io 4 THEORIES OF EVOLUTION 



On the first he sat still, and kept using his bill, 



That the head in his chicks might prevail : 

 Ere he hatched the next young, head downwards he slung 



From the branches, to lengthen his tail. 

 Conceive how he watched till his chickens were hatched, 



With what joy he observed that each brood 

 Were unlike at the start, had their dwellings apart, 



And distinct adaptations for food. 



From the bill, in brief words, were developed the Birds, 



Unless our tame pigeons and ducks lie; 

 From the tail and hind legs, in the second-laid eggs, 



The Apes and Professor Huxley. 



If we now turn to the skits on evolution written at the 

 present day we find they are very different. Miss May 

 Kendall, in writing her Ballad of the Ichthyosaurus, only 

 a few years ago [1887], says : 



E'er Man was developed, our brother, 

 We swam and we ducked and we dived, 



And we dined, as a rule, on each other 

 What matter, the toughest survived. 



This is true Natural Selection. The authoress under- 

 stood what she was talking about. But, strangely enough, 

 what might well be looked upon as the most incisive 

 parody of Natural Selection was published more than ten 

 years too early ! The first part of James Russell Lowell's 

 Biglow Papers appeared between 1846 and 1848. One 

 of the earlier poems contains the following lines : 



Some flossifers think thet a fakkilty's granted 



The minnit it's proved to be thoroughly wanted, 

 Thet a change o' demand makes a change o f condition, 



An' thet everythin' 's nothin' except by position ; 

 Ez, fer instance, thet rubber-trees fust begun bearin' 



Wen p'litikle conshunces come into wearin', 

 Thet the fears of a monkey, whose holt chanced to fail, 



Drawed the vertibry out to a prehensile tail. 



If these amusing verses had been written later they 

 would certainly have been accepted as a satire upon the 

 origin as opposed to the survival of the fittest. As it is, 

 we must believe that they were indirectly inspired by the 

 Lamarckian idea of change wrought by the desires of 

 animals. The publication in 1844 of the Vestiges of the 



