Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-06-10
PEACE ON EARTH.
War and Glory.

! The following excellent satire on war and
glory, is said to have been written by Dr. John
son:
An old vulture was sitting on a naked prom-
nence, with her young about her, whom she was
mstructlng in the arts of vultures life, and pre-
Iparng by her last lecture, for their final dismis-
sion to the mountains and the skies.
My children said the old yulture, you will
the less want my instructions because you have
had my practice before your eyes; you have seen
me snatch from the farm the household fowl, you
have seen me seize the leyerit in the bush and
the kid in the pasture; you know how to fix YOUR
talons, and how to balance your fight when YOU
are laden with your prey. But YOU remember
the taste of more delicious food have often
RECALLED you with the flesh of man.
Tel us, said the young vuItures, where man
may be found, and how he may be known; his
flesh is surely the natural food of the vulture. -
Why have you never brought man in your tai
ons to the nest!
lie is too bulky said the mother; when we
find man we can only tear away his flesh, and
leave his bones upon the ground
Since man is so big, said the young ones,
how do you kill him! You are afraid of the
wolf and the bear; by what power are vultures
superior to man! Is man more defenceless than
a sheepP
we have not the strength of man, returned
the mother, 'and | am sometimes in doubt wheth-
er we have the subtilty and the vuture would
seldom feed upon his flesh, had not nature, that
devoted HIM to our uses, infused into him
strange terocity, which never observed in any
other being that feeds upon the earth Two
herds of men will often meet and shake the
earth with noise, and fill the air with fire. When
you hear noise, and see fire, with flashes along
the ground, hasten to the place with your swift
est wing, for men are surely destroying one an
other; you will then find the ground smoking
with blood and covered with carcasses, of which
many are dismembered and mangled for the con-
venience of the vuture.'
But when men have killed their prev said
the pupil, why do they not eat it, When the
wolf has killed sheep, he suffers not the vulture
to touch it till he is satisfied himself Is not man
another kind of wolff
Man. said the mother, is the only beast who
kills that which he does not devour, and this
quality makes him so much a benefactor to our
Species
IF men kill our prey, and lay it in our way,
SAID the young one, what need shall we have of
aborlng for oursevesl
Because man will, sometimes replied the
mother, remain for long time quiet in his den
The old vultures will tell you when you are to
watch his motions. When you see men in
5rcat numbers moving close together, like
lock of storks, you may conclude that they
re hunting, and that you will soon revel in hu-
nan blood
But still, said the young ones, 4 would glad
Y know the reason of this mutual slaughter |
ould never kill what / could not eat
My child, said the mother, this is a question
'hlch cannot answer, though | am reckoned
ne most subtle bird Of the mountain: When |
'as young, | used frequently to visit the Hrie of
old vulture, who dwelt upon the. Carpathan
ocks; he had made many observations; he knew
he places that afforded prey, around his habita-
on, as lar IN every direction as the strongest
ing can fly between the rising and setting of
lie summer sun; he had fed, year after year on a
lie entrails of men, His opinion was, that men a
ad only the appearance Of animal lfe being
'ally vegetables, with power of motion; and r.
lat as the boughs of an oak are dashed together
Y the storm, that swine may fatten on the fall
g acorns, so men are, by some unaccountabIe
over, driven one against another till they lose
eIr notion that vultures may be fed Others
ink they have observed something of con-
vance and policy among these mischievous be-
gs; and those that hover more closely around
EN-, pretend that there is in every herd, one ST
at gives directions to the rest, and seems to be
ore eminenty delighted with wide carnage. T
hat 1t is that entities him to such pre-eminence to
know not; he is seldom the biggest or the &c
1ttest, but he shows by his eagerness and dill ed
nee, that he is more than any of the others IN
friend to the cultures. HI
eff
III