Nature made thousands and thousands of now extinct species in
her apprentice-days which turned out to be pure failures, like the flies and
the Russians, and she devoted millions of years to trying to hunt up long-felt
wants for them to supply, but there were none, and a museum never occurred
to her. So she abolished them all, and scattered their bones in myriads in
the eternal rocks, and there they rest to this day, a solemn reminder for
us that for every animal-success achieved by her she has scored fifteen hundred
failures.
- "Flies and Russians" published in Fables of Man, 1972
Fossil from
Quarry Farm - Elmira, New York.
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