On Nature was a philosophical poem which details Anaximander's theories about the evolution of the Earth, plants, animals and humankind. Anaximander described his theory that humans and other animals descended from fish once the world's oceans began to dry up. Also he described a theory of abiogenesis in his book in the way that he believed that the first life forms formed from mist. We know little about his book because it has been lost or destroyed, however it still remains important today because it describes one of the world's earliest theories of evolution.
Famous quotes containing the word nature:
“Most books belong to the house and street only, and in the fields their leaves feel very thin. They are bare and obvious, and have no halo nor haze about them. Nature lies far and fair behind them all. But this, as it proceeds from, so it addresses, what is deepest and most abiding in man. It belongs to the noontide of the day, the midsummer of the year, and after the snows have melted, and the waters evaporated in the spring, still its truth speaks freshly to our experience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)