THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 209 



arms again, assuming, for the nonce, the peculiar 

 aquiline slouch; and there before us stood the 

 mighty bird of Jove, as we are accustomed to 

 see it in the Zoological Gardens; its deep-set, 

 desolate eyes looking through and beyond us; 

 ruffling its dark plumage, and lifting its heavy 

 wings as if about to scorn the earth, only to drop 

 them again, and to utter one of those long dreary 

 cries which seem to protest so eloquently against 

 a barbarous destiny. Then he proceeded to tell 

 us of the great raptor in its life of hopeless cap- 

 tivity; his stern, rugged countenance, deep bass 

 voice, and grand mouth-filling polysllables suiting 

 his subject well, and making his description seem 

 to our minds a sombre magnificent picture never 

 to be forgotten — at all events, never by an orni- 

 thologist. 



Doubtless this part of his discourse proved 

 eminently pleasing to the majority of his hearers, 

 who, looking downwards into the depths of their 

 own natures, would be able to discern there a 

 glimmer, or possibly more than a glimmer of that 

 divine quality he had spoken of, and which was, 

 unhappily for them, not recognized by the world 

 at large; so that, for the moment, he was ad- 



