EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 135 



gate that leads into the wood, and glad am I 

 to sit on that gate awhile and think of the 

 follies and vanities of human beings. 



" Shall we their fond pageant see ? 

 Lord, what fools these mortals be ! " 



Now in my old age I am beginning to take 

 the Darwinian view of things. Darwin was 

 but a small boy when I was launched upon 

 this vale of tears, within a few bow shots of 

 his birthplace, so I seem to have some natural 

 affinity with him. Human beings seem to me 

 to be just now in a kind of transition state 

 they are not exactly what they were in our 

 early days, and they are not precisely what they 

 will be. They dropped their tails " in the 

 days that were earlier," and may it not be 

 safely assumed that before many centuries are 

 passed they will drop their legs, and be born 

 with wheels under them instead of legs such 

 is the present tendency. " Coming events cast 

 their shadows before." 



Now let me get along into these woods, 

 where I expect to find peace and tranquillity 

 We can take things leisurely and look about 

 us ; we need not be in a hurry/ there is no one 

 to worry us. We have this vast expanse of 



