22 The Poets and Nat it-re. 



But, as Bacon says, " slowness is not sloth." It would be 

 harder work to walk a mile behind a snail than to run one 

 after a hare. But "the tortoise-foot" is an established 

 phrase with the poets when they wish to imply " sluggish.'' 

 " The lazy tortoise," says Faber. 



Do you remember, in Crabbe, the girl who gets weary of 

 the sleek, overcautious vicar ? 



"The wondering girl, no prude, but something nice, 

 At length was chill'd by his unmelting ice ; 

 She found her tortoise held such sluggish pace 

 That she must turn and meet him* in the chase ; 

 This not approving, she withdrew till one 

 Came who appear'd with livelier hope to run." 



In heraldry we find the Medici with the impress of a 

 tortoise " under full sail," with the motto festifta lente. The 

 conceit, though not original, is excellent, and may be classed 

 with the dolphin (emblem of celerity) and anchor of Ves- 

 pasian, the fish and chameleon of Pope Paul, or the crab and 

 butterfly of the Emperor Augustus. 



A wonderful family is that of the lizards the ancestors 

 of the birds, and the sliding link between the snake and 

 crocodile. Was there ever palimpsest or papyrus so fasci- 

 nating, so engrossing, so important, or so accurately authentic, 

 as that stone from Saxony on which the archaeopteryx has 

 left the complete record of itself stamped on the soft slab? 

 It is nothing less than its whole body. Could any chronicle 

 be more simple, unequivocal, satisfying ? How ingenuously 

 it appeals to our confidence. No room is left for disputing 

 its facts or cavilling at its arguments. There it lies as flat 

 as the pressure of some millions of tons of overlying rock 

 could make a thing, a shadow in thickness. Yet that little 

 skeleton speaks with a logic that is most masterful, com- 

 manding, and unanswerable. It is the thing itself, crying 



