THE VIVISECTOR'S DREAM

BY FATHER TRISTRAM,

Author of "Belphagor, a Paraphrase," &c., &c.

THE Vivisector went to his bed,

When his horrible work was o'er,
And slept a heavy, stupified sleep,
Such as ne'er he had slept before,
And dreamed a wild and terrible dream
'That troubled his heart full sore.
Yes there, as vivid as if awake,
He saw before him spread

On a table his mangled victims half dead,
Insulated needles in every head,

Or muscles exposed a-nigh the heart,

Or the spinal marrow laid bare in some part, Whilst a wail of impotent anguish rose

From the creatures writhing in mortal throes.

Round the table flocking came

Men with faces hard and cold,

Men of Science (so called) and fame,

Friends of his, he knew each by name;
But he seemed to see them all to-night
In a new and horribly-ghastly light;

For somehow or other quite changed were they
As though transfigured the retrograde way;
Their gloating eyes,

As if on a prize,

Were fixed on the form of a whining hound,

The which for vivisection was bound

To the torture-trough, unable to stir,

Whilst nerve and muscle apart they might tear. What matter? he was but a wretched " cur," And they were men of science!

Their stolid faces no pity shew;

Their hearts no mercy feel;

They sit like men carved out of stone,

Or fashioned of polished steel.

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"O, Men! O, Men! if men ye be,
And not the foul fiend's own,

Have ye no hearts that ye hear unmoved
Your victim's piteous moan?"

The Vivisector took his place,

And he raised the murderous knife;
Whilst the poor dumb brute, with pleading eyes,
Seemed begging for its life-

In vain! To make a transverse cut
The doctor took his stand,

And still the trembling dog could not,
His master understand,

But struggling in his bonds he strove

To lick the murderous hand.

O, men! O, men! if men ye be,
Can ye that dumb brute see,
Nor feel how nobler than your own
His untaught instincts be?"

Sudden the Vivisector paused,

For lo, behind each chair,

Stood grinning, whispering, mocking imps,
Tempting each doctor there;

Guiding each hard hand as it grasped
The trenchant gleaming knife,

Whilst the quivering moaning victim lay
Bloody, yet warm in life.

And the doctors heeded not the shrieks

With which the air was rife,

For the wily fiends had stopped their ears
Till the cries had a muffled tone,
And before the doctors' eyes had placed
Dim glasses of their own.

The Vivisector turned aghast

To see if an imp also held him fast,

Yet none that he

Could at any rate see

Kept him in any captivity.

But, looking round, he sudden espied
A doctor strange on the other side

Of the table; a face, that he did not know.
But the stranger bowed with an air comme il faut,
And said, "I have come, sir, from regions afar
('Tis not needful precisely to state where they are);

I have heard much about you, so thought I would take
This journey, your pleasant acquaintance to make.
You really have quite a nice little coterie,
And your practices are of my fancies promotary-
Of science, like this, you may count me a votary.
Talk of dissecting dead bodies, dead bones,
Nerves without feeling, and hearts without motion,
Muscles inactive,-no wonder one groans

At the extra-humane and most puerile notion
That science can do without this vivisection,
Which falls in with my tastes in most perfect perfection.
I render you homage, ye brave men of science,
As men of much spirit who set at defiance
Those ignorant fellows encumbered with hearts,
Quite unbefitting in men of your parts.
I rejoice to find

Men of my mind,

And I hope our acquaintance closer to bind.
My very dear friend,

May our friendship ne'er end;

I perceived that towards me your feelings did tend,
Which made me at once my way hitherward wend,
The right hand of fellowship now to extend.

Pray, allow me to offer the highest degree

Conferred by my own University,

Which I hope that ere long with your presence you'll

grace,

For it's founded on purpose to meet your case,

As, pray, what shall you do when you leave this place?"

The Vivisector, the while he spoke,

Felt as though he were going to choke.

He felt chill and ill,

His tongue wouldn't fulfil

Its work, and the words he would have spoken

Died away in accents broken;

And he shuddered and shook, and the word "Vivisection "

Was yelled around him in every direction;

And the whines of the dying dog waxèd faint,

And his death-sobs sank to a mournful plaint
That swept like a solemn funeral toll

Over the Vivisector's soul.

The room whirled round and round, and the train,
Physiologists, imps, and the victims slain,
Vanished; and he was left alone

With a fluttering heart, his courage gone.
And another presence filled the place,
A vision with grieving and sorrowful face,
A face seraphic, yet stern to see,

A face of which he had heard of yore

In the days when he sat on his mother's knee,
In the far-off days when he was a child,
And his mother over his slumbers smiled,
And told him how God watched over all,
And cared for each creature great and small.
In the memory of that long ago

His troubled thoughts went to and fro;
He shrank from the eye that pierced so keen,
From the wrath that clouded that brow serene.
And then the presence passed away ;
But an awful voice the silence broke,
And in accents clear this sentence spoke-
"Vengeance is mine, I will repay :"

And then the Vivisector woke.

But the dread words haunted him night and day"Vengeance is mine I will repay."

They followed him into the silent night,
And muttered to him with morning's light

O Vivisectors, what answer have ye?
Pause in the midst of your cruelty,
Think of the victims whose agonised groan
Mounts aloft to the Judge on the Throne.
Though ye may slumber, He never sleeps,
Over each sparrow a watch He keeps.
Though ye may argue, and scoff, and scorn,
It may be that better ye ne'er had been born
Than wake to find on some bitter day
That vengeance is His-that He will repay.

A DECLINING RACE.

WITH the lower animals, as with man himself, there are numerous examples to be found of an increasing community and of improving circumstances, as well as of decline and extermination. Some groups of animals appear to be rapidly growing and increasing in numbers; other groups have attained in our day the maximum of their development, whilst others appear to be persistently decreasing, and tending in time to pass out of existence altogether. And thus, it happens that the naturalist, on surveying the wide field of animal life, meets with many instances of forms which attained their greatest growth and highest numbers in past or geological periods of this world's history, and which, in the present day, are but sparsely represented among living forms.

course.

As a rule, the process of extermination proceeds rapidly in its Once having attained the maximum point in numbers and variety, the decline of the form or group rapidly succeeds; and a short term of years-speaking geologically-witnesses the thinning out, or even the final extinction of the organisms. We find several notable exceptions to this general rule, however. The geologist or naturalist can point to many examples in which the exterminating process has proceeded in a comparatively slow and gradual manner; and where, as a consequence, certain animals and plants have "persisted" through long periods of time, and have left their traces as "fossil" organisms through long series of rock-forma. tions, representing vast areas of removal and geological change.

The exact nature and cause of this peculiar exterminative process remains, for the most part, hidden from research. Speculation has, indeed, been rife as to their causes; but nothing definite is known concerning "the reason why" whole races of lower forms, as well as the races of men, tend naturally to pass through gradual and successive stages of growth, development, maturity, decline, and, finally, of extermination and extinction.

Now, such forms as have been in this way blotted out from the living records, generally leave their traces, as has already been remarked, behind them, in the form of "fossils." The process of entombment and burial in the earth constitutes, in most instances, the first step towards the preservation of the animal or plant. Gradually, and as time and physical actions roll onwards, the process of infiltration of mineral matters into the soft tissues of