EVOLUTION'S GENEALOGICAL TREE.
By J. S. Macdonald
OH! can it be, great Scientist,
That you have found "the link" long missed,
And on this startling fact insist,
That from an ape
Of horrid shape
Your sires of bygone ages came?.
Can you inherit such a name,
Without an honest blush of shame? And is it true you all agree
That traces of the chimpanzee
With scientific eyes you see
As now you pass
Before your glass?
Or, are you, like a droll buffoon,
Who sings a mirth-provoking tune,
Pretending you're a wise baboon? Are none of us what now we seem?
Is Eden's beauty but a dream,
And all its light a blinding gleam
We cannot trust?
Say you, "We must
Give up our origin divine;
We came by methods we divine,
Development from toads and swine"? Of all that's Godlike we are void,
Our nature base and all alloyed;
Since we are but an anthropoid,
Or tailless beast,
Somewhat increased
In wisdom o'er our ancient sires,
With aspirations and desires
No monkey's breast to-day inspires. The man is but a brute complete;
The maiden, laughing, loving, sweet,
Should with a cousin's welcome greet
Each kindred thing
With beak and wing,
And ne'er, with pride of form or shape,
Forget she's but a lovely ape,
Bound down to earth beyond escape. Must we accept this pedigree,
This stunted, scrubby family tree,
This beastly genealogy?
We can but think
"The missing link "
The scientist will never find,
That soulless beasts of any kind
Can join to man of Godlike mind.