The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-08-09
THE MENAGERIE.

once more (aS our advertising column
viii more particularly inform the reader) on
village is to be visited by company Of the
captive lords of Natures wild and wonderful
domains. We are under no obligations K
Messrs. Raymond & Warning, and we feel NJ
special anxiety or sympathy on their behalf
they arc doubtless rich enough and likely t'
be so; but in calling public attention to thi
exhibition and especially to the elevated in
huenccs which every human being ought tc
know how to derive from it, we are discharg
ing duty to our readers, of no inconsidcra
bic Importance.
ut is an old story-a vulgar bore-Tve
seen it dozen tmes-a nasty place-and
the animals are humbugs."
Reader you saw your first Menoge"ie when
child, and that day is stamped upon your
memory as one of the incffaceable landmarks
of life. You smile perhaps now, yet not with
out musing pleasure, to remember the eager
curiosity, the rapturous delight and wonder
with which your childish heart throbbed tu-
multuously as you entered the charmed circle
and gazed upon the living majesty and might
and terror of the savage forms which the
picturc-book and the story-book had fore
Swallowed to your imagination. And should
your maturer mind, enriched now with know
ledge, enlarged by thought and exalted by
communion with Nature to some fitness, as it
is to be hoped, to comprehend, to wonder ra-
tionally, and to adore, should it find less or
more, in the majestic beauty of the fearful
and wonderful" works of God, to teach di-
vine wisdom and to kndlc joy, than did the
blank, hulf-conscious eye of gaping childhood?
For our own part, we confess TO passion
for contemplating strange animals. We
never lose an opportunity to visit a menagc-
RE, and find no attainable length of leisure
sufficient to satiate our cYer-new curiosity
and admiration. We know nothing of the
comparative extent, &c. Of this collection
but any place where we can study an Ele-
phant, a Lion and Tiger will draw"
as. We pray you all therefore to go
with US, on FRIDAY next, take your
wives, sisters, sweethearts, chidrcn-what.
ever you have-with you, stay as long as you
can, and enjoy in the most whole-hearted,
child-ikc and yet rational manner you are
capable of, the ennobling contemplation of
Natures wonders. BE patient and pains
taking; let the perSpiration ooze calmly and
freely forth; smile at impaling elbows; and
blandly ignore the rustic heels which grind
your corns.
II you think the tricks Of the Ring too
idle or too brutal, let us seize the golden op-
portunity while the crowd is Withdrawn to
the centre, to contemplate undisturbed, the
majestic proportions and the uncomfortable
might Of the gigantic elephant; the terrible
grace and the lightning-likc agility which
slumber in the INDECENT, soft and glossy forms
of these tigers, pantherS and lcopards; Or the
dire ferocity of the untamcable wolf and
hyena. Note the imprisoned terrors of those
claws and fangs, of those snbducd and angry
tones, and the glaring fire of those half
quenched eyes, while Imagination supplies
the terrific reality left behind in Asiatc
wilds, before which the bqldcst heart would
quail.
And while the inward eye silently trac-
es link by link the mysterious chain Of Crea-
tion-from a-conquering Man down through
all the gradations of brute sagacity, brute
might and brute ficrceness, noticing with de-
vout admiration the fitness and beauty of
each in its God-apponted sphere; and you
Lift to Heaven an unprcsump.uous eye,
And smiling say Ny Father made them all
surprised by emotions of unwonted gran
dcur you will exclaim with pious Cowper',
Are they not HIS by peculiar right,
And by an emphasis Of interest his,
Whose eyes they fill with tears of holy joy;
Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind
With worthy thoughts OF that unwearicd love
That planned and built and still upholds world
So clothed in beauty
Study these things, and teach them to your
children SO shall some who come after you
even if you lie not Of the favored few, be
able to say in language taught by greater
though not better Poet
Wisdom and Spirit of the Universe!
in vain,
BY day or starlight thus from my first dawn
Of childhood, didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul,
Not with the mean and WHOM works Of Man.