“So, naturalists observe, a flea,
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite ‘em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.”
Cutely, this quatrain is quoted by Geoffrey West in SCALE.
After Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, where he tracks allusions to whales and cetology, I keep a running list of references to recursion, innovation, mythology, and glamour.
“So, naturalists observe, a flea,
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite ‘em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.”
Cutely, this quatrain is quoted by Geoffrey West in SCALE.