Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 2, February 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 2, February 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
become when you put on your attire! That snowy lawn once blossomed on
the banks of the Don or the Dnieper, and before it shone in a London
drawing-room, that broad-cloth comforted its rightful owner amidst the
snows of the Cheviots. Did these boots really speak for themselves, you
would find that the upper leathers belonged to a goat, and the soles to
a horse or a cow. And could such metamorphic retributions happen now as
in the days of Ovid, the best way to punish the pride of an exquisite
would be to let every creature come and recover his own. A worm would
get his satin cravat, and a pearl oyster his studs; and if no fabulous
beaver laid claim to his hat, the rats of Paris or the kittens of
Worcester would assuredly run off with his gloves. But viewed in a
graver and truer light, it is marvellous from how many sources we derive
the several ingredients in the simplest clothing, many of them essential
to health, and most of them conducive to our well-being; so that we need
not go to the crowded mart or the groaning wharf in order to convince
ourselves of earth’s opulent resources. Few will read these pages who
have not the evidence at home. Open that cupboard, unlock that wardrobe,
look round the chamber where you are seated, and think a little of all
the kingdoms of Nature and all the regions of the globe from which their
contents have been collected, and say if the Framer of this world is not
a bountiful Provider. “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! The earth is
full of thy riches; so is this great and wide sea.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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