A FABLE FOR THE TIMES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 12, 22 July 1898, Page 27

A FABLE FOR THE TIMES.

DEDICATED TO THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY AND YORK.

The Rev. Dr. Kolbe, of the South African Catholic Maoazmeh™ ?e? c S 1 - 1 r iDg ?°it l0 *> ical ' ab * e in reference to the Vindication of the Archbishops of York and Canterbury anent the Pope's decision on Anglican Orders. Dr. Kolbe says :— on If anybody thinks we are unduly pungent in our fable this month on the Anglican position, we refer him to the Academy f' eh - } Q ltß review of t\e Vindication, plainly accuses the two Archbishops of 'the policy popularly called "Jesuitry"' wnil« ' h f% yy ° U ?- aYe the , ?Opißh? Opißh dis P utan ta sweeping away sophistries and demanding a plain answer to a straightforward question • T? goes on to say, 'that the Archbishop should give a direct reply to this question, while their communion notoriously embra-es men of every shade of opinion between Zuinglianism and the Tridentin« definition, was of course not to be expected. There was scope for speculation only as to the device by which the Metropolitans might place their feet out of the net.' Whereupon it characterises the device actually adopted as 'an evasion.' Under the circumstar.eS it does not seem to us that our fabulist has overstepped the mark The fable runs as follows :—: — "«"«.. « Once , u P° n a time there was a pool amid the rocks in which the fish of the neighbourhood gaily disported themselves Into this pool there came a cuttle-fish whose predatory habits soon cleared the place of most of the finny tribe. The cuttle-fish, having now a dominant position, felt himself immensely superior to the limnets and barnacles around, and began to put on fully vertebrate airs At the same time he still claimed all the rights and nriviWea of 1' mollusc. c * The gasteropoda that were there urged him to make ud his mmd definitely to what branch of the animal kingdom he belonged because they were always uncertain whether to treat him as a rela' tive not At last one day, stung by the taunt of an impudent periwinkle and a sarcastic crab, who from a safe crevice snoke of him as merely an invertebrate like themselves, he resolved to net Seeing the king of the fishes passing by the mouth of the pool th« cnttle-fish sent out a feeler secretly from under a stone and arresrpd his attention. He afterwards declared to the other inhabitants of the pool that the king-fish had stopped to speak to him of his own accord, but they bade him tell that to the marines of a Portue-upsp man-of-war. At any rate, the king-fish, finding the cephaloped desirous of official recognition, stopped and addressed him with all courtesy but at the same time with firmness. ' Sir,' he said, ' I wish you well in your own sphere • but ther« can be no question of union between your family and mine You have often been told, and now that you have approached me directly I tell you authoritatively, that to belong to the vertebrates it i* absolutely necessary to have a vertebral column with all that this implies. It is therefore of no avail to discuss the question of your descent : lam obliged, on the mere evidence of your present ore-ani sation, to declare definitely and finally that not having vertehr fl « you are not vertebrate.' «w;u«mj

Hereupon the whole pool resounded with the complaints of the cuttle-fish. 'It was like his impertinence ; who asked him to stop and speak ? who wanted to combine with his family anyhow ? Besides, you all heard him, he would not discuss the question of descent : he dare not. He knows that by evolution I am a true fish. And indeed he is condemned out of his own mouth : if a vertebral column is all that is wanted, you all know I have one. The cnttle-fi>h-bone may not be of exactly the samp pattern as his, but bone it is — everybody calls it so — and dorsal it is ; therefore it is a backbone by all the rules of logic. Nay, I have my doubts even about him : the question is whether he has not so overlaid his backbone with that array of fins above and below as to have degenerated beneath the ideal of the true vertebrate : id is I in my simplicity who have retained the perfection of that ideal.' Here a calja, usually the most stolid even of molluscs, snapped his jaws and tried to look as if he were not laughing, though in reality the grin extended all round his girth. Disdaining him, the cuttlefish went on :—: — ' As a matter of fact, the title of Fish on which he so prides himself, is it not mine also '/ Of course I am one : lam a cuttlefish. 1 ' So am I,' said a hard-shell haliotis from beneath a rock out of reach, ' I am a shell-Fish.' ' So am I ; I am a jelly-Fish,' said a lovely medusa pulsating at the entrance of the pool. 1 So am I ; I am a craw-Fish,' said a Cape lobster, scuttling out of range. To all these things the cuttle-fish responded with silent contempt. At this juncture, however, one of the attendants of the kingfish, who to say the truth had himself some claims to the pool as a habitat, ventured to interpose. He brought with him a cuttle-fish * bone ' he had picked up in the sand, and put one or two straight and inconvenient questions. 'Isit on the strength of this,' he asked. * that you claim identity with us ? Why, it is nothing but a shell. It is entirely homologous to the external covering of the nautilus and the internal skeleton of the spirula. It is a mere arrangement for muscular attachment, and no more deserving of the name of backbone than the shell of an oyster.' (A smothered ' Hear, hear ]' from a couple of sea-urchins). ' Now we want to know from you quite clearly whether you claim to have a backbone in the true sense of the word, "with all that it implies," as the king-fish said. What we mean by a backbone is not merely a muscular attachment, but a protection for a superior nervous system, with a brain. Do we understand V Here the cuttle-fish curtly interrupted : ' This is no question of brains : brains are quite a recent introduction into the Animal Kingdom. If I have a backbone, lam a Vertebrate, and there is an end of it.' Saying this, he discharged the contents of his ink-bag, and surrounded himself with an impenetrable dark cloud, under cover of which he retired into some crevice known only to himself, and •chuckled over bringing the discussion to an effective conclusion. The attendant fish went on his way musing, and was heard to remark, ' If there were no other evidence, that last manoeuvre setdes _his classification once and for all.' 'True,' replied a much-despised sea-hare on the corner rock, ' I ■couldn't have done the inky cloud better myself.' The latest accounts from the pool say that the cuttle-fish fctill claims to be the very apex of vertebrate existence. The Moral will be patent to all who have followed the discussion on Anglican Orders.