There was an ape in the days that were earlier,
Centuries passed and his hair became curlier;
read more

There was an ape in the days that were earlier,
Centuries passed and his hair became curlier;
Centuries more gave a thumb to his wrist--
Then he was a Man and a Positivist.

The rise of every man he loved to trace,
Up to the very pod O!
And, in read more

The rise of every man he loved to trace,
Up to the very pod O!
And, in baboons, our parent race
Was found by old Monboddo.
Their A, B, C, he made them speak,
And learn their qui, quae, quod, O!
Till Hebrew, Latin, Welsh, and Greek
They knew as well's Monboddo!

Is there evil but on earth? Or pain in every people sphere?
Well, be grateful for the sounding watchword read more

Is there evil but on earth? Or pain in every people sphere?
Well, be grateful for the sounding watchword "Evolution" here.

This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express
in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. read more

This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express
in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called "natural
selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle
for life."

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.

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.]

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.

I was at Euphorbus at the siege of Troy.

I was at Euphorbus at the siege of Troy.

Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested, and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject at read more

Creationist critics often charge that evolution cannot be tested, and therefore cannot be viewed as a properly scientific subject at all. This claim is rhetorical nonsense.