Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Singular and striking as is the form of the giraffe, it only furnishes a
proof of the wonderful manner in which an all-wise Creator has adapted
means to ends. A vegetable feeder, but an inhabitant of sterile and
sandy deserts, its long slender neck and sloping body, enable it to
reach with ease its favorite food: leaf by leaf is daintily plucked from
the lofty branch by the pliant tongue, and a mouthful of tender and
juicy food is speedily accumulated. The oblique and narrow apertures of
the nostrils, defended even to their margins by a _chevaux de frise_ of
strong hairs, and surrounded by muscular fibres by which they can be
hermetically sealed, effectually prevent the entrance of the fine
particles of sand which the suffocating storms of the desert raise in
fiery clouds, destructive to the lord of the creation. Erect on those
stilt-like legs, the giraffe surveys the wide expanse, and feeds at
ease, for those mild, large eyes are so placed that it can see not only
on all sides, but even behind, rendering it next to impossible for an
enemy to approach undiscovered. As we reflect on these and numberless
other points for admiration presented by the giraffe, we involuntarily
exclaim with the Psalmist, "Oh, Lord! how manifold are thy works; in
wisdom hast thou made them all!"
"Nature to these, without profusion kind,
The proper organs, proper powers assigned;
Each seeming want compensated of course,
Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force;
All in exact proportion to the state,
Nothing to add, and nothing to abate."
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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