The Endarkenment (was me / message boards / atlantis of the north)

[David]

Alshain wrote:

> Rudbeck was one of those natural philosophers who combined serious
> work (he was among other things an anatomist, a botanist and an
> astronomer and wrote a dissertation on the lymphatic system) with
> things that we laugh about today. One of his saving graces is that
> other scholars of the era could be just as bizarre -- Isaac Newton 
for
> example, dead serious about astrology and alchemy. That mix of
> pre-modern science and old superstition in the (aptly named) 
Baroque
> era never cease to amaze, it feels somewhat like the first book of
> Pullman's His Dark Materials or like a Discworld story.  

Is it they who were bizarre, or us who have no imagination?

David