FROGS. 



THERE can be no doubt that frogs do not stand as high 

 as they ought to do in the estimation of the world. 

 They are regarded as creatures of little account, and their 

 large mouths and general emptiness have told against them, 

 though why this should be so can hardly be explained, 

 seeing that several human beings possessing precisely the 

 same characteristics are regarded as great statesmen. But 

 these physical peculiarities are, after all, a minor considera- 

 tion, and the low estimation in which frogs are regarded 

 really arises from an irreparable misfortune which has 

 befallen the Avhole race namely, their inability to stand 

 upright. It is this inability which has sunk the frog so low 

 in the scale of creation. Had he possessed the power of 

 standing upright, his striking resemblance to a somewhat 

 stout human being would have been so remarkable, that it 

 is probable he would have ranked even higher than the 

 monkey as a type, if not as an ancestor, of man. Any one 

 who has seen well executed specimens of frogs set up in the 

 attitudes of human beings, must have been struck with 

 the extraordinary resemblance, and a community of frogs 

 capable of walking would undoubtedly be regarded by men 

 as the closest assimilation in the animal world to human 



