I. J. Potter

“ When there crept into the world the first dull, unreasoning sense of injury,—when the underlings of humanity first began to assimilate from the common vein of intelligence that made them one with the body, a sensible desire for recognition on the ground of equality, they were promptly denied any part whatsoever in the material and spiritual accretions of generations of labor; and then was inaugurated the revolt that has been prolific through all past time, of war and misery, of violence, pillage and murder. ”

“ The great hand of the law reaches forth to seize upon the offender and to snuff out his little, palpitating human life, that, far from being the cause, is only a symptom of the real malady. The cause still exists, the cancer of the state still invites new vermin to feed upon its sore. The knight prophesies and expostulates in the public ear, but Uncle Sam still sleeps, though perchance with uneasy dreams. The great forces which evolve the tramp and the ignorant emigrant are still at work, while the devil holds the match to the combustible elements of soulless greed. ”

“ Mighty powers of the state are asleep at the post of duty, when, lo! an issue arises,—the mice are in the government meal-bag,—the spirits of fire and distraction are abroad; wealth and power are being attacked from beneath! ”

“ Many unthinking as well as vicious men, in both ancient and modern times, who have by accident of birth and condition been set in authority over their fellows, or, who have by their own efforts been raised to positions of power and responsibility in the state and among the great captains of industry, have thought to ignore their dependence upon the lower orders of society for the very altitude they have enjoyed—the head refusing, as it were, to consider the feet as a part of the body corporate and entitled to no more than the pleasure of mere existence. ”

“ The state, itself, in principle wise, majestic and supreme, petitions peace of the leering devil, who constantly juggles with the tape of human selfishness, as waiting angels record the devious courses that nations and individuals take. ”

“ God, dominant in love that is not calculating, but universal and free as the air we breathe and without taint of prejudice, can alone amalgamate the differences of these varying tones,—wielding them together into a perfectly melodious theme. ”

“ In the light of experience the heads of humanity have seldom profited by the tutelage of whips and blood and torture. Without respect for rights and demands when opposed to their selfish material interests, they have held not their Bibles in their hands, where the light might illumine its pages, but have placed the sacred book under their feet while making prayers to stocks and bonds. ”

“ At this point, the peacock his tail feathers flaunted;
The ostrich, however, continued undaunted,—
"I know of no reason for this state of things,
Nor why my two feet should expect, by their flings,
V.
Uncle Sam is now awake and doing in earnest. The rankness of materialism breeding from the earth, a thing of great and dreaded power, of craft and slime, recoils upon the land of which it has been begotten and now boldly erects its head to encompass the state in its death-constricting coils. ”

“ To separate the head from the feet, labor from capital, or to inaugurate war between them, brings about such confusion and distress as can only be likened to the great body of humanity being continually brewed by Satan in an enormous caldron kept hot by the fires of revolution. All evil being ultimate good, the process, though one of renovation and purification, is bitterly painful to the innocent as well as to the guilty. In the determined revolt of the feet of humanity against the head, it has always been discovered that the head was too small for the size of the body ”

“ It has entered of its own volition into the service which makes for the unity of powers working jointly in Heaven and upon the earth, and our beautiful flag shows only the transfigured light of the stars. ”

“ Even the old lady, who is wont to knit her stockings in peace by a hardwood fire, or by the glowing coals of an open grate, in city or town, alike, peaceful and content, and without consideration of the vexing problems of supply and demand, awakens suddenly to the fact that even a comfortable competence is no surety against want and cold, when the serpent has dragged himself into the garden and garner house of God. ”

“ The battle between the head and the feet results, at last, in the fall of Satan, that is, Self, under the God-principle of self-renunciation, working in all human creeds and canticles, foreshadowing the unity of the race in the power of the religious idea that has, at last, become dominant in the head. ”

“ In the cosmical alembic of human jurisprudence, there must be mixed with lofty and divine sentiments a recognition of our mutual dependence and accountability, not of man to man, only, but to something higher than his humanity, a perfect and divine law to which that humanity may be harmoniously attuned. ”

