The Opossum of the Future故事

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The Opossum of the Future故事
            ONE day an Opossum who had gone to sleep hanging from the highest
            branch of a tree by the tail, awoke and saw a large Snake wound
            about the limb, between him and the trunk of the tree.
            "If I hold on," he said to himself, "I shall be swallowed; if I let
            go I shall break my neck."
            But suddenly he bethought himself to dissemble.
            "My perfected friend," he said, "my parental instinct recognises in
            you a noble evidence and illustration of the theory of development.
            You are the Opossum of the Future, the ultimate Fittest Survivor of
            our species, the ripe result of progressive prehensility - all
            tail!"
            But the Snake, proud of his ancient eminence in Scriptural history,
            was strictly orthodox, and did not accept the scientific view.