HISTORY 60

Department of History
University of California, Irvine
Instructor:    Dr. Barbara J. Becker

 

Week 9.  Natural Selection

excerpt from
"Monkeyana" (1861)
A poem by Gorilla of the Zoological Gardens

 

In 1861, just two years after Darwin's Origin of Species was published, this poem with its accompanying cartoon appeared in Britain's satiric magazine, Punch:

Am I satyr or man?
Pray tell me who can,
And settle my place in the scale.
A man in ape's shape,
An anthropoid ape,
Or monkey deprived of his tail?

The Vestiges taught,
That all came from naught
By "development," so called, "progressive;"
That insects and worms
Assume higher forms
By modification excessive.

Then DARWIN set forth,
In a book of much worth,
The importance of "Nature's selection;"
How the struggle for life
Is a laudable strife,
And results in "specific distinction."

Let pigeons and doves
Select their own loves,
And grant them a million of ages,
Then doubtless you'll find
They've altered their kind,
And changed into prophets and sages....

  
 
 
Go to:
Weekly Readings
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Lecture Notes
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Quodlibets
--
--