Far dreamed-of altruism from its cultured soil
To human sight and sanctify life.
He knew too much, asked more than Nature
Had the power to grant in the kindlier mysteries
Or his tools to remit from the struggle for life
And left Eden for a cruel, disillusioned future.
But I defend the right, invoked by the myth,
To fix priorities like a god, preoccupied
With the goals of life, not the trappings, to be ruled
Less by expediency than intrinsic value.
Naming the animals Fragile and Resplendent,
Modern Man has arrived, not pushed from behind
But drawn by the invisible bands of culture.
Growing in silence, nearly come of age,
His restless senses declare a truce
With Nature: having mastered his warring impulses,
Brought desire to parley with reason and spirit,
He no longer wants his choices made for him.
Such equanimity is the Tree of Life
And freedom of spirit, post-Edenic Eden.
Many thinkers and artists have known it,
Ascribing to leisure, comfort and money
The status of means to ends, not ends
(Whereby we are enslaved by nature, not freed).
Their disinterest annotated the steps others took
To stay Nature's pinch and prolong play-time.
One and a half million years ago
Adam strode erect and contrived flake tools