I have seen
him in a moment when this spirit came upon him--like a great ship of
war--cut his cable, and spread his enormous canvass, and launch into a
wide sea of reasoning eloquence."
For pure fun, one could not quote a better sample than the review of
Waterton's[137] _Travels in South America_.--
"Snakes are certainly an annoyance; but the snake, though
high-spirited, is not quarrelsome; he considers his fangs to be given
for defence, and not for annoyance, and never inflicts a wound but to
defend existence. If you tread upon him, he puts you to death for your
clumsiness, merely because he does not understand what your clumsiness
means; and certainly a snake, who feels fourteen or fifteen stone
stamping upon his tail, has little time for reflection, and may be
allowed to be poisonous and peevish. American tigers generally run
away--from which several respectable gentlemen in Parliament inferred,
in the American war, that American soldiers would run away also!
"The description of the birds is very animated and interesting; but
how far does the gentle reader imagine the Campanero may be heard,
whose size is that of a jay? Perhaps 300 yards. Poor innocent,
ignorant reader! unconscious of what Nature has done in the forests of
Cayenne, and measuring the force of tropical intonation by the sounds
of a Scotch duck! The Campanero may be heard three miles!--this single
little bird being more powerful than the belfry of a cathedral,
ringing for a new dean--just appointed on account of shabby politics,
small understanding, and good family!.
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