It doesn’t seem to be true at first glance, but the words provision and providence mean exactly the same thing etymologically.   The prefix pro-, a variant of pre-, means, of course, “before” or “preceding”; while both -vision and -vidence derive from the Latin video, meaning “I see”.   Therefore, both provision and providence signify a kind of “foreseeing” or a “seeing something before” the events that follow after. But we know well enough that the definitions of these words differ greatly. ... Read more

One of the earliest of the operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan is The Sorcerer, which dates from 1877.  I don’t know whether W. S. Gilbert had become familiar with the works of Karl Marx by that date, but his libretto for The Sorcerer is a brilliant parody of the idea that class distinctions in society can be artificially and (the word is inevitable) “unnaturally” done away with. As this is the introductory essay for the Dinosaur, I am going to... Read more