268 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Peo 



resemblance between a natural man, and man after years of pam- 

 pering, and the goose before and after domestication, is very 

 startling. The wild goose is a pattern of sagacity : it must be 

 content with the grasses, snails, fish, grains, berries, etc., which 

 it finds in the open fields in short, with whatsoever niggard 

 winter has left behind, and to travel from stream to stream in 

 quick flight, through darkness and frost. The domestic goose, 

 on the contrary, living solely on potatoes and nourishing corn 

 food, and transformed into a quiet household and pasturage 

 animal, and having no work to do, has become the archetype of 

 stupidity. With these animals all depends on their activity \ in 

 slothful gluttony they lose their natural demeanour and energy ; 

 the flashing ardour of liberty and nature is extinguished in im- 

 becility. The goose has become a slave to its appetite, but all 

 that is tragical in such a situation is here turned into comedy. 

 The goose is a cavalry soldier on foot, a swimmer upon land. 

 Not for one single moment does that heavy body, snatched from 

 its native element, find its original equilibrium ; all centre of 

 gravity is lost. On broad oar-like feet she trails along her 

 clumsy body, grown fat in captivity, at every step rocking on 

 one side or half tumbling forwards ; the neck alone is stretched 

 out stiffly, and the eyes stare stupidly right before them. If 

 you drive her, she never knows whither to go ; now turning 

 hesitatingly to the right, and now to the left, always at a loss, 

 always cackling. If you drive her more quickly, the noise be- 

 comes a confused shrill scream ; the bewildered animal spreads 

 out its wings, beats them violently together, without, however, 

 rising an inch above the ground, for long disuse has weakened 

 the strength of its pinions. ST. 



Making- use of People. 



There are expert persons who are always making use of us. 

 They constantly delude us into the notion that we are doing 

 something which will benefit ourselves ; and at the moment 

 we imagine we are to enjoy some of the best results of our 

 work, they obtain and appropriate them. They never cease to 

 offer us some benefit for the large proportion of our time 

 which they consume, and a long habit of obedience to their 



