Monkey or Man. The human race with tails once gambolled, And on all-four like monkeys scrambled. And clung unto the family tree By caudal prehensility, Until at last by gradual stages Their tails sloughed off in course of ages. So Darwin and Monboddo teach, And so their devotees still preach; And so these imitative creatures Will steal their neighbors' trademark features. As leading to this legal goal Was cited Popham versus Cole.1 Popham made lard, and got his price By using as an apt device A hog in fine and fat condition; But Cole excited his suspicion By putting on his lard a boar, Wild, small, and lean, and standing o'er The figure of a hemisphere. But this the court held not so near A likeness as to cheat the buyer; So Popham's fat was in the fire, For here the clearly different gender Helped to absolve the shrewd offender. As counsel urged, on cider-cask Crab-apple one may safe portray, Nor leave of any neighbor ask Who uses pippin in that way. There was a world of difference, But Cole might well have saved expense By putting globe upon the beast, And thus suggesting at the least Ingenious similarity To primitive cosmogony, And that on him the earth relied For all provisions fitly fried. 1 66 N. Y. 69; 23 Am. Rep 22.
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