Thanks to Jack Haas for giving us the reference to that hymn from C S Lewis 0100,0100,0100Courier New Evolutionary Hymn by C.S. Lewis 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 in the present, Joy or sorrow, what are they While there's always jam to-morrow, 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. On 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 well may be). From: The Cambridge Review 79 (November 30, 1957): 227; reprinted in C.S. Lewis, Poems, ed. Walter Hooper (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964), pp. 55-56. An article: "C. S. Lewis on Creation and Evolution: The Acworth Letters 1944-1960," "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men" - - Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV trans ================================================ Lawrence H. Johnston home:917 E. 8th st. professor of physics, emeritus Moscow, Id 83843 University of Idaho (208) 882-2765 Fellow of the American Physical Society http://www.uidaho.edu/~johnston/ =====================