 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
34
NATURAL SELECTION.
Is Man but on Gorilla an advance,
As upon Ape Gorilla; who, in turn,
So small the interval some wits discern,
Doth gall Man's kibe? So that, if by good chance,
Some Cadmus taught to spell, speak, read, write, dance,
And a few more accomplishments; to learn
His “Genesis;” with love, ambition, burn,
Our G. “writ large,” were “Man” on sufferance!
But there's a gulf, as in the Forum: can
Our scientific Quintus Curtius fill
The sad hiatus between Beast and Man?
If he should fail 'tis want of power, not will.
To find the missing link in the great plan
He'd transmigrate, be half Gorilla still!
As upon Ape Gorilla; who, in turn,
So small the interval some wits discern,
Doth gall Man's kibe? So that, if by good chance,
Some Cadmus taught to spell, speak, read, write, dance,
And a few more accomplishments; to learn
His “Genesis;” with love, ambition, burn,
Our G. “writ large,” were “Man” on sufferance!
But there's a gulf, as in the Forum: can
Our scientific Quintus Curtius fill
The sad hiatus between Beast and Man?
If he should fail 'tis want of power, not will.
To find the missing link in the great plan
He'd transmigrate, be half Gorilla still!
“The game's worth candle!” If in retrospect
We step into Noah's Ark, or—'tis the same—
Step out, with all that entered, wild or tame,
Beast, fish, fowl, flesh, or nondescript; select
Our stock, pick, chuse, like higglers, and reject;
Would Science missing “genus,” “species,” name
The beast half-man, the man half-beast proclaim,
And reconciliation so, half-way, effect?
“Beast” rises high, and “Man” goes very low;
He has sometimes a rudimentary tail;
Prolong this “handle,” Science almost so
May “catch her hare,” and cook it—'tis but stale:
Empedocles “Selection” did foreshow,
But Time drew down great Nature's half-raised veil!
We step into Noah's Ark, or—'tis the same—
Step out, with all that entered, wild or tame,
Beast, fish, fowl, flesh, or nondescript; select
Our stock, pick, chuse, like higglers, and reject;
Would Science missing “genus,” “species,” name
The beast half-man, the man half-beast proclaim,
And reconciliation so, half-way, effect?
“Beast” rises high, and “Man” goes very low;
He has sometimes a rudimentary tail;
Prolong this “handle,” Science almost so
May “catch her hare,” and cook it—'tis but stale:
Empedocles “Selection” did foreshow,
But Time drew down great Nature's half-raised veil!
Time, jealous of that wondrous Grecian brain,
Whose intuition pierced all depth, all height,
And from which Science leaped, a thing of light,
Full-born, a new Minerva, who had lain
There ready, till the world was put in train,—
Time, lest he should anticipate his flight
Too much, Man's knowledge too much expedite,
Replaced the mask, and Nature hid again!
Years, thousands twain with centuries over three,
And space of days unnumbered, wave on wave,
Had risen, fallen, in Time's boundless sea;
And now, by aid of lights the Ancient gave,
The Modern's voyage of re-discovery
May those forgotten truths, as brand-new, save!
Whose intuition pierced all depth, all height,
And from which Science leaped, a thing of light,
Full-born, a new Minerva, who had lain
There ready, till the world was put in train,—
Time, lest he should anticipate his flight
Too much, Man's knowledge too much expedite,
Replaced the mask, and Nature hid again!
Years, thousands twain with centuries over three,
And space of days unnumbered, wave on wave,
Had risen, fallen, in Time's boundless sea;
And now, by aid of lights the Ancient gave,
The Modern's voyage of re-discovery
May those forgotten truths, as brand-new, save!
35
A strange scene-shifter, Time! How strangely Man
He leads, and takes him, childlike, by the hand,
And puts the clue into it of this grand
And wondrous world, by slow essáys to span
Immensity, and piece out the great plan;
There, missing planet; here, sea, unknown land
Icing the pole. As with Magician's wand,
Light, electricity, heat, air, he can
Make ministrant. No fabled genii!
Beyond all Fortunatus' “wishing cap,”
Aladdin's lamp, his daily work they ply.
But his own “Genesis,” whence, by what hap,—
That nut's to crack! So, piqued by how and why,
To make himself, Prometheus-like, he'd try!
He leads, and takes him, childlike, by the hand,
And puts the clue into it of this grand
And wondrous world, by slow essáys to span
Immensity, and piece out the great plan;
There, missing planet; here, sea, unknown land
Icing the pole. As with Magician's wand,
Light, electricity, heat, air, he can
Make ministrant. No fabled genii!
Beyond all Fortunatus' “wishing cap,”
Aladdin's lamp, his daily work they ply.
But his own “Genesis,” whence, by what hap,—
That nut's to crack! So, piqued by how and why,
To make himself, Prometheus-like, he'd try!
Yet no Japetus' high-scheming son
Is he, uplooking to the source alone
Of light; his Science holds her torch right down,
Like the old Genius of Death! comparison
Not re-assuring; th' other at the sun
Lit his, and were the mystery once known,
That wondrous fable Truth itself would own:
From spark electric Being Man first won!
This science, crablike, sidewards doth advance,
And upwards-downwards. Well! 'tis circle still,
The ends must meet; all is design, not chance.
One centre the circle has, stand where you will;
There stand I, above Time and Circumstance,
And with God's light my soul from all sides fill!
Is he, uplooking to the source alone
Of light; his Science holds her torch right down,
Like the old Genius of Death! comparison
Not re-assuring; th' other at the sun
Lit his, and were the mystery once known,
That wondrous fable Truth itself would own:
From spark electric Being Man first won!
This science, crablike, sidewards doth advance,
And upwards-downwards. Well! 'tis circle still,
The ends must meet; all is design, not chance.
One centre the circle has, stand where you will;
There stand I, above Time and Circumstance,
And with God's light my soul from all sides fill!
| Stones from The Quarry | |