WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
For the Democrat and American. 
To the Gorilla in The Rochester University. 
BY THE HATE DR. W. W. ELY. 
What is it greets ns in this classic hall ? 
No more a myth — but a most real presence ! 
Towering in majesty, above the small 
And grinning tribes — expansion of their essence : 
Subdued and softened now thy bold defiance— 
A peaceful inmate of this Court of Science. 
Are you the key, O Monkey, to unlock 
The sealed and scientific mystery ? 
Were Apes the parents of the human stock 
Long ere the records of primeval history ? 
What countless ages did it take to span 
The ethnic chasm from baboon to man ? 
Are you still undergoing transformation 
To men, that travelers have seen, with tails? 
And do you claim a kinship with the nation 
Of Bushmen, eating beetles, mice and snails? 
How wonderful the Power, forever moulding 
New forms, and broad creations still unfolding! 
If not your Word, perhaps your Brain may tell 
What possibilities remain in store ; 
What convolutions yet may rise and swell, 
Ere you can master metaphysic lore, 
Those flattened, frontal lobes may grow to something, 
And make, at length, a savant of a dumb thing ! 
Perhaps a Naturalist thus may rise 
To far outshine a Darwin or Lamarck ; 
As blazing suns, that now adorn the skies, 
Were once but nebulae, obscure and dark, 
Science must follow fair analogy, 
What’er betides one’s genealogy. 
If you have not bestowed sufficient study— 
On things archmologic and profound ; 
And find your intellect confused and muddy, 
Unequal to the themes your looks propound— 
Are there not subjects you could ventilate, 
Bearing at least upon your present state? 
Wise men and learned have taught us to believe 
You were endowed with arts insinuating ; 
And, serpent-like, beguiled our Mother Eve 
With honied words, her pious fears berating, 
Raising her wild desires and vain ambition, 
To end in poverty and our perdition. 
Was it for this— thy primal, fatal error, 
Your speech was changed to an unmeaning chat- 
ter ? 
That thickest woods own thee their king and terror ? 
Mysterious brute, or fiend ! that’s what’s the mat- 
ter. 
If roaming Paradise with Father Adam, 
You whispered secrets in the ear of madam ! 
What were you made for ? Surely, one must think 
You have some part to play in this creation ; 
Is it alone to live, and eat, and drink ? 
Could you not serve upon a rice plantation— 
Raise sugar-cane, and cotton, for the masses, 
And carry burdens, as do mules and asses ? 
Fearless in strength, your brawny arm can twist 
To shapelessness a gun,— a rod of iron 
You’d tie up like a string,— and, with your fist, 
Lay senseless on the ground the sturdy lion, 
Would not the “ prize-ring ” offer some temptation 
To draw you out for Belts and an ovation ? 
You’ve natural affection without doubt, 
And teach your babies all the monkey graces ; 
Caress and pet them— whip them if they pout ; 
Teach them to lick their hands and wash their 
faces, 
Why did you never teach them to build houses — 
Improve their social state, and put on blouses ? 
You must have rights-anthropoid, but ’tis clear 
They have not been respected : what’s your own, 
If not your skin? well-stuffed and standing here ; 
While far away confederate flesh and bone, 
Their elements return to earth and air ; 
While mourn your family— we know not where. 
Methinks your talents have not had their uses ; 
All things were made for man, and so were you ; 
Free idleness has manifold abuses ; 
Where hands are given, there’s also work to do. 
You might thus rid your land, by growing docile, 
Of “ institutions ” fast becoming fossil. 
Men , that have feet, were made to run away 
From tyrants and oppressors ; what can bind 
The restless spirit of this house of clay 
To everlasting thraldom?— the free wind 
Doth whistle them away— somewhere to find, 
Inalienable rights to all assigned. 
I wish you were, or one thing, or the other, 
But less resembling our humanity ; 
We cannot hail thee as a “ man and brother ” — 
As brute, your likeness shocks our vanity ! 
Your features, form, and aspect cranial, 
Come quite too near the type “ bimanial.” 
Was it by accident, or wise design. 
You failed to be a man, yet came so near; 
Stopping where Nature limits did assign 
To upward struggle for existence dear,— 
With all the power of “ natural selection,” 
Failing to reach the summit of perfection ? 
Gorilla ! why so silent and disdainful,— 
Hast thou no power to move the stubborn jaw, 
And pour a flood of light on problems painful 
To Ethnologic schools ? Thou man of straw ! 
Why art thou standing here, so high in college. 
To rack our fancies, and perplex our knowledge? 
TROGLODYTES GORILLA. 
From the specimen recently sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology , Cambridge , Mass. 
