First published in 1946, and comparing the ways the world

Hello, hero_with_1000_faces. Although it is true that the foundation may still exist in the present, the laying of the foundation occurred at a point in time in the past, so the simple past laid in laid the foundation is appropriate. Note that it is possible to use a present perfect construct for the same phrase, but not in this particular context, with the year 1946 and the phrase to his days capping off the timeline. If a modern-day publisher wanted to tout the merits of a particular book that was going into print, a word of praise from a notable personage might say, This groundbreaking work has laid the foundation for future generations of scientists to... I see this sort of overblown claim not infrequently when I pick up a new book. But keep in mind, such a claim projects into the future, rather than offering a comment on the past. Getting back to the sentence at hand, I also have no problem with laying the foundation in (B), marking a point in time at which that foundation was laid. However, what swayed me away from (B) was the lack of agreement between compared and appears: I simply cannot justify the use of the present tense in the latter case without the appearance of comparing before. A tough question for sure, but there are always weaknesses or inconsistencies to spot. Thank you for bringing the question to my attention.

- Andrew