148 The Poets Beasts. 



It was evidently a moot point with the poets whether the 

 elephant or the rhinoceros were the better in open lists. As 

 a rule, they are merely seen (as in Glover's poem) at the 

 opening of the duel — 



" Anon each hideous bulk encounters. 

 * * * Earth her groan 

 Redoubles. Trembhng from their coverts fly 

 The savage inmates of surrounding woods, 

 In distant terror." 



Dryden, however, decides against the rhinoceros (the 

 female), calling the elephant "her unequal foe;" and so 

 does Lovelace, who makes it die "under his castle-enemy." 

 Cowper, on the other hand, and Darwin, make the rhino- 

 ceros the better of the two. 



" Go, stately lion, go ! and thou with scales impenetrable armed, 

 Rhinoceros, whose pride can strike to earth the unconquered 

 elephant." 



Their tone is generally very respectful to the rhinoceros — 

 "the horned rhinoceros," "the armed rhinoceros," "the 

 mailed rhinoceros that of nothing recks;" — but what does 

 Johnson mean by saying, " He speaks to men with a rhino- 

 ceros nose " (" which he thinks great ") ; or Moore by 

 " rhinoceros' ivory ? " 



Yet the rhinoceros in its simple, secluded, harmless life 

 might have afforded an occasional illustration of strength 

 not abused, of a dignified retirement, of magnificent soli- 

 tude. The ponderous hermit slowly crashing its way 

 through the cane-brakes is a striking figure, and! like to 

 think of it — the solitary rhinoceros, tranquilly wading along 

 the river's edge, with no companions larger than the otter 

 that watches it from mid-stream, the little reed-birds swing- 

 ing on the flags, and the small white egrets catching the frogs 

 which the giant's progress startles out from the ooze. 



Hippopotamus is not an accommodating word for a verse, 



