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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Symbolism of Snails. 



BY LEAH B. ALLEX, WELLESLEY, MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS. 



Is any one interested in snails, ugly 

 little things famous for slowness ? They 

 were interesting to the great artist in 

 metal, Peter Vlscher of Nuremberg. 

 One of the treasures of that city is the 

 beautiful bronze shrine of St. Sebald. 

 A miniature Gothic chapel is raised 

 above fifty or more statuettes of apos- 

 tles, prophets and personifications of 

 abstract qualities, all supported on 

 twelve snails, with a dolphin at each 

 corner. It was designed and executed 

 in the early part of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury by Peter V^ischer, who, aided by 

 his five sons, worked for twelve years 

 on this masterpiece "to promote the 

 Glory of God Almighty and St. Sebald." 

 Dolphins, strong, swift swimmers, 

 were anciently believed to carry souls 

 across the ocean to the Isles of the 

 Blest, and are frequently found carved 

 on early tombs. 



The meaning of the snails is not 

 plain, but Lady Higgins, a renowned 

 English astrophysicist, eager to under- 

 stand all that she saw, determined to 

 ascertain their symbolism. She noted 

 details in works of art with the same 

 alert, appreciative sight with which 

 she saw delicate lines in a star's spec- 

 trum. Not finding an explanation in 

 the books, she for several years studied 

 the habits of living snails. She found 

 that they can be kept apparently dead 

 for at least two years and then be re- 

 suscitated. This characteristic seems 

 to be sufficiently symbolical of the re- 

 surrection of a soul to justify the artist 

 in using them as foundations for a 

 shrine. 



Lady Higgin's note in regard to her 

 experiments does not state the variety 

 of snails observed. Perhaps some read- 

 er of The Guide to Nature may be 

 able to tell us if American snails have 

 this power of waking from life so long 

 dormant. 



[The symbolism of animals in Chris- 

 tian art is frequently a matter of arbi- 

 trary interpretation. To my mind it 

 is a question whether Peter Vischer 

 had any definite idea in mind, besides 

 originality and artistic conception and 

 execution. The use of animals in art 

 during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 

 turies had little of the symbolic. The 

 artists strove for pleasing designs and 

 harmonious results and used the ani- 

 mals best suited to their talents. 



The dolphins in art have several sym- 

 bolic interpretations, sometimes "repre- 

 senting Christ Himself, again repre- 

 senting the individual Christian soul 

 seeking the knowledge of Christ, and 

 in still other particular cases the idea 

 is that of love and tenderness. Your 

 correspondent's symbolic interpreta- 

 tion of snails is new to me, and I think 

 it is very good. — N. P. C] 



What Your Face Tells. 



Somewhere I have read a little story 

 of St. Francis of Assissi who invited a 

 brother religious to go to the city with 

 him to preach to the people. 



After they had traveled through the 

 streets for a long time, turning this way 

 and that, the brother remonstrated with 

 his companion: "\Miy," he said, 'T 

 thought we were going to preach." "W'e 

 have been preaching," replied St. Francis. 

 "Our very walk through the streets has 

 been a sermon to every person we met. 

 Our manner, our demeanor, our dress, 

 everything about us incidentally turned 

 the thoughts of those people toward God." 



How true it is that "the gods we wor- 

 ship write their names on our faces." We 

 gradually come to resemble our ideals, the 

 things which most occup_\- our minds. 

 Hope or fear, joy or sorrow, success or 

 failure eventually reproduces itself in our 

 expression of countenance, in our man- 

 ner, in our atmosj^here, in our personality. 

 The thoughts we habitually harbor, 

 whether optimistic or pessimistic, hope- 

 ful or desDniring, sad or merry, will write 

 their record in our faces, exactly in ac- 

 cordance with their nature. We are all 

 preachers of sermons. C)ur faces as we 

 CTo about the world are preaching the 

 gosDel of good cheer, of hope, of joy and 

 gladness, of success or that of pessimism, 

 despair, of disappointment, of misery, of 

 failure. — Orison S'-a'ctt Mardcn in May 

 Xanfilns. 



