To learn the true source of his deepest thirst,
The wonderful truth of the beginning of things—
The beginning of thought, and the primals of love;
How a reptile became the soft cooing dove,
And whence the beginning of all present things;
The ape-grunt to a word, and that word a vast tongue,
And whence the sweet music of mankind has sprung;
Who struck the first note in the beginning of things?
’Tis an evolution great, and a marvel to me,
But never have I prayed to our father up a tree;