The Story of an Ostrich Part 2

_VI._

Really, it seems ridiculous that this incessant warfare of man against man should go on,--the head casting aspersions upon the feet, and the feet kicking against their own head, to the mutual affliction of themselves and the great body that holds them together in the firm compact of common life.... This is not G.o.d's law, but man's supreme selfishness,--his disobedience and his curse. After all, kid shoes and silk stockings are not elective privileges; and poorer humanity, turning under its cross and chains, appeals to Heaven, not in vain, if we read aright the signs of the times. The air resounds with optimistic teachings and words of love and cheer that, as yet, have no guarantee in actual deeds. In contra-distinction to the Christian creed, "we must look out for ourselves," is the rasping gospel of our latter-day faith.

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To dictate to me with whom I shall travel, Annoy me by constantly scratching the gravel, And trench on my courtesy, when I decline, For reasons sufficient, to treat them as mine; Please notice, your honors, their mode of attack,-- I hold they've no grievance and shouldn't kick back!"

While the ostrich was talking, in tones hoa.r.s.e and wheezy, His feet, from their pecking still sore, grew uneasy; Unfitted by nature to talk, they, by grace, In eloquent silence presented their case.

The judges, thrown now on their own wisdom, turned To next take account of how much they had learned; The peac.o.c.k, as chairman, a.s.suming dominion, Invited from each a judicial opinion; Whereupon, in his turn, each his own views expressed, Then sat down and looked around, wise, at the rest.

The fox was the first to arise to his feet, To announce that his own mind was made up complete;

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He seized the occasion his own reputation To clear of a cloud of ill-got defamation Alleging that he had habitually crept Round henroosts, at midnight, when honest folk slept; Which libel had darkened his whole life's existence, And made it much harder to gain a subsistence; He thought it a shame that a poor tempted sinner, Like him, should thus suffer for getting his dinner.

While he spake, his eyes rested, in manner abiding, Upon the slim neck of the peac.o.c.k presiding, Which ruffled its feathers and spread out its tail, Though feeling itself round the gills growing pale.

The next to express an opinion, invoked By the peac.o.c.k presiding, the toad gruffly croaked His belief that beneath stillest tongue there lay hid, Most often, the softest and tenderest quid; For his part, he thought that the ostrich inclined To lay too much stress on his power of mind;

But there are those who work as well as preach, and to such may yet be recorded the service of universal peace.

_VII._

In solemn convocation met, stand the mighty men of our realm, with the policy of the bull, of the bear, of the wolf and of the fox, each animal, according to the nature of its disposition, awaiting the opportunity of power and spoliation, by which he may grasp and hold to himself, as his own personal increment, all that can be wrested from the state and humanity at large. The state, itself, in principle wise, majestic and supreme, pet.i.tions peace of the leering devil, who constantly juggles with the tape of human selfishness, as waiting angels record the devious courses that nations and individuals take.

Behold, how pressed on all sides is the man of the hour in the grasp of the huge, overbrooding, material powers of self-interest.

_VIII._

Confusion still reigns, but labor has risen from the cross and comes to legislation. He dreams of conquests that are chimerical, where the shadowy knight of honor contests the field with the disgruntled spirit of melancholy, who pessimistically broods the unhatched egg of arbitration. Agitators and agitations still hold sway, while Satan in their midst dominates the human idea of progress and reform with the accursed principle of Self, that is in itself Self-destroying.

_IX._

When, now, the monster spirit of protest begins to show its gigantic figure, high, low, and middle cla.s.ses are alarmed. Prices fluctuate, business goes down, work and bread are scarce. Behold, in the heavens appear the gruesome phantoms of war. But so far, in every crisis, messengers from worlds beyond have sanctified the impending woe to the world's welfare.

The tides of progress are in the hands of the Infinite, who measures from cycle to cycle their ebb and flow; while the ever rising tide-mark signifies the ultimate inundation of the millenium. How great is G.o.d!

How small is man in his own councils!

_X._

By the loss of men and money mighty men are upset, and the wise among them are made to look grave. In

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Its all very well for them as can do it, To strive after learning and try to construe it, But an ostrich's presumption is, clearly, mere shoddy, His head is too small for the size of his body."

The snail next emerged from his sh.e.l.l, to announce His opinion, in words he could scarcely p.r.o.nounce; He spake without grace and his voice was not strong, While his sentences dragged themselves slowly along; "An estredge," he said, "is er monstrus big creeter, Who'd kill you all dead, as you'd kill er muskeeter; Ef he stepped his gret foot on your body and sh.e.l.l, I'm sure you would never, again, feel so well;"

The snail then withdrew to his sh.e.l.l's deep recesses, With the same staid demeanor he ever possesses.

The hatter essayed, now, to speak, in his turn, In serious words, that evinced his concern, Lest justice miscarry and leave their decision A subject for mirth, if not open derision.

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"My friends," he began, "I'm pleased with your brevity, 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;"

"The world is a large one, and all who are in it 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."

"I perceive in this case a well defined principle,-- 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,

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. G.o.d, 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

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To detect at a distance impending disaster, Fulfilling the duties a.s.signed to the master, Of guiding the feet toward smooth paths, every day, And making as easy as may be their way."

The peac.o.c.k had listened with bated emotion, 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, s.h.i.+mmering veil.

"Excuse me," he said, in tones harsh and discordant, 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;

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Creation, which wisely decreed that the feet 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.