The Mosquito and the Elephant: A Parable by James White

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 12, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 7

The Mosquito and the Elephant: A Parable

By James White

It is said that a gentleman who owned an elephant one morning observed a mosquito on the noble creature’s back, tipping back and forth, plying his bill with prodigious energy, when these words passed:—

Gentleman. What are you doing to my elephant?

Mosquito. Having a desire; sir, to investigate his bones, and his structure generally, I am drilling a hole in his back for that purpose.

The gentleman, of course, had nothing further to say, and the mosquito proceeded with his investigations.

This circumstance was called to mind while considering the discordant and ever-changing suppositions of geologists relative to the structure of our globe. J. W.