BOOK OF THE DAMNED 95 



has been a process of population by immigration or by bombard- 

 ment. Some notes I have upon remains of men and animals en- 

 cysted, or covered with clay or stone, as if fired here as projectiles, 

 I omit now, because it seems best to regard the whole phenomenon 

 as a tropism as a geotropism probably atavistic, or vestigial, as 

 it were, or something still continuing long after expiration of neces- 

 sity; that, once upon a time, all kinds of things came here from 

 Genesistrine, but that now only a few kinds of bugs and things, at 

 long intervals, feel the inspiration. 



Not one instance have we of tadpoles that have fallen to this 

 earth. It seems reasonable that a whirlwind could scoop up a 

 pond, frogs and all and cast down the frogs somewhere else: but, 

 then, more reasonable that a whirlwind could scoop up a pond, 

 tadpoles and all because tadpoles are more numerous in their 

 season than are the frogs in theirs: but the tadpole-season is earlier 

 in the spring, or in a time that is more tempestuous. Thinking in 

 terms of causation as if there were real causes our notion is 

 that, if X is likely to cause Y, but is more likely to cause Z, but 

 does not cause Z, X is not the cause of Y. Upon this quasi-sorites, 

 we base our acceptance that the little frogs that have fallen to this 

 earth are not products of whirlwinds: that they came from exter- 

 nality, or from Genesistrine. 



I think of Genesistrine in terms of biologic mechanics: not that 

 somewhere there are persons who collect bugs in or about the last 

 of January and frogs in July and August, and bombard this earth, 

 any more than do persons go through northern regions, catching 

 and collecting birds, every autumn, then casting them southward. 



But atavistic, or vestigial, geotropism in Genesistrine or a mil- 

 lion larvae start crawling, and a million little frogs start hopping 

 knowing no more what it's all about than we do when we crawl 

 to work in the morning and hop away at night. 



I should say, myself, that Genesistrine is a region in the Super- 

 Sargasso Sea, and that parts of the Super-Sargasso Sea have rhythms 

 of susceptibility to this earth's attraction. 



