Inc] AND SYMBOLS. 163 



Incongruous Situations. 



Neither animals nor men look well in incongruous situations. 

 On the ground the sloths are about the most awkward and 

 pitiable creatures that can well be imagined, for their fore-legs 

 are much longer than the hind ones ; all the toes are terminated 

 by very long curved claws ; and the general structure of the 

 animals is such as entirely to preclude the possibility of their 

 walking on all fours in the manner of an ordinary quadruped. 

 In this, which is an unnatural situation, they certainly appear 

 the most helpless of animals, and their only means of progression 

 consists in hooking their claws to some inequality in the ground, 

 and thus dragging their bodies painfully along. But in their 

 natural home, amongst the branches of trees, all these seeming 

 disadvantages vanish. It is obvious, therefore, that when the 

 sloth is not in the trees he is in an incongruous situation. And 

 what a lesson his absurd position there should be to us not to 

 make ourselves ridiculous by appearing on scenes where we can 

 only exhibit our incapacity, and evoke either the pity or laughter 

 of mankind ! A man with an inapt, unjudicial mind, presiding 

 on the bench of justice and performing his functions under the 

 inspiration of a bad heart and an uneven temper, is a spectacle 

 whose incongruity equals that presented by the most clumsy 

 sloth that ever ambled out of its element. Monstrously incon- 

 gruous, too, is that other spectacle, of a man who has a jockey's 

 tastes and bull-dog's nature, stalking down to the gilded chamber 

 occupied by the highest wisdom in England, for the purpose of 

 displaying himself as an hereditary legislator ruling a free 

 people. Poor awkward sloth ! dragging yourself in unhandy 

 fashion over the ground along which you were never intended to 

 travel, you may be a sad illustration of a creature in an incon- 

 gruous position, but you are not the most laughable one. 

 These men dispute with you the prize for being the most 

 ridiculous. N. H. 



The Strength of Inconsiderable Creatures. 



The strength of some creatures, especially insects, considering 

 the smallness of their size, is in several instances prodigious. 

 The strength of the black ants is manifested by the quantity 



