not only in 2011, but I wish that every new year be better than the previous one.



 

Roberto Henry Ebelt é professor, escritor, produz uma coluna semanal para o Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre deste 2001 e é diretor do curso HENRY'S BUSINESS ENGLISH desde 1971.

Seu mais recente livro, O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS, pode ser encontrado nas livrarias Disal, Cultura e SBS ou à rua Hoffmann, 728 em Porto Alegre.

E-mail: roberto@henrys.com.br
Fone (51) 3222-3144
www.henrys.com.br