74 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Dee 



a stratagem by which to satisfy the cravings of its maw with- 

 out the necessity of subjecting its unwieldy person to any very 

 violent exertion. On the upper surface of the front of the head 

 are two long movable bony filaments, the foremost of which is 

 dilated at its tip, which has a silvery lustre. Lying close to 

 the ground, the fish disturbs the sand or mud so as to obscure 

 the water around it, justly thinking, no doubt, that its appear- 

 ance is not sufficiently amiable to inspire much confidence in the 

 Aveaker inhabitants of the deep ; it then elevates the filamentous 

 appendages just described, and waves them to and fro in the 

 water, when the small fishes, which are soon attracted by the 

 hope that this silvery object is something to eat, become instead 

 the prey of their artful foe. This is said to be the ordinary 

 mode of procuring its food followed by this fish : and since it is 

 really a mode of living by deceit, it is to be confessed that the 

 morality of the creature is no better than that of a number of 

 men and women who really make a form of lucrative deceit the 

 work of their lives. KH. 



The Ingratitude of Deceivers. 



The VolucelloB have a strong resemblance to the humble bee. 

 Certain kinds make use and abuse of this resemblance to intro- 

 duce* themselves fraudulently into its nests and to deposit their 

 eggs therein. When these eggs have hatched, the larvae, which 

 have two mandibles, devour the larvae of their hosts the bees. 

 This is the return they make for the hospitality they have 

 received. I. 



The Language of Deep Thought. w 



r* 



Popular ignorance mistakes a bombastic, turbulent, opaque 

 style. It regards it as the emanation of vast depths of thought 

 which are unrevealable. The fact is that such a style can only 

 exist where thought is shallow, and where the products of 

 scholarship have not been assimilated. The style of the deep 

 thinker is clear because he is a deep thinker, and the style of the 

 charlatan is obscure because he is only a charlatan. In deep 

 ocean the water is wondrously transparent. And why ? Because 

 the mineral and organic substances which enter into the com- 



