48 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Cir 



is so glowing, so intense, that it dares every poison. They beat 

 their wings with such swiftness that the eye cannot count the 

 pulsations; yet meanwhile the bird seems motionless, com- 

 pletely inert and inactive. Leaves, as we know, absorb the 

 poisons in the atmosphere ; flowers exhale them. These birds 

 live upon flowers, upon these pungent flowers, on their sharp 

 and burning juices, in a word, on poisons. From their acids 

 they seem to derive their sharp cry, and the everlasting agitation 

 of their angry movements. That part of the earth where man 

 perishes or decays is the scene of triumph of the bird, where his 

 extraordinary pomp of attire, luxurious and superabundant, has 

 justly won for him the name of bird of paradise. It matters 

 not ! Whatever their plumage, their hues, their forms, this great 

 winged populace, the conqueror and devourer of insects, and, in 

 its stronger species, the eager hunter of reptiles, sweeps over all 

 the land as man's pioneer, purifying and making ready his abode 

 and rendering practicable the entrance to this dangerous faery 

 land. Nature endows the birds, as she also endows men, with a 

 marvellous capacity of accommodation to circumstances. Beauti- 

 ful birds are not made out of what we should consider whole- 

 some food, and beautiful characters are not made out of the 

 choice events of human history. Nature supplies us with an 

 appropriative power whereby we transmute everything to the 

 purposes which she intends us to serve. We see what the birds 

 can do with poison. We know to what splendid purposes genius 

 has been able to turn poverty, jails, cruelty, persecution, and 

 torture. Some of the finest characters in history have been 

 reared by, and flourished upon, these unpromising elements. We 

 degrade not ourselves and our purposes to circumstances, 

 but utilise circumstances for our necessities and purposes. The 

 bird does not take the poison and submit to death : it transmutes 

 it into life and beauty. The hero does not let circumstances 

 subdue him; he makes circumstances subserve the growth of 

 his character. 



A Hint Respecting Circumstantial Evidence. 



It is impossible to be too wary in our reception of circum- 

 stantial evidence. Countless errors are committed through 



