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[timelets]

Pan's mantle, or clothing, is with great ingenuity made of a leopard's skin, because of the spots it has; for in like manner the heavens. are sprinkled with stars, the sea with islands, the earth with flowers, and almost each particular thing is variegated, or wears a mottled coat.

--- Francis Bacon, The Wisdom of the Ancients.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_the_Ancients/2#Chapter_VI

This would be a good illustration of the principle that a difference against a background is a precursor to data.