For the lumpish old Dinoceras And Coryphodon so slow Were the heavy aristocracy In days of long ago. Said the little Eohippus, "I am going to be a horse! And on my middle finger-nails To run my earthly course! I'm going to stand fourteen hands high The Coryphodon was horrified, Go view his father's bones. That you're always going to be. What! Be a great, tall, handsome beast, With hoofs to gallop on? Why! You'd have to change your nature!" Said the Loxolophodon. They considered him disposed of, And retired with gait serene; That was the way they argued There was once an Anthropoidal Ape, Far smarter than the rest, And everything that they could do He always did the best; Similar Cases So they naturally disliked him, Cried this pretentious Ape one day, And stand upright, and hunt, and fight, I'm going to cut down forest trees, Loud screamed the Anthropoidal Apes So they yelled at him in chorus, And then they gave him reasons To prove how his preposterous Said the sages, "In the first place, The thing cannot be done! And, second, if it could be, It would not be any fun! And, third, and most conclusive, And admitting no reply, You would have to change your nature! There was once a Neolithic Man, An enterprising wight, 1893 Who made his chopping implements Unusually bright. Unusually clever he, Unusually brave, And he drew delightful Mammoths On the borders of his cave. To his Neolithic neighbors, Who were startled and surprised, Said he, "My friends, in course of time, We are going to live in cities! We are going to fight in wars! We are going to turn life upside down We are going to want the earth, and take We are going to wear great piles of stuff We are going to have diseases! And Accomplishments!! And Sins!!!" Then they all rose up in fury Against their boastful friend, For prehistoric patience Cometh quickly to an end. Said one, "This is chimerical! Utopian! Absurd!" Said another, "What a stupid life! Too dull, upon my word!" Cried all, "Before such things can come, You idiotic child, You must alter Human Nature!" And they all sat back and smiled. Thought they, "An answer to that last It will be hard to find!" It was a clinching argument To the Neolithic Mind! Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman [1860 Man and the Ascidian 1895 MAN AND THE ASCIDIAN A MORALITY "THE Ancestor remote of Man," That, ninety million years at least Went swimming up and down the sea. Their ancestors the pious praise, And like to imitate their ways; The Ascidian tadpole, young and gay, And we, his children, truly we Have brains and hearts, and feel and know. Affix ourselves and are not free; And we are bond-slaves of the clock; Our rocks are Medicine-Letters-Law, Ah, scarce we live, we scarcely know Revert to the Ascidian. Andrew Lang [1844-1912] THE CALF-PATH ONE day, through the primeval wood, A calf walked home, as good calves should; A crooked trail as all calves do. Since then two hundred years have fled, And, I infer, the calf is dead. But still he left behind his trail, The trail was taken up next day And from that day, o'er hill and glade, And dodged, and turned, and bent about |