writes about the beginning of time, but few other people do. People who write “from the beginning of time” or “since time began” are usually being lazy. Their grasp of history is vague, so they resort to these broad, sweeping phrases. Almost never is this usage literally accurate: people have not fallen in love since time began, for instance, because people arrived relatively late on the scene in the cosmic scheme of things. When I visited Ferrara several years ago I was interested tosee that the whole population of the old city seemed to use bicycles fortransportation, cars being banned from the central area. I asked howlong this had been the custom and was told “We‘ve ridden bicycles forcenturies.” Since the bicycle was invented only in the 1860s, Istrongly doubted this (no, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent thebicycle—he just drew a picture of what one might look like—and somepeople think that picture is a modern forgery). If you really don’t knowthe appropriate period from which your subject dates, you cou
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