"james_alan_gardner_-_three_hearings_on_the_existence_of_snakes_in_the_human_bloodstream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

"Not wild pigeons, Your Majesty, domestic ones. Bred for show. For
example, some centuries ago, a squire in Sussex took it into his head to
breed a black pigeon from his stock of gray ones."
"Why ever would he want a black pigeon?"
"That remains a mystery to me too, ma'am; but the historical records
are clear. He set about the task by selecting pigeons of the darkest gray he
could find, and breeding them together. Over many generations, their color
grew darker and darker until today, the squire's descendants boast of
pigeons as black as coal."
"They boast of that?"
"Incessantly."
Darwin seized up a piece of bread and virtually stuffed it into his
mouth. The man had apparently become so engrossed in talking, he had
forgotten who sat across the table. Good, Anne thought; he would be less
guarded.
"We understand the principles of animal husbandry," Anne said. "We do
not, however, see how this pertains to the Papists."
"For the past five centuries. Your Majesty, the Papists have been going
through exactly the same process... as have the Redeemed, for that matter.
Think, ma'am. In any population, there are numerous chance differences
between individuals; the squire's pigeons, for example, had varying shades
of gray. If some process of selection chooses to emphasize a particular
trait as desirable, excluding other traits as undesirable -- if you restrict
darker birds to breeding with one another and prevent lighter ones from
contributing to the bloodline -- the selected characteristic will tend to
become more pronounced with each generation."
"You are still talking about pigeons, Mr. Darwin."
"No, ma'am," he said triumphantly, "I am talking about Papists and the
Redeemed. Let us suppose that in the times of Patriarch Septus, some people
had almost imperceptible serpentine analogues in their bloodstream -- a
chance occurrence, just as some people may have curls in their hair while
others do not."
Anne opened her mouth to say that curls were frequently not a Chance
occurrence at all; but she decided to remain silent.
"Now," Darwin continued, "what happened among the people of that day?
Some saw those tiny, almost invisible snakes; others did not. Those who saw
them proclaimed, This proves the unshakable word of Mother Church. Those who
saw nothing said, The scriptures cannot be taken literally -- believers must
find the truth in their own hearts. And so the Schism split the world,
pitting one camp against another."
"Yes, Mr. Darwin, We know all that."
"So, ma'am, you must also know what happened in subsequent generations.
The rift in belief created a similar rift in the population. Papists only
married Papists. The Redeemed only married the Redeemed."
"Of course."
"Consequently," Darwin stressed the word, "those who could see
so-called snakes in their blood only married those of similar condition.
Those who saw nothing married others who saw nothing. Is it any wonder that,
generation by generation, snakes became more and more visible in Papist
blood? And less and less likely to be seen in the Redeemed? It is simply a