When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish,
In the Palaeozoic time,
And side by read more

When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish,
In the Palaeozoic time,
And side by side in the sluggish tide
We sprawled in the ooze and slime.

The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfill the
law of their being.

The stream of tendency in which all things seek to fulfill the
law of their being.

For my own part I am persuaded that everything advances by an
unchangeable law through the eternal constitution and read more

For my own part I am persuaded that everything advances by an
unchangeable law through the eternal constitution and association
of latent causes, which have been long before predestined.
[Lat., Equidem aeterna constitutione crediderim nexuque causarum
atentium et multo ante destinatarum suum quemque ordinem
immutabili lege percurrere.]

All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.

All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.

Said the little Eohippus,
"I am going to be a horse,
And on my middle fingernails
read more

Said the little Eohippus,
"I am going to be a horse,
And on my middle fingernails
To run my earthly course!
. . . .
I'm going to have a flowing tail!
I'm going to have a mane!
I'm going to stand fourteen hands high
On the Psychozoic plain!"

Or ever the knightly years were gone
With the old world to the grave,
I was a read more

Or ever the knightly years were gone
With the old world to the grave,
I was a king in Babylon
And you were a Christian slave.

Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. And read more

Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. And this is all very natural and organic and in tune with mysterious cycles of the cosmos, which believes that there’s nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fiber and, in some cases, backbone.

When I was a shepherd on the plains of Assyria.

When I was a shepherd on the plains of Assyria.

I have called this principle, by which, each slight variation, if
useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural read more

I have called this principle, by which, each slight variation, if
useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.