POETRY.
IN THE BEGINNING.
AUGUST, year unknown ; time, Six o'clock in the morning ; Sate in a tree an Ape ; irrational; eating an apple, Raw ; no cook as yet, no house, no shred of a garment ; Soul, a blank ; taste, nil; a thumb but slowly beginning; Warranted wholly an Ape, a great Jack-ape o' the forest, Jabbering, hairy, grim, arboreal wholly in habits. So he sate on till Noon, when, hushed in slumber around him, Everything lay dead ; all save the murmuring insect, Whose small voice still spake, proclaiming silence. Awaking Suddenly then he rose, and thinking scorn of his fellows Longed to be quit of them all, his Apess specially. She, dear, Knew no dream, no vision ; her Apelet playing about her All her thought, her care! At Four, be finally left her, Went to live by himself, but felt a pang—'twas a conscience Budding, in germ ! yet went; then stopped to bathe in a fountain ; Wow ! What an ugly phiz ! He saw, and shuddered; a Ruskin Stirred in his breast. Taste born !—the seed of a mighty Ideal, Raffaelesque, Titianic ! Erect he strode through the jungle, Cleaving his way with a stick ;—Art's rise ! An implement- maker, Parent of Armstrong guns, steam-rams, et cmtera ! Still on Plucking the fruits he went; felt pain, no matter the region ; Said it was not the apple, or crab, or cranberry, no ! nor Even the sloe. 'Twas a chill. He caught it there in the fountain,
Bathing, still in a heat, the water cold o' the coldest. Glorious Ape !—Logician ! not yet a perfect Induction, Bat good step that way, as good as many among us ! So he went on till eve, when, reached the edge o' the forest, Just where the opening paths sloped westward ; then i' the
gloaming, Mounting a rising knoll, he saw the sun in his glory Set over flood and fell; and joining, as in embraces, Earth to heaven draw near : he saw, and suddenly trembled ; Sudden his Apehood shrank as a robe, and fell from off him ; Sudden a soul was born. He owned a greater above him, Near him, round him, in him, far away in the splendour, Having a right to rule, and he a duty to serve It.
And this happened at Eight—at Eight p.m. precisely— On that August day ; and if you cannot believe it, Go to your Darwin ; read how an Ape grew man ; and a moment Was when his soul was not, another, his soul was quickened. And this must be true, or else—unhappy dilemma— Men and monkeys both have souls, or flourish without them. So farewell, Ape-man ! Lo we, your progeny, greet you ; Thank you much for a soul, and—may we never forget it !
B.
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