["The descendants of man will nourish themselves by immersion
in nutritive fluid. They will have enormous brains, liquid,
soulful eyes, and large hands, on which they will hop. No
craggy nose will they have, no vestigial ears; their mouths
will be a small, perfectly round aperture, unanimal, like the
evening star. Their whole muscular system will be shrivelled
to nothing, a dangling pendant to their minds."--_Pall Mall
Gazette, abridged._]
[Illustration]
What, a million years hence, will become of the _Genus
Humanum_, is truly a question vexed;
At that epoch, however, _one_ prophet has seen us
Resemble the sketch annexed.
For as Man undergoes Evolution ruthless,
His skull will grow "dome-like, bald, terete";
And his mouth will be jawless, gumless, toothless--
No more will he drink or eat!
He will soak in a crystalline bath of pepsine,
(No ROBERT will then have survived, to wait,)
And he'll hop on his hands as his food he steps in--
A quasi-cherubic gait!
No longer the land or the sea he'll furrow;
The world will be withered, ice-cold, dead
As the chill of Eternity grows, he'll burrow
Far down underground instead.
If the _Pall Mall Gazette_ has thus been giving
A forecast correct of this change immense,
Our stars we may thank, then, that _we_ shan't be living
A million years from hence!
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ONE DOWN T'OTHER COME ON.--King Log is a most useful substitute when
King Coal has temporarily abdicated.
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