The Life of the Weevil 



shoulder. Thus was the idol decked by the 

 hands of the pious Syrian. 



To tell the truth, it is not aesthetic. It is 

 sumptuous, if you will, and preferable, after 

 all, to the donkey' s-ears which our modern 

 beauties wear perched upon their heads. 

 What a singular freak is fashion, so fertile 

 in the means of uglification ! Commerce 

 knows nothing of loveliness, says this divinity 

 of the traders; it prefers profit, embellished 

 with luxury. So speaks the drachma. 



On the reverse, a lion clawing the ground 

 and roaring wide-mouthed. Not of to-day 

 alone is the savagery that symbolizes power 

 in the shape of some formidable brute, as 

 though evil were the supreme expression of 

 strength. The eagle, the lion and other 

 marauders often figure on the reverse of 

 coins. But reality is not sufficient; the ima- 

 gination invents monstrosities: the centaur, 

 the dragon, the griffin, the unicorn, the 

 double-headed eagle. 



Are the inventors of these emblems so 

 greatly superior to the Redskin who cele- 

 brates the prowess of his scalping-knife with 



which Phocaea, in Asia Minor, was the mother city. 

 Translator's Note. 



4 



