I believe the creation fable you're remembering is from T.H. White's
novel of King Arthur, "The Once and Future King."
"Hem!" said the badger. Then he put on an impossibly high falsetto
voice and began to read as fast as possible.
"People often ask, as an idle question, whether the process of
evolution began with the chicken or the egg. Was there an egg out of
which the first chicken came, or did a chicken lay the first egg? I am
in a position to say that the first thing created was the egg.
When God had manufactured all the eggs out of which the fishes and the
serpents and the birds and the mammals and even the duck-billed
platypus would eventually emerge, he called the embryos before Him,
and saw that they were good.
"Perhaps I ought to explain," added the badger, lowering his papers
nervously and looking at the Wart over the top of them, "that all
embryos look very much the same. They are what you are before you are
born--and, whether you are going to be a tadpole or a peacock or a
cameleopard or a man, when you are an embryo you just look like a
peculiarly repulsive and helpless human being. I continue as follows:
"The embryos stood in front of God, with their feeble hands clasped
politely over their stomachs and their heavy heads hanging down
respectfully, and God addressed them.
"He said: 'Now, you embryos, here you are, all looking exactly the
same, and We are going to give you the choice of what you want to be.
When you grow up you will get bigger anyway, but We are pleased to
grant you another gift as well. You may alter any parts of yourselves
into anything which you think would be useful to you in later life.
For instance, at the moment you cannot dig. Anybody who would like to
turn his hands into a pair of spades or garden forks is allowed to do
so. Or, to put it another way, at present you can only use your mouths
for eating. Anybody who would like to use his mouth as an offensive
weapon, can change it by asking, and be a corkindrill or a
sabre-toothed tiger. Now then, step up and choose your tools, but
remember that what you choose you will grow into, and will have to
stick to.'
"All the embryos thought the matter over politely, and then, one by
one, they stepped up before the eternal throne. They were allowed two
or three specializations, so that some chose to use their arms as
flying machines and their mouths as weapons, or crackers, or drillers,
or spoons, while others selected to use their bodies as boats and
their hands as oars. We badgers thought very hard and decided to ask
for three boons. We wanted to change our skins for shields, our mouths
for weapons and our arms for garden forks. These boons were granted.
Everybody specialized in one way or another, and some of us in very
queer ones. For instance, one of the desert lizards decided to swap
his whole body for blotting-paper, and one of the toads who lived in
the drouthy antipodes decided simply to be a water-bottle.
"The asking and granting took up two long days--they were the fifth
and sixth, so far as I remember--and at the very end of the sixth day,
just before it was time to knock off for Sunday, they had got through
all the little embryos except one. This embryo was Man.
" 'Well, Our little man,' said God. 'You have waited till the last,
and slept on your decision, and We are sure you have been thinking
hard all the time. What can We do for you?'
" 'Please God,' said the embryo, 'I think that You made me in the
shape which I now have for reasons best known to Yourselves, and that
it would be rude to change. If I am to have my choice I will stay as I
am. I will not alter any of the parts which You gave me, for other and
doubtless inferior tools, and I will stay a defenceless embryo all my
life, doing my best to make myself a few feeble implements out of the
wood, iron and the other materials which You have seen fit to put
before me. If I want a boat I will try to construct it out of trees,
and if I want to fly, I will put together a chariot to do it for me.
Probably I have been very silly in refusing to take advantage of Your
kind offer, but I have done my very best to think it over carefully,
and now hope that the feeble decision of this small innocent will find
favour with Yourselves.'
" 'Well done,' exclaimed the Creator in delighted tones. 'Here, all
you embryos, come here with your beaks and whatnots to look upon Our
first Man. He is the only one who has guessed Our riddle, out of all
of you , and We have great pleasure in conferring upon him the Order
of Dominion over the Fowls of the Air, and the Beasts of the Earth,
and the Fishes of the Sea. Now let the rest of you get along, and love
and multiply, for it is time to knock off for the week-end. As for
you, Man, you will be a naked tool all your life, though a user of
tools. You will look like an embryo till they bury you, but all the
others will be embryos before your might. Eternally undeveloped, you
will always remain potential in Our image, able to see some of Our
sorrows and to feel some of Our joys. We are partly sorry for you,
Man, but partly hopeful. Run along then, and do your best. And listen,
Man, before you go . . .'
" 'Well?' asked Adam, turning back from his dismissal.
" 'We were only going to say,' said God shyly, twisting Their hands
together. 'Well, We were just going to say, God bless you.' "
Wandering Rabbit
http://wanderingrabbit.com/random/excerpts.html
My Google search strategy was greatly simplified by the fact that I
instantly recognized the fable from your description. "The Once and
Future King" is one of my favorite books of all time, and the parable
of the embryos was unforgettable. Rather than type in the text from my
copy of the book, I sought it with a Google web search using these
keywords:
"once and future king" + "man" + "embryo"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22once+and+future+king%22+man+embryo
If this is not the fable that you're looking for, please request a
clarification before rating my answer. I'll be glad to offer further
assistance.
Cordially,
pinkfreud |
