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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



result. I can not do better than end this article by quoting the 

 resolution passed at the recent meeting of the Canada Medical 

 Association : " That the system of education in force in the Do- 

 minion draws too largely upon the brain tissue of children and 

 materially injures their mental and bodily health." 



TO BARBARA. 



(A Study in Heredity.) 

 By DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



LITTLE lady, cease your play 

 For a moment, if you may ; 

 Come to me, and tell me true 

 Whence those black eyes came to you. 



Father's eyes are granite gray, 

 And your mother's, Barbara, 

 Black as the obsidian stone, 

 With a luster all their own. 

 How should one so small as you 

 Learn to choose between the two ? 



If through father's eyes you 



look, 

 Nature seems an open book 

 All her secrets written clear 

 On her pages round you, dear. 

 Better yet than this may be 

 If through mother's eyes you 



see ; 

 Theirs to read a finer art 

 Deep down in the human heart. 

 How should one so small as 



you 

 Choose so well 

 two ? 



between the 



Hide your face behind your 



fan , 

 Little black-eyed Puritan ; 

 Peer across its edge at me 

 In demurest coquetry, 

 Like some Doiia Placida, 

 Not the Puritan you are. 



