The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-24
TOADS. .

Cronandu-that is, "Johnny Toad" Ask him
Sgb9 and he will tell you that all Frenohmen
ore frog eaters, and that If frog Is hot eXaoIly
toad Il is very like one, ana Ina' 'VSUS anu
Troos are all ''much Of muchness. !. IN, ne
is1 iiOs5 ttot Aoassiz ranks the toad hlgher tnan
~ ~ - Laoanse of its more terrestrial haolts,
'aorbane he would be disposed 10 can nlLusen
f'Iobn BnIl.U and his Gallo neighoor tommy
pUTi- frog . And yet John Bull IN general
sy,I.i.,s ,yloayis--believes that the toad is
n.ao,,s ou% and if eaten, would poison Johnny
CSamand to death; in which belief many
H.oIacbrau ipnorantly believes with the vul-
,sr Enelisbman, although he may have often
11noonsciously eaten toads, supposing them to
be frogs. lust as he doubtless has eaten cats
under the mistaken persuasion that they were
rabbits
banks long ago discovered that the common
toad is harmless food. The one cooks him and
calls him "frog;' the other used to eat him
raw, amidst gaping crowd, who like the bar
barians of Malta, when the viper fastened on
Paul's hand 'lool1ed when he should have
swollen or fallen down dead suddenly" f" but, in
stead Of such catastrophe, only saw the char
latan swallow dose of what he called "medi
cine," and seem to be lvelier and healthiert than
ever; none the less lively because the crowd of
admiring pumpkins at once made haste to buy
his nostrum, and, as President Lincoln used to
say, ''provide against the emergency" of their
swallowing toad. Usually on such occasions
one man ate the toad, at the mountebank's re-
quest, and, to please him, was then attacked
with seeming illness, and, being persuaded to
try the "cure-al," recovered Immediately.
Was it from this practice that sycophants and
flatterers came to be called "toad-eaters P'
English poetry is full of ISLANDERS upon toads.
Even Shakespeare, like all others in his day,
and most others since, looked upon toads as
poisonous, as appears from that charming pas
sage in As You Like It.
'Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad ugly ana yenomous,
Wears yet precious jewel in his head;'
and is further manifest in the Witches mean
tation, in Macbeth:--
"Toad, that under coldest stone,
Days and nights has thirty-One
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i the charmed pot!
If Shakespeare believed also in the precious
Jewel, the "toad-stone" or butonite, supposed
TO be formed and found in the toad, he partoolz
of an error which lived both long before and
long after him. The toad-stone is now known
to be the tooth of a fossil fish; but for ages it
was believed to be formed in the toad's head,
as is the pearl in the oyster, and to possess
wonderful powers, both medical and magical.
Children, until they are taught better, re-
gard toad-stools as structures built by toads,
as did Sour sage and serious poet" Spenser,
and wonder why, unlike him, they never find
toads sitting on or under those pretty UNI
brella.shaped fungi, though they have never
read his declaration in the "Faerie Queen
that
The grisly toad stool, grown there, might see,
And loathed paddocks Iordlng on the samep'
Milton evidently shared in Shakespeares
and Spenser's dislike of toads; otherwise he
would not have described Satan as taking the
form of that reptile:-
'Sauat like a toad close at the o Eve,
Assaying by his devtish art TO reach
The organs other fancy .,...
Or If, inspiring venom, he might Jalnt
The animal Spirits" etc.
The great poet of the 'Paradise Lost" per-
Inits the devil to assume the form of three diff
ferent animals, all objects of popular hate and
disgust, and all classified from time immemo-
rial among monsters, or beasts of malignant
aspect and evil omen. He doubtless remem-
bered that Virgil in his GeOrgics Ii. l84)-even
Virgil whose knowledge OF agriculture should
have taught him not merely the harmlessness,
but also the insect-l1ling value and helpful
ness of the toad-calumniates that much
abused reptile as a monster:-
'Inventusque cavis buto ct que plurima terr1e
Monstra ferunt"
Or, as Dryden says:-
"In hollow caverns vermiu make abode,
The kissing serpent and the swelling toad"
Thus the very modesty and retiring disposi-
ton of this poor toad become his Teproach.
How invariably poets add to the horrors of
grottOes and caverns by peopling them with
snakes ana JOaQS rake, lOf example, THIS
passage from Henry Kirk Whites "Gondo-
hne'-
"And as she entered the cavern wide
The moonbeam cleaned pale;
And she saw snake on the craggy rock
IL clung by its Shiny tail !
Her foot IL slipped, and she stood aghast,
She trod on bloated toad!
Yet still upheld by the secret charm,
She kept upon the road"
The toad's eyes were wonderfully bright and
beautiful; yet not of them has it ever been
said, in the underlined language of Keats
"a thing of beauty is a joy forever"
Nay, the beauty of their eyes has rather
aggravated the general dislike for toads, as
though such ugly customers should not pos
sess such sparkling gems without being sus-
pected of grand larceny. The toad might find
more favor, perhaps, were his skin smooth
instead OF warty his oolOrs gay instead of
grey or grave, and his motions lively and
graceful instead of slow and awkward; and
yet it is doubtful. Frogs possess all these
superior traits, but they are not admired by
most persons; IL is only some enthusiastic
naturalist of the French school who sympa-
thlzes with the Count Lac6pede instead of
laughing at him as he eXclaims:-"Who can
regard without pleasure a creature so delicate
tn iorin, SO nimble in movement, so graceful
III III StsiIooe Sn.oe Let us not deprive ourselves of
All a1oltional source of pleasu re- nor regret TO
see the banks of our rivulets briobte3ad nv
1i oTiVIs' Sa',' and animated by their sprightly
The abundant moisture and ooolness of the
IN -