136 



GLAUCUS ; OR, 



tute, it seems, with Crustacea for biting their nails 

 when they are puzzled), and by no means lovely 

 to look on in vulgar eyes ; — about the bigness of 

 a man's fist ; a round-bodied, spindle-shanked, 

 crusty, prickly, dirty fellow, with a villanous 

 squint, too, in those little bony eyes, which never 

 look for a moment both the same way. Never 

 mind : many a man of genius is ungainly enough ; 

 and nature, if you will observe, as if to make up 

 to him for his uncomehness, has arrayed him as 

 Solomon in all his glory never was arrayed, and 

 so fulfilled one of the few rational proposals of 

 old Fourier, that scavengers, chimney-sweeps, 

 and other workers in disgusting employments, 

 should be rewarded for their self-sacrifice in be- 

 half of the public weal by some peculiar badge 

 of honor, or laurel crown. Not that his crown, 

 like those of the old Greek games, is a mere use- 

 less badge ; on the contrary, his robe of state is 

 composed of his fellow-servants. His whole back 

 is covered with a little gray forest of branching 

 hairs, fine as the spider's web, each branchlet 

 carrying its little pearly ringed club, each club its 

 rose-crowned polype, like (to quote Mr. Gosse's 

 comparison) the unexpanded buds of the acacia.* 



* Coryne ramosa. 



