ESSAYS AT A REPUBLIC. 
THE more I reflect upon it, the more clearly I per- 
ceive that the bird, unlike the insect, is not an industrial 
animal. He is the poet of nature, the most independent 
of created beings, with a sublime, an adventurous, but 
on the whole an ill-protected existence. 
Let us penetrate into the wild American forests, and 
examine the means of safety which these isolated beings 
invent or possess. Let us compare the bird’s resources, the 
efforts of his genius, with the inventions of his neighbour, 
man, who inhabits the same localities. The difference does 
honour to the bird; human invention is always acting on the 
offensive. While the Indian has fashioned a club and a toma- 
hawk, the bird has built only a nest. 
For decency, warmth, and elegant gracefulness, the nest is in every 
respect superior to the Indian’s wigwam or the Negro’s hut, which, 
frequently, in Africa, is nothing but a baobab hollowed by time. 
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