60 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Con 



monitor which, in like manner, enables him rightly to steer 

 his course amidst all the conflicting expediencies and surging 

 tempests of his daily life? Whether it be called conscience 

 matters not. "We are not concerned about the name when we 

 are conscious of the power. That power we know exists, and 

 is our safe regulator and unfailing guide in all our experiences 

 on life's changeable sea. K. 



Conscious Strength Despises Tricks. 



There are many little birds which, in order to decoy aggressors 

 away from their nests, are obliged to resort to tricks of deceit 

 which are often successful. Large birds, like great souls, 

 despise tricks, and rely solely upon their strength. The swan 

 is a good illustration of this. Swans care but little for conceal- 

 ing their broods, as they feel confident of their power to protect 

 them against every enemy. They will fight even with the 

 eagle itself, harassing it with beak and wings until the marauder 

 is glad to make a more or less honourable retreat. In the 

 protection of their young they display extraordinary courage 

 and resort to no stratagem. As it is always gratifying to see 

 courage conquer cunning, it is interesting to know that even 

 foxes are sometimes killed by them. BE. 



X 1 Consumption without Proportion. 



Some caterpillars daily eat double their weight in food ; a 

 cow eats forty-six pounds daily, and a mouse eats eight times as 

 much in proportion to its own weight as is eaten by a man. 

 This consumption without proportion is a wonderful fact, and 

 we may recognise its operation amongst mankind. We need 

 not confine our view to princelings or courts to discover men 

 who are constantly consuming that which we should have 

 judged was out of all reasonable ratio to their needs. One 

 man absorbs the emoluments of pensions and sinecures the value 

 of which would make whole villages happy ; the rent-roll which 

 another appropriates would furnish substance for victualling an 

 entire city. In contemplating such a spectacle, which co-exists 

 with the poverty and suffering of a portion of mankind, we 



