Man's Place In Nature, Dedicated To Darwin And Huxley

They told him gently he was made
    Of nicely tempered mud,
That man no lengthened part had played
    Anterior to the Flood.
'Twas all in vain; he heeded not,
    Referring plant and worm,
Fish, reptile, ape, and Hottentot,
    To one primordial germ.

They asked him whether he could bear
    To think his kind allied
To all those brutal forms which were
    In structure Pithecoid;
Whether he thought the apes and us
    Homologous in form;
He said, "Homo and Pithecus
    Came from one common germ."

They called him "atheistical,"
    "Sceptic," and "infidel."
They swore his doctrines without fail
    Would plunge him into hell.
But he with proofs in no way lame,
    Made this deduction firm,
That all organic beings came
    From one primordial germ.

That as for the Noachian flood,
    'Twas long ago disproved,
That as for man being made of mud,
    All by whom truth is loved
Accept as fact what, malgre strife,
    Research tends to confirm,
That man, and everything with life,
    Came from one common germ.