When science starts to be interpretive

It is more unscientific even than mysticism.

To make self-preservation and self-protection the first law of existence

Is about as scientific as making suicide the first law of existence,

And amounts to very much the same thing.

A nightingale singing at the top of his voice

Is neither hiding himself nor preserving himself nor propagating his species;

He is giving himself away in every sense of the word;

And obviously, it is the culminating point of his existence.

A tiger is striped and golden for his own glory.

He would certainly be much more invisible if her were grey-green.

And I don’t suppose the ichthyosaurus sparkled like the humming-bird,

No doubt he was khaki-colored with muddy protective colouration,

So why didn’t he survive?

As a matter of fact, the only creatures that seem to survive

Are those that give themselves away in flash and sparkle

And gay flicker of joyful life;

Those that go glittering abroad

With a bit of splendour.

Even mice play quite beautifully at shadows,

And some of them are brilliantly piebald.

I expect the dodo looked like a clod,

A drab and dingy bird.