Creation Page #3

bundled her into a cage

and set off to sell her down the river.

They sold her to a trader

for threepence, three farthings,

and he put her in a bigger cage and sold

her to London Zoo for 300 guineas.

She was the first orang-utan

that anyone had ever seen in England.

Everyone peered at Jenny,

and Jenny peered back,

and she marvelled

at what strange creatures they all were.

The curators of the zoo, they...

they cleaned her up...

...made her presentable

for polite society.

Which was when

I was first introduced to her.

What is that, Jenny?

Oh, come on.

Bravo!

When eventually

it came time to say goodbye,

she grew quite downcast

and refused to shake my hand.

Finally, she took it, but only after

I'd made her a promise

I was never able to keep:

that I would visit her again

very soon.

Go on. Tell me about the bit

where she gets sick and dies.

- Why do you want to hear that bit?

- I like it. It makes me cry.

Huxley is of the opinion

that I should write and be done with it.

Says it's a question

of moral courage, or of...

Or rather my lack of it.

Did you tell him about your health?

His theory is that I'm making myself ill

by holding back,

and... that I should lance the boil,

so to speak.

Thank the Lord he's no longer a surgeon.

I have concluded that he's right.

You know, bite the gag.

Speed is everything.

It will all be over

in a matter of months.

It is not mere months...

...nor even years nor decades

that concern me, Charles.

Do you really care...

...so little for your immortal soul?

Charles... do you not care

that you may never pass

through the gates of heaven

and that you and I may be separated

for all eternity?

Well, of course I care. Of course I do.

What do you think has kept me in limbo

all these years?

I am a neuter bee.

I'm a scientist, and I dare not study

for the fear of seeing more clearly

what is already as plain as day to me.

Do you not think that's torture enough?

I think you are at war with God,

Charles.

We both know

it is a battle you cannot win.

- Give me the ball!

- No, you cheated!

- Curse you, woman!

- You cheated!

Etty!

Etty, Etty, Etty!

- Were you never married, Brodie?

- Myself? No.

He went off to Australia.

I missed my chance.

I shall never marry.

I know how men give you babies.

I sincerely hope you do not,

Annie Darwin!

Everybody step back

and look at the rock.

If you look at it, really look at it,

it can take us back through time.

See these greyish, muddy layers?

They were brought here

by quiet, patient, gentle rivers,

whereas these dramatic

sandstone deposits

are telling us of huge storms,

storms that came through here

millions of years ago

when Aunt Sarah was just a little girl

and Down Village

was a swamp full of dinosaurs.

- What's a dinosaur?

- It's a lizard...

- Professor Owen invented them.

- He didn't exactly invent them.

- They weren't real!

- Yes, they were.

Put some clothes on! You're going blue.

Look what I found! Spiny starfish!

Don't tell me.

Marthasterias gacialis, look!

Glacialis.

Whoo! Whoo!

I am Fuegian!

I'm making custard!

He did, he told me!

It is not fair to the other

children, nor to Annie herself,

that her head be filled

with these ideas.

- But Daddy said!

- I will leave you to deal with this.

- He did, he told me!

- Hush.

Goodbye, Annie.

What happened?

Nothing.

Your knees.

What happened to your knees?

Reverend Innes

had to have words with her.

What happened to her knees?

Reverend Innes sent me to the corner

and made me kneel on rock salt.

- Why?

- I said there were dinosaurs,

and he said there weren't.

But you found them!

- Where's my coat?

- Take her to the kitchen, will you?

Where's my coat?

He told her to kneel until she repented,

so the marks are a result

of her own stubbornness.

- She contradicted him repeatedly.

- Listen to yourself. Emma!

How dare he torture our children

for expressing the truth?

- It is not the truth as he sees it.

- Damn how he sees it!

Must our children be revolutionaries

at nine years of age?

He is teaching them to deny

the evidence of their own senses.

No more than I have told them

at bedtime.

It is the instruction

of our parents and grandparents.

It's what all of the village believe,

or try to.

Charles, Reverend Innes

is a dear friend and neighbour.

Please, do not set yourself against him.

I beg you.

For you.

Not for him.

All things bright and beautiful

All creatures great and small

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all

Let us pray.

Lord God... we know the world

is governed by Thy plan...

...extending to the merest creatures

Thou hast made,

such that even a sparrow falls

not to the ground without Thy will.

Teach us that all misfortune,

all sickness and death,

all the trials and miseries

of which we daily complain...

...are intended for our good...

...being not the whims

of an uncaring universe...

...but the corrections of a wise...

and affectionate parent.

Teach us this in Thy name, O Lord.

- Amen.

- Amen.

The lesson today is taken

from the Book of Genesis.

- Chapter one, verses 26 to 30.

- Sorry.

- Excuse me. I'm so sorry.

- And God said,

"Let us make man in our image,

after our likeness."

"And let them have dominion

over the fish of the sea,

and over the fowl of the air, and over

all the cattle and over all the Earth,

and over every creeping thing

that creepeth upon the Earth."

Dearest Emma, last night

you said I was at war with God,

but truly it is nothing so dramatic

as a war,

just a silent struggle with myself

extended over a thousand afternoons.

The loss of religious faith

is a slow and fragile process,

like the raising of continents.

What can I say to you except that

the process now seems complete?

- What are we looking at?

- See the rabbit?

Stay very still.

Make it stop.

Quickly, Daddy, make it stop.

- Quickly!

- Etty. Etty, darling.

- Daddy, make it stop.

- Ssh. Darling girl.

Dear girl.

- Dear sweet girl.

- It's not fair!

- It's not fair!

- I'm sorry.

- Not fair.

- It's not fair.

Etty, it has to be that way.

The fox has to eat the rabbit,

otherwise the fox's babies will die.

It's the balance of things.

Come on, little duck. Give us a smile.

Dear Hooker, I am finally decided.

I think I owe it to my children

to at least have the courage

of my own convictions.

My title will be

"On the Origin of Species",

and I shall endeavour

to keep God out of it,

although no doubt

He will see it as a personal attack.

Nothing is easier

than to admit the truth

of the universal struggle for life,

or more difficult

than to constantly bear this in mind.

I shall devote my first chapter

to variations under domestication,

wherein we will see

how great is the power of man

in accumulating slight variations.

I will then pass on to see how natural

selection causes much extinction...

...of the less-improved forms of life.

- Charles?

- Yes?

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