قراءة كتاب The Story of an Ostrich: An Allegory and Humorous Satire in Rhyme.
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
The Story of an Ostrich: An Allegory and Humorous Satire in Rhyme.
creeter,
Who'd kill you all dead, as you'd kill er muskeeter;
Ef he stepped his gret foot on your body and shell,
I'm sure you would never, again, feel so well;"
The snail then withdrew to his shell's deep recesses,
With the same staid demeanor he ever possesses.
In serious words, that evinced his concern,
Lest justice miscarry and leave their decision
A subject for mirth, if not open derision.
But you treat the matter with far too much levity;
Its plainly the duty of those of our station,
To recomend that which deserves commendation;"
Should join in this principle, this very minute,—
That nature, or Providence, made no mistake
In giving an ostrich a head that will ache,
In order that when he slips off from his trolley,
Some well sustained kicks may reveal him his folly."
Divinely appointed, eternal, invincible,—
To wit,—adaptation of means to an end,
By reason of which, all effect and cause blend,—
Which gave the dumb feet an integument bony,
To travel in dirt and o'er ground rough and stony,
And set in the head, held aloft in the main,
The delicate eye for the convolute brain,
X.
By the loss of men and money mighty men are upset, and the wise among them are made to look grave. In the day of judgment, in the overturning of the kingdom and principles of the world they inhabit, no one knows what to think. Apprehension and gloom are on all the faces that meet in the populous thoroughfares of trade; but the public school, the pen, and the power of the press have so raised the standard of common intelligence, that there is a steady advance and progress, animated by its inspiring, though still shackled Spirit of Protest. It has entered of its own volition into the service which makes for the unity of powers working jointly in Heaven and upon the earth, and our beautiful flag shows only the transfigured light of the stars.
XI.
To separate the head from the feet, labor from capital, or to inaugurate war between them, brings about such confusion and distress as can only be likened to the great body of humanity being continually brewed by Satan in an enormous caldron kept hot by the fires of revolution. All evil being ultimate good, the process, though one of renovation and purification, is bitterly painful to the innocent as well as to the guilty. In the determined revolt of the feet of humanity against the head, it has always been discovered that the head was too small for the size of the body; and that the bulky feet carry with them, when aroused to action along the lines of self-defence, a tremendous barbaric force and cruelty. Witness the fearful revolts of society that have brought the issue to a test. In the cosmical alembic of human jurisprudence, there must be mixed with lofty and divine sentiments a recognition of our mutual dependence and accountability, not of man to man, only, but to something higher than his humanity, a perfect and divine law to which that humanity may be harmoniously attuned. God, dominant in love that is not calculating, but universal and free as the air we breathe and without taint of prejudice, can alone amalgamate the differences of these varying tones,—wielding them together into a perfectly melodious theme.
He is, indeed, the tuning fork that shall put the instruments into perfect tune.
XII.
The age has reached a point of reason so far as councils may serve to settle the differences between the head and the feet; and the waiting world stands with attentive ear to hear the judgment of such councils of mankind; great and small are its representatives, and progress will be made only so far as the religious idea proclaimed in Judea shall be allowed to influence the pride and passions of men.
Fulfilling the duties assigned to the master,
Of guiding the feet toward smooth paths, every day,
And making as easy as may be their way."
While each indicated and stated his notion;
But when they were done, he screeched out with a flout,
"You, none of you, know what you're talking about!"
With which allegation he gravely begun
To strut up and down, back and forth, in the sun,
And spread out his frail and great, glimmering tail,
Till it shone like a beautiful, shimmering veil.
Ill-concealing a feeling sarcastic and mordant
That listeners all noted, "if, I implore you,
I perambulate gorgeously round here before you,
To show you that beauty of plumage and figure
Have nothing in common with prosaic vigor;
Were made to be used in the dust of the street,
Has, also, ordained that they shall sustain
Superior cellular tissue and brain
Above and away from the gross things of earth,—
Evincing, thereby, a superlative birth;
And why should I be, then, so terribly blamed,
If I, of my feet, am a good deal ashamed;"
As he ended, the floor of the sand-pit he spurned,
And abruptly announced arbitration adjourned.
Discussion is generally good for the soul;
The ostrich, ere adjudication was through,
Unconsciously passing his acts in
