Avery's own farrier. 223 



ened, he next discovered that the web was around its 

 neck, and fastened to the under part of the shelf. They 

 were watched closely day by day until the snake died; 

 the spider had raised the head of the snake from the floor 

 slowly but surely each day, and when that work was 

 finished, he commenced biting the snake about the head, 

 sufficiently to draw the blood, which could be seen with 

 a glass. Each time the snake was speared he would 

 spring and jump so as to stretch the web several inches.* 

 I traveled fifty-two miles and made two journeys to see 

 this most wonderful performance. What a lesson is 

 taught us here of the sagacity and ingenuity of a little 

 spider conqueiing the reptile of many hundred times its 

 own bulk. Let it therefore admonish us what the mind 

 of man is destined to accomplish, and what it must do to 

 equal the knowledge of this little insect." 



Man is not only placed at one end of this great chain, 

 but he forms the hook that hangs it up on the throne of 

 Jehovah, and the swivel and pivot also upon which the' 

 whole turns; and it extends from thence to the — yes, be- 

 yond the surface to the very centre of the earth and the 

 bottomless deep; and, notwithstanding its crooks and 

 nooks, and all its mysterious windings, there is a current 

 of electric life running through the whole length thereof 

 that proceeds from the great battery from which all know- 

 ledge and instinct flows. 



Nor does the mind find a place of rest here. Botanists 

 tell us that plants have lungs, and nervous systems. We 



*The horse, too, lives in fear of the snake*, you can not ride him on 

 to one of them, he will either side off, back away, or jnmp over them 

 if possible. 



