A WORK IN PROGRESS !

In a letter to Dorothy Sayers on 4 March 1954

Lewis penned a satirical poem entitled

Evolutionary Hymn. Lewis, had a well developed

sense of satire, and this effort is particularly biting.

.

EVOLUTIONARY HYMN

.
Lead us, Evolution, lead us

Up the future's endless stair;

Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us

.For stagnation is despair:

Groping, guessing, yet progressing,

Lead us nobody knows where.

.

Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,

In the present what are they

while there's always jam-tomorrow,

While we tread the onward way?

Never knowing where we're going,

We can never go astray.

.

To whatever variation

Our posterity may turn

Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,

Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,

Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,

Towards that unknown god we yearn.

.
Ask not if it's god or devil,

Brethren, lest your words imply

Static norms of good and evil

(As in Plato) throned on high;

Such scholastic, inelastic,

Abstract yardsticks we deny.

.
Far too long have sages vainly

Glossed great Nature's simple text;

He who runs can read it plainly,

'Goodness = what comes next.

'By evolving, Life is solving

All the questions we perplexed.

.
Oh then! Value means survival-

Value. If our progeny

Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,

That will prove its deity

(Far from pleasant, by our present,

Standards, though it may well be).

.

C.S. Lewis