DARWIN'S DIARY FOUND (the truth finally emerges)
Ed Conrad (edconrad@prolog.net)
19 Dec 1996 14:16:15 GMT
Guess you're aware that clam picker in Fiji recently found a coconut
that had been washed ashore and was surprised to see a cork blocking a
hole. He broke it open and discovered a note written by Charles
Darwin while The Beagle was homeward bound.
(Somewwat difficult to decifer but basically it reads:)
---
> Additional Paragraph for Inclusion in Chapter XV:
> ``Origin of Species," if I can find anyone to publish it
Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given
in this volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means
expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are
stocked with a multitude of facts, all viewed, during a long
course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to
mine. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more
weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation
of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory.
=====
> (Scribbled beneath it)
I believe the paragraph above will keep some of the pressure off
me if the book is ever published about my very shaky theory that will
never hold up under serious scrutiny.
Still, I think it could last a hundred years until some SOB
seriously challenges it and eventually stuffs it down our throat.
Even I know there's such a big hole in my theory -- in fact, SO
big that you can drive a tractor-trailer through (but that won't
happen until somebody invents paved highways).
The truth is -- God forbid that someone should find this coconut
until after I'm long gone -- I HAD to come up with something, like
calling myself a ``naturalist'' and writing a few books.
See, I had to make it LOOK like my trip on The Beagle was legit.
But the REAL reason I came along was to `frolic' with all those South
Seas' lovelies during all our stopovers to and from my `Island of
Natural Selection'."
|