THE FIRST PROBLEM.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 222, 30 May 1873, Page 3

THE FIRST PROBLEM.

The Soliloquy of a Rationalistic Chiclcen.} (By S. J. Stoke, 8.A.) Most strange! Most queer,—although most excellent a change! Shades of the prison house ye disappear! My fettered thoughts have won a wider range. And, like ,my legs, are free; No longer hu\Ldled up so pitiably; Free now to pry and probe, and peep and " peer, And make these mysteries out. Shall a free-thinking chicken live in doubt ? For now in doubt undoubtedly'l am: I This problem's very heavy on my mind, ! And I'm not one to either shirk or sham: I I won't be blinded, and I won't be blind. , Now, let me see:* ! First I would know how-did I get in there 7 Then where was I of yore ? Besides, why did'nt I get out before ? Dear me! ; There are three puzzles (out of plenty more), , Enough to give me pip upon the brain: "! But let me think again. How do I know I ever-was inside ? Now I reflect: it is, I do maintain, Less than my reason, and beneath my pride To think that I could dwell ' In such a paltry miserable cell As that old shell. Of course I could'nt! How could I have •lain, - . Body, and beak, and feathers, legs and wings, And .my deep heart's sublime imao-inino-a In there ? " • ° '" I meet the notion with profound disdain; It's quite incredible; since I declare (And I'm a chicken that you can't deceive) IVhat leant understand I won't believe. Where did I come from, then ? Ah! where indeed? . ... ..' This is a riddle monstrous hard to read I have it! Why of course, • All things are.moulded by some plastic force, Out of some atoms somewhere up in space' Fortuitously concurrent anyhow:- ' There now! That's plain as is the beak upon xny face.v What's that I hear ? My mother cackling.at me! Just her way. bo prejudiced and ignorant J say; So far behind the wisdom of the day. What's old I can't revere. Hark at her, '< You're a silly chick, my dear, That's quite as plain, alack! As is the piece of shell upon your back!" How bigoted!. - Upon my back, indeed! I don't believe it's there, For I can't see it; and I do declare, For all her fond decision!-, What I cant see, I neper will believe in !