REPORT ON THE SECOND COMPETITION

THE Editor offered a prize of £5 for an epitaph, in not more than six lines of verse or sixty words of prose, on Australopithe- cus Africanus, the Ape-man whose fossilized skull was recently discovered at Taungs by Professor Raymond Dart :- " But this we know, to make his readers laugh, Spectator calls us for your epitaph."

We quote from a competitor who most painfully mistinder• stood us. Why should an epitaph necessarily be comic ? Of course, there have been candid epitaphs ; there have been bitter epitaphs ; but these have never set the type. No, we confess that, while we welcomed humour and wit, we were as pleased with sentiment and pathos ; and indeed, when we had read some hundreds of attempts to score off the poor boy, as though it wasn't his tombstone at all that the verses

were to fit, we were quite relieved to see a prose epitaph beginning " In sad and affectionate memory • of . . ."

Nor was it quite the moment, we felt, to preach a sermon

upon the Lessons of Evolution, and the Duty of -Man. Of course, it was allowable to introduce, casually and tactfully, a

reference to our superiority or our degeneracy, as the writer preferred it ; but the epitaph was primarily upon Australo- pithecus, not upon ourselves. Would the competitors who " improved the occasion " with a fervent sobriety be satisfied if the lines upon their own tombstones were general and

instructive, and quite without special application to them- selves ? We started with a predilection for epitaphs that might reasonably have been carved on the Taungs rock, or written on the museum card ; and any other kind had to justify itself by peculiar felicities.

Prose epitaphs were astonishingly few, and most of them unattractive. We had hoped and expected to find a larger proportion of epitaphs dealing harshly with Darwin, but it seemed, on the whole, that competitors were solid in the course of Evolution by Natural Selection. PerhapS half-a- dozen entries announced that the Bible has said the last word, and it is blasphemy to argue. We commend the two following epitaphs for their courage :-

" Here lies within this glass showcase Tho child-skull of an ancient idiot race : Him some too proud of distant pedigree Would make a stern of their own family tree — To-day the idiot pampered showcase boy Bears witness of his tainted sire's alloy." B. S. P. " In darkest ages, once, a gibbering ape

Conceived a plan to make creation gape In wonderment at him. Ho sprang between Man and the creature, with his person mean Seeking to make them one. Ere he could grow, Stalking the earth, Truth met him. Laid him low."

Mits. ARCEIBALD JACKSON.

Readers will. remember that " E. B. S." wrote to the same

effect as "B. S. P." But Darwin had an excellent press from the clergy ; as witness :- " Here lies an ape

Whose human shape -

To candid minds the truth discloses 3

What Darwin guess'd These bones attest , With no disparagement of Moses."

R. G. C.

There was, by the way, an equal division between -pithEeists and -pith6eists ; and we accepted either pronunciation. Still, it was good to find Master Ian McHardy (11 years of age) on the side of the classics :—

" Upon this knoll; 'neath Afric skies

Poor Australopithecus lies By Ape-men mourned the Ape-man dies.

When Advent's blush gives glad surprise, And Michael's trump its summons cries, Will Australopithecus rise ? "

About fifty entries were very well worth quoting : we our- selves give our sincere approbation to the following :—

" Here lies, a prey to scientist and priest, Of apes the greatest, of mankind the least, Australopithecus, unmoved to find Himself a propel study of mankind."

PHRONTISTES.

" You, by the first faint flicker of the mind, Through the five senses' jungle strove to find A pathway : this your fitting legend—Here, Baffled, bewildered, lies a pioneer."

G. ROSTREVOR HAMILTON.

" Here man-like-ape and ape-like-man I lie : For man-like, ape-like, I was born to die."

H. M. Now.

" Or man-like Ape, or ape-like Man ?

Ours to solve it if we can.

Thy skull tends either way—a Janus, Australo-problem Africanus !

To vote for -Man knocks out the Ape, And vice versa ; there's the jape.

The wisest course it seems to Me, Is reinterment. . . . R. I. P.' "

WALTER E. MANNERS.

" Little Ape-boy, did you die With an almost human cry ?

When the others roared with rage Had you reached the thinking stage ?

Did they—as you ceased to be— Set a stifled spirit free ? " M. S. J. S.

S' Poor child, who died a myriad years ago, Had you a spark divine, and did you go To Heaven ? or Hell ? ,Or did you cross the Equator, Reincarnate on Pythagorean plan, To come at long, long last as sapient man,

In me : or in the Editor of the Spectator ?"

E. H. Cemrszaa.

How odd that from the rude ungainly Ape We spring. That from this Creature, speechless, dull, Descend the acknowledged Images of God !

. Yet do not scorn this prehistoric shape ; Posterity, perchance, shall find thy skull, And cry How odd ! ' " F. A. Partanues.. " Creation's missing ladder-rung is found !

Broken in pieces, lying underground."

M. A. MILLER.

" Thou west created, gentle ape, In God's own image, legend ran- %. God, piqued at hisreputed shape, Turned gentle ape to gentle man." _ .

4" Before Christ was I walked erect,

Bearing within my breast the Germination of a soul.

I laughed; .

Feeling my strength, changing always, nameless.

Pithecus—Homo—Deus—Unitas.

Pass on, gentlemen, keeping your quest. For that you seek shall not be found Among the dust of apes or tombs of man."

COLONEL N. BARRON.

Here Rea the Solitary of the Ages. The product of one era and the precursor of another, He understood neither.

Prized by posterity as the link between the ages He only felt the tug.

His genius was regarded as madness, his virtues as bad

taste ;

He died from a mistaken attempt To instruct his generation in deportment."

A. ROBERT GEORGE.

In addition to those whose epitaphs we have quoted this week, we thank especially " Anthroposcotus Anglicus," Mr. Humbert Wolfe, Mr: :A. :E. Walker; 'Mrs. Frank H. Taylor,

Mks _Joce.lYn G. .111f4h 14- 4€‘11).N41_ gYfc_p. _Miss. F447.abetrIA S. G. COOKE. Jackson, Mr. C. R. Haines, Mr. E. G. Harrington, " J. S.,", Mr. H. V. Yorke, " H. C. M.,': Mr. Francis Caulfeild, Sir Bartle Frere, " W. F.," Mr. Henry Francis Wilson, Mr. J. B. Hubbersty, Lt.-Col. John Murray. A long list, but not half long enough. For some time we debated .whether the prize should be awarded to Miss Margaret Frenilin, whose epitaph we quoted last week, or to one other epitaph. But the more we read the other, the more we admired it ; it is surely. the most lapidary and final of them all. The prize goes, then, to Mi.. G. Rostrevor Hamilton, 21 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, Ltndon, for the following :-

Speechless, with half-human leer, Lies a hidden monster here : Yet here, read backwards, beauty lies, And here the wisdom of the wise.

G. ROSTREVOR HAMILTON.