Selected Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 1343, 25 August 1877, Page 19

Selected Poetry.

DARWIN'S DEVELOPMENT THEORY. From Blackwood's Magazine. Have you heard of this question the Doctors amone Whether all living thintrs from a Monad have gprunz ? This has lately been said, and it now shall be sun? Which nobody can deny. Not one or two ages sufficed for the feat, It required a few millions the change to completo But now the thing's done, and it looka very neat ' Which nobody can deny. The original Monad, our great great grandsire To little or nothing at first did aspire ; But at last to have offspring it took a desire Which nobody can deny. ' This Monad becoming a father or mother, By budding or bursting produced such another: And shortly there followed a sister or brother " Which nobody can deny. But Monad no longer designates them well— They're a cluster of molecules now, or a cell • But which of the two Doctors only can tell, ' Which nobody can deny.' (Nonnulli cleiunt hie). Excrescences fast were now trying to shoot ; Some put out a feeler, some put out a root ; Some set up a mouth, and some struck down a root Which nobody can deny. ' Some wishing to walk, manufactured a limb • Some rigged out a fin with a purpose to swim'; Some opened an eye, some remained dark and dim * Which nobody c»a deny. ' See hydras and sponges and star-fishes breed, And Hies, fleas, and lobsters in order succeod, While iohthyosauruses follow the lead, Which nobody can deny. From reptiles and fishes to birds we ascend, And quadrupeds neat their dimensions txtend, Till we rise up to monkeys and men— where we end Which nobody can deny. ' Some creatures are bulky, some creatures are small As Nature sends food for the f ow or for all ; ' And the weakest, we know, ever go to the wali Which nobody can deny. A deer, with a neck that is longer by half Than the rest of its family (try not to lautfi), By stretching and stretching becomes a giraffe Which nobody can deny. A very tall pi?, with a very lonij nose, Sends out a proboscis quite down to its toes ; And he then by the name of an elephant goes Which nobody can deny. The four-footed beast which we now call a Whale Held his hind legs so close that they grew to a tail Which he uses for threshing the sea like a flail ' Which nobody can deny. ' Pouters, tumblers, and fantails are from the same p. source ; The racer and hack m*y be traced to one horse : So men were developed from monkeys, of course ' Which nobody can deny. ' An ape with a pliable thumb and big brain, When the gift of the gab he had managed to gain As a Lord of creation established his reign, * Which nobody can deny. But I'm afraid, if we do not take care, A relapse to low life may our prospects impair ; So of beastly propensities let un beware, Which nobody can deny. Their lofty position our children may lose, And reduced to all fours must then narrow their views • I Which would wholly unfit them for filling our shoes ' Which nobody can deny. ' Their vertebra next mfcht be taken away, When they'd sink to a shell-fish or spider some day Or the pitiful part of a polypus play, ' i Which nobody can deny, j Thus losing Humanity's nature and name, ! And descending through various stages of shame, • They'd return to the Monad from which wo all came 1 Which nobody can deny, '