“ When, now, the monster spirit of protest begins to show its gigantic figure, high, low, and middle classes are alarmed. Prices fluctuate, business goes down, work and bread are scarce. Behold, in the heavens appear the gruesome phantoms of war. ”

“ When, ten thousand years ago, the owl sat in the light of the moon and unknown deities spat wisdom into the philosophies of Hermes and Zoroaster and their more or less erudite predecessors, the earliest gods, with their bird-like heads and male bodies, were yet vehicles of truth, elevating the frail stock of humanity over which they threw their benign influences. ”

“ But the knights-errant are in the saddle, and with the true spirit of knighthood they may be found in the thick of the politic battle, where they are making clear the path for greater powers that shall follow with purging force to cleanse the great body and through a long and cruel strife establish the contentious parts in truth and unity. ”

“ The age has reached a point of reason so far as councils may serve to settle the differences between the head and the feet; and the waiting world stands with attentive ear to hear the judgment of such councils of mankind; great and small are its representatives, and progress will be made only so far as the religious idea proclaimed in Judea shall be allowed to influence the pride and passions of men. ”

“ The farmer is aroused and indignant, but when he makes his protest, the serpent flies pursuit, and with a changing policy under the guise of a great, foolish bird and a well assumed air of innocence, buries its small and crafty head for a season in the sand. ”

“ Then, indeed, the baptismal story of man's hoary and ancient glory in Eden shall usher in that gracious day, when the lamb and the lion shall gambol together, and there shall be in all the earth neither murder, nor theft, nor plunder, nor war. ”

“ In the pride and dominance of the head over the rest of the body, in its scorn of the feet, equally indispensable with the head to the welfare of the whole, the poem has struck at the discordant note of all our human disaffection and rebellion. ”

“ To lead him to pecking his own faithful feet.
XIII.
The waiting knight, emblem of the new manhood just entering upon its estate of resolution and responsibility, is the type of a generation now setting forth in quest of high and honorable adventure. Satan is at his back, thrusting forward a bag of gold and counselling the pursuit of wealth; "Put money in thy purse!" saith the devil; "all else counts but little,—put money in thy purse!" At his left hand stands the priest in his splendid robes of office, proffering the symbol of suffering and self-renunciation. ”

“ This I perceive,—to make the man and wife one, to make the village one, to make the state one, to make the empire one,—all in harmony as one instrument, cannot be done without a Central Son, a Creator to attune to. When a man is attuned to Him, and a woman is attuned to Him, they will themselves be as one. ”

“ The air resounds with optimistic teachings and words of love and cheer that, as yet, have no guarantee in actual deeds. In contra-distinction to the Christian creed, "we must look out for ourselves," is the rasping gospel of our latter-day faith. ”

“ Their merely mechanical arrangement upon the page is in itself unusual, we might almost say unknown to the reading public, while the imaginative story that the artist has told in the illustrations that he has contributed, is not only of the real and material world, but also of powers behind the scenes, which offer the motives and even supply the cues of most, if not all of the actors, who perform upon the great stage of life. ”

“ Such heads apply no healing balms to weak and wounded extremities, but proffer, instead, the scourge, i.e., starvation, long days of poorly remunerated toil, squalid surroundings,—in ancient times the guillotine, the gallows and the rack; in modern days, ostracism, the prison and the electric chair. The blood of Christ's divinity flowed that love and mercy might be exemplified, but it cannot sprinkle the world with saving grace, so long as its own herald, the church, continues to say, "Amen!" ”

“ Whatever other merit may be discovered in this book, the publishers desire to call attention to the fact that, as a whole, it is a production altogether unique in a field of endeavor where something new is being constantly sought, but seldom found. ”

“ If his pencil seems at times to wander far afield, either in elaboration or disregard of the canon principles of art, his plea must be that the interpretation he has given is according to his carefully studied conception of what the author must have had in mind when writing "The Story of an Ostrich." ”