2624 The Zoologist — June, 1871. 



order to obtain it, found to her cost that with her old lamp had 

 departed all her wealth. The Bible is that old lamp. Evolution 

 is the new one, and it is pitiful to see how many are willing to 

 exchange the old lamp for the new. 



Edward Newman. 



The Triumph of Evolution and other Poems. By Joseph Merrin. 

 London : Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer. 1871. 

 90 pp. fop. 8vo. 



Mr. Merrin, whose name is already familiar to zoologists by 

 his 'Butterflying with the Poets' and ' Lepidopterist's Calendar,' 

 has here attempted a bolder flight, and has proclaimed himself a 

 poet and a philosopher. He seems willing to adopt Mr. Darwin's 

 hypothetical hairy ancestor, and to hymn, as with a band of sacred 

 music, the apotheosis of this strange creature into the heaven of 

 literature, the hymn being elicited by the final result and " Triumph 

 of EvohUiou." 



•' Strange, hairy creature, 



Eepellant, in feature, 

 Come forth ! 1 can see, in thine eyes' brilliant rage 

 The genu of the Hero, the Poet, and Sage ! 

 Nature will fashion thy limbs into grace. 

 Blot the brute out from thy strange, cunning face, 

 Unangle thy brow, raise Thought's lofty dome, 

 Make every grace in thy soul have its home. 

 Crown of Creation ! Noble and gi'and. 

 Gemmed with a splendour, hosts to command ; 



Fruit of all time. 



Rich and sublime, 

 Proud may the Universe be of thy prime ! 

 King of the World ! With flower-ldssed feet ; 

 Genius, thy mantle ; glory, thy seat ; 

 Ministers, ever, thy kingdom invest, 

 Ready to compass thy lightest behest, 

 Latest equipment of Substance and Force, 

 Like a bright star, on thy glorious course, 

 Thou sweepest the verges of time, without tire, 

 Leaving behind thee a thought- way of fire. 

 Mystic the alchemy shaping thy birth ; 

 Mighty the power thoul't wield upon earth ; 



