Bigness and Littleness Relative—See [Comparative, The].
Bigness Obscured by Littleness—See [Proportion].
BIGOTRY, RELIGIOUS
Thomas Jefferson was fiercely assailed by the Federal party, including nearly all of the clergy of the country, as not only depraved in heart and life, but as a blatant infidel, for whom the yawning abyss of wo, with its eternal torments, was none too severe a doom. Not long since a man died at Rhinebeck who, when an infant, was taken into the Reformed Dutch Church in that town to be baptized. After the clergyman had received the child in his arms the father gave the name to be applied as “Thomas Jefferson,” who was then President. “It would be blasphemy,” said the minister, “to call that name in the house of God; this child’s name is John,” and he finished the christening, the boy bearing the name thus given to the day of his death.—New York Journal of Commerce.
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BIRD NOTES
Most of our song-birds have three notes expressive of love, alarm, and fellowship. The last call seems to keep them in touch with one another. I might perhaps add to this list the scream of distress which most birds utter when caught by a cat or a hawk—the voice of uncontrolled terror and pain which is nearly the same in all species—dissonant and piercing. The other notes and calls are characteristic, but this last is the simple screech of common terrified nature. (Text.)—John Burroughs, Country Life in America.
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Birds—See [Cruelty to Birds].