This is not a book, but a collection of essays. Reconsidering it has been a difficult task. Some pieces are stunningly fresh and inspiring, others infuriating and confusing. It began happily enough. In the introduction, “The science of mind and order”, Bateson brilliantly frames the Old Testament as a scientific statement about order: “… and God divided the light from the darkness … and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (p. 29). Modern science has neglected form for substance, yet thinking – making sense of the patterns in the world – is entirely a matter of form. This is the point of Steps to an Ecology of Mind.