Con] AND SYMBOLS. f,i 



may consider we have indeed discovered an anomaly; for 

 this gigantic-personal-appropriation order of men cannot, in 

 defence, require that we place them in the same list with the 

 cow, the mouse, and certain caterpillars for the simple reason 

 that these creatures are obeying the natural law which applies 

 equally to all their kind. PH. 



Contrariety in Character. 



The quick and sprightly eye of the swallow, the ever-twitter- 

 ing voice, now a low plaintive cry, and now a gay shrill scream, 

 all denote a being of marked character. And this character is 

 strange enough ; it might be termed a psychological riddle. 

 For while the swallow builds her nest confidingly and with 

 domestic quiet beneath man's roof, beside his hearth even, she 

 at the same time pursues her noisy journeys and gives way to 

 her love of unrestrained and aimless wandering. While she, 

 on the one hand, carries her vaunted cleanliness to wearisome 

 punctuality, she, on the other, builds up the walls of her 

 dwelling with dirt and mud. She is an illustration of that 

 contrariety in character which is exhibited by so many of the 

 human family. ST. 



Things Appreciated by Contrast. 



We appreciate things by contrast. For example, nowhere, 

 from the force of contrast, is summer more brilliantly joyous or 

 its approach welcomed with greater delight than in polar regions, 

 where amid perennial frost and snow winter seems to be 

 enthroned for ever. The long-continued night, after passing 

 through a tedious dawn, at length opens into that bright, brief 

 interval, in which spring, summer, and autumn are blended into 

 one. In rays of warmth the sun sends forth her signal and 

 Nature answers to the call. As heat increases, the solitude once 

 more shows signs of life and movement. The frozen lumps 

 and ledges covering the sea begin to strain and crack and split 

 asunder, and glacier masses breaking loose from their icy cables 

 yield themselves up to the current and to the wind. Creatures 

 that have long been slumbering in caves, or amid the snow, 

 now shake off their torpor. The short thick grass and moss 



