Creation Page #6

against him...

...and died.

Oh, my darling girl, my darling girl!

Sorry.

So sorry I startled you.

Goodness, Charles. Take off your coat.

- You're dripping wet.

- Emma, we need to talk.

I went back to Worcester Road.

I saw Annie.

You're hurting my arm.

- I need to make you understand...

- I do not want to hear it.

- I am glad you're feeling better.

- You're not listening.

I need you to listen

or you will never understand.

I understand perfectly.

Do you think that I am deaf and blind?

You've lived with her and spoken

with her every day since she died.

She is more real to you than we are.

- She is dead, Charles.

- I know she's dead.

She is dead!

What in God's name is wrong with you?

Why can you not leave our poor girl

in her grave?

You're the one

who wants to keep her alive,

but on a cloud,

dancing with little fairies.

- I will not listen to this!

- In a night shift and snowy wings!

Is that how her death was for you, Emma?

- Something gutted of darkness?

- Get away from me.

Away from you?

There is a gulf between us!

We're like some, some survivors

of some shipwreck.

Yes! Yes, because of you!

You've torn everything apart!

- How? How? How?

- With your cruel theories!

With the truth, Emma!

Just with the truth!

Open the door! Open the...

Open the door!

Open this door! Open it!

What do you want from me?

I want us to be honest with each other.

About what?

About this... nagging belief

that you have nurtured.

- That what?

- That I killed her.

- I never said that.

- But you think it, so you must say it.

And say everything else that follows,

that I should have kept her warm

that day on the beach, that...

...I should never have taken her

to Malvern without you.

I should have waited for you.

I... I should have.

These are your thoughts, Charles.

They are not mine.

I was on the beach.

And I let you go.

I knew, when you left for Malvern...

...that I would never see her again.

And I hated you.

I hated you for taking her, Charles.

But I was her mother.

And what was I thinking?

I could have insisted.

I should have followed you up there.

I let her go.

That's the truth.

And more than anything...

...I have...

...hated... myself.

Perhaps...

Perhaps we should never have married.

Our blood was too close.

You see, Emma... I thought

that we were making the perfect child.

But perhaps instead we endowed her

with the weakness that killed her.

I just... wanted to be with you

so very much.

The fact... of it is...

...knowing everything I now know...

...I would marry you again tomorrow,

my love.

The affinities of all beings

of the same class

have sometimes been represented

by a great tree.

The green and budding twigs

may represent existing species,

and those produced

during each former year

may represent the long succession

of extinct species.

So, I believe it has been

with the great Tree of Life,

which fills with its dead and broken

branches the crust of the Earth,

while covering the surface with its...

The frameworks of bones have been

the same in the hand of a man,

wing of a bat, fin of a porpoise

and leg of a horse

at once explain themselves

on the theory of descent

with slow and slight successive...

It is interesting to contemplate

an entangled bank,

clothed with many plants of many kinds,

with birds singing on the bushes,

with various insects flitting about

and with worms

crawling through the damp earth

and to reflect that these

elaborately constructed forms,

so different from each other

and dependent upon each other

in so complex a manner, have all been

produced by laws acting around us.

"Advancing gently forward over

my breast, came almost up to my chin,

and bending my eyes downwards

as much as I could, I quivered."

- Hello.

- Hello.

I was wondering

if I might, might take over.

Alright.

Where were you?

"I perceived it to be a human creature

not six inches high."

Not the book.

Please, a true story.

Like you did with Annie.

Alright. Let me think.

Did I ever tell you

about my riding with gauchos?

- Yes.

- Yes.

Or the time our ship was struck

by Saint Elmo's fire?

- Yes.

- My attempt to climb the Andes?

- Yes.

- Earthquakes?

- Yes.

- Tidal waves?

- Really? I did?

- Yes.

Goodness gracious,

I think I've told you everything.

And yet I fancy

I have never told you

about the giant sloth of Punta Alta.

No.

Alright, then.

Millions and millions of years ago,

in a rich and verdant land

that we now call Argentina...

...there lived a mammal.

There lived a mammal

as large as an elephant,

as gentle as a lemur and as slow

as an incredibly slow snail.

And he lived a happy life

watching the slow green march

of the passing seasons.

Er... I've finished.

I've finished.

- You decide.

- About what?

Well, about what should be done with it.

Someone needs to take God's side

in all of this.

I'd much rather it was you than Innes.

Supposing I think

it should be destroyed?

Well... then you must do

what you think is right.

Read it first.

Emma?

Well, you said it was my decision.

Emma, where... Where are you going?

To John Murray publishers.

Do I have it right?

Yes.

And so... you have finally

made an accomplice of me.

May God forgive us both.

- Good morning, Jim.

- Morning, Mr Darwin, sir.

- That parcel for me?

- Yes. Yes, it is.

Thus, from the war of nature,

from famine and death,

the most exalted object

we are capable of conceiving,

namely the production of higher animals,

directly follows.

There is grandeur in this view of life,

that whilst this planet

has gone cycling on

according to the fixed law of gravity,

from so simple a beginning,

endless forms,

most beautiful and most wonderful,

have been, and are being, evolved.

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