PROGRESS 1 1 'E HU MAN IT Y 
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And may not such comment as this give you pain, 
“ Her feathers, how lovely ! Her features , how plain ! ” 
No setting’s too costly the diamond to hold, 
Hut who’d put a Hint in a circlet of gold ? 
Or who (not the artist) would wish “ a good light ” 
On a daub that had better be hidden from sight. 
My meaning (in case you don’t catch it) is this, 
Be a little less gaudy, you’ll look less amiss, 
“ Like to like.” Let your dearth in a desert be hid, 
For, being less noticed, ’twill be the less chid. 
Then out with those plumes of the “ paradise ” bird ! 
A “ houri ” might wear them, but you — It’s absurd ! 
And the egret’s light, nid-nodding, feathery snow 
(Unkind to the parchment complexion below) 
Cut it out ! And the humming-bird’s radiance forswear, 
Out-gleaming the chemical gleam of your hair ! 
Oh hard-favoured “ fair one” and is it for such 
That such beauty must cease like the dewdrop at touch ? 
Nature’s animate gems, “ living sunbeams,” — ah me, 
Must they perish for ever and perish for thee ? 
Oh, if not for shame, for propriety's sake, 
Be a little more nice in the choice that you make. 
There are birds less removed from the rank that jom fill, 
A sparrow or two would not suit you so ill. 
Then the neck of a vulture if skilfully twined 
Round your own would, in beauty, scarce leave it behind, 
A swan’s would condemn it ; yet (might I but choose) 
On your head there should nestle the head of a goose. 
Then the tongue of the daw and the scream of the jay, 
And the foot of the crow and the peacock’s “ display,” 
You have them. Ah, would you but take them away, 
And leave in their place the fair things that you slay ! 
Edmund Selous. 
Wamil Hall, MildenhcUl, Suffolk. 
PROGRESSIVE HUMANITY. 
By The Editor. 
|F we had not been amused we might have felt indignant 
at the assurance manifested in the July number of our 
contemporary, Humanity. “We welcome,” it says, 
“ the adoption of humane principles by the Selborne 
Society.” It then goes on to quote from our President’s ad- 
dress, delivered at our Annual Meeting, his reference to the 
dying words of Mr. Gladstone, and concludes, “ we may now 
confidently hope that our Spurious Sports Bill will have the 
Selborne Society’s support.” On reading this we were tempted 
to exclaim, in what from its recent use we may term ecclesias- 
