ANTAEUS THE GIANT. 571 



revelations of science declare to be omnivorous, and " or- 

 gans of reproduction that take hold on eternity," and each 

 part calling the farthest brother, what poet has yet sung him 

 truly ? Another bard by the wayside has a different lay : 



"But man crouches and blushes, 



Absconds and conceals ; 

 He creepeth and peepeth, 



He palters and steals ; 

 Infirm, melancholy, 



Jealous glancing around, 

 An oaf, an accomplice, 



He poisons the ground." 



Can this be the "man," "all symmetry, full of proportions, 

 one limb to another, and all to all the world besides ?" Why 

 is he now dethroned and debauched, his light of mind dark- 

 ened, while his body wallows supinely in the mire of the earth ? 

 They say the " foundations of man are not in matter, but 

 in spirit," and that the "element of spirit is eternity;" 

 that "the universal spirit is man," and call him "Little 

 World." A deeper and more ingenuous criticism of the 

 man of this time is, that he has failed and fallen, and con- 

 tinues perpetually to fail and to fall ; that he has sunk from 

 the exalted stature of demigods and Providential men whom 

 history delights to make and to honor, and that his ancient 

 garments fit him not. They even say his antique portrait so 

 illy resembles him now, that he calls it fable, and believes, 

 and solemnly affirms it to be supernatural, for so only 

 are the gods. Now he is shrunk almost to annihilation, 

 and approaches the confines of that abyss of gloom, total 

 depravity. " The ground supports him in vain, and his feet 

 kill his purpose ; herbs feed him, and beasts clothe him for 

 disgrace ; his frame puts costliest energy into play to be 

 manufactured into sloth, and his soul hovers, uninhabiting, 

 over his slime. This is the final shape of unhappiness, the 

 lot of apoplexed men and societies, whose curse it becomes 

 that they are lashed to the halberds of use, upside down, 

 which cleaves with poison to their human forms. For the 



