Part 2

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.

"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. 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 detect at a distance impending disaster, 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."

The peacock 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, shimmering 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;

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.

Although no agreement was reached, as a whole, Discussion is generally good for the soul; The ostrich, ere adjudication was through, Unconsciously passing his acts in review, Had arrived, independently, at the decision, That he'd been a fool; and he laughed in derision, To think he'd permitted his weak self-conceit, To lead him to pecking his own faithful feet.

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.

_XIII._

The waiting knight, emblem of the new manhood just entering upon its estate of resolution and responsibility, is the type of a generation now setting forth in quest of high and honorable adventure. Satan is at his back, thrusting forward a bag of gold and counselling the pursuit of wealth; "Put money in thy purse!" saith the devil; "all else counts but little,--put money in thy purse!" At his left hand stands the priest in his splendid robes of office, proffering the symbol of suffering and self-renunciation. The knight sees the frozen church with ascetic and veiled superstition as its hand-maidens; the star of Bethlehem still shines out of the dark upon a mighty hand reaching out of the clouds to shake to its foundations the edifice of Christ, emblazoned with the letter and the creed, but supported by the pomp and pride of a purely material world. "The zeal of his house hath eaten him up," and in the majestic temple sits the money changer, absorbed in his trade and his material enterprises. Before him kneels the imploring angel of Freedom, raising the flag of the great republic, with all its portents and promises, symbolically arrayed in its stripes and stars. Uncle Sam is but a puzzled and quizzical spectator of future events.

_XIV._

The battle between the head and the feet results, at last, in the fall of Satan, that is, Self, under the God-principle of self-renunciation, working in all human creeds and canticles, foreshadowing the unity of the race in the power of the religious idea that has, at last, become dominant in the head. The cross, no longer an emblem of suffering but of power, unites with the crown in a final union of church and state. Here behold the wedded bliss of the long divorced pair, presaging a new and glorified race of man. Then, indeed, the baptismal story of man's hoary and ancient glory in Eden shall usher in that gracious day, when the lamb and the lion shall gambol together, and there shall be in all the earth neither murder, nor theft, nor plunder, nor war.

Thereafter, the ostrich, with feet and head sore, Resolved he would not peck his feet any more; He's learned by experience, virtue superior Lies, often, concealed under coarsest exterior; That modest and unostentatious assumption, Betimes, will outweigh overweening presumption; That the feet of an ostrich, no less than his head,-- Though that be, perchance, more or less better bred And adapted by nature to study astronomy,-- Are important two members of ostrich economy, With which no wise bird, be his head ere so comely, Should quarrel, because they are dirty and homely.

Having reached this conclusion, our ostrich became A modified ostrich in all but the name; From old misconceptions of merest mendacity, He grew to be kindly and lost his loquacity, More humble in spirit, imbued with true charity,-- Which, under the sun, is the thing of most rarity.

Lest any imagine this measure devoid Of meaning they'd quicker detect unalloyed, It is meet to observe that 'twas writ with design, Well knowing wise men its intent will divine.

By the ostrich is meant mankind, great and small, Weak and strong, rich and poor, thin and fat, short and tall, Let loose for awhile, in earth's paddock confined, An attempt of the gods to rear more of their kind; I infer the experiment still is in doubt, For very few gods have, as yet, been hatched out.

But some men, there are, with great purposes fraught, Who have pushed back afar the world's frontier of thought; And others, whose deeds, speaking louder than words, Show how much of God human nature affords, Foretelling of Heaven,--e'en giving a glimpse Of seraphim, cherubim, angels and nymphs,-- Till the heart of humanity, lifted up, sings In tune with the Infinite nature of things.

The End.

Transcriber's note: "wifh ail its portents and promises" has been corrected to "with all its portents and promises".