Ene] AND SYMBOLS. 101 



of phosphorus, when inflamed and placed in oxygen, burns 

 with a dazzling light. It is therefore obvious that successful 

 burning depends upon a suitable atmosphere. "We may say 

 just the same of successful oratory it depends upon suitable 

 pervading influences. If the best orator in the world is placed 

 in an uncongenial moral atmosphere he cannot glow with proper 

 brightness. But if he be placed where his sympathies are fired 

 by the enthusiasm of his audience, his eloquence is kindled and 

 he shines with a glorious lustre. It has been said paradoxically 

 that "eloquence is in the audience." The fact is that the 

 audience supply the moral oxygen which enables the orator to 

 display its brilliancy. E. c. 



Power of Small Enemies. 



Sometimes most gloomy fears are entertained for the noble 

 oak and pine forests of Germany. It is stated that millions of 

 fine trees have already fallen under the insidious attacks of a 

 beetle, a species of extreme minuteness, which lays its eggs in 

 the bark, whence the larvse penetrate between the bark and the 

 wood, and destroy the vital connection between these parts, 

 interrupting the course of the descending sap, and inducing 

 rapid decay and speedy death. In the north of France the 

 public promenades are almost everywhere shaded by avenues 

 of noble elms. In very many cases these trees are fast 

 disappearing before the assaults of a similar foe. And the 

 grand old elms of our own metropolitan parks and gardens are 

 becoming so thinned that great alarm has been felt, and the 

 resources of science employed for the checking of the mischief. 

 Fifty thousand trees, chiefly oaks, have also been destroyed in 

 the Bois de Yincennes, near Paris. In all these cases the 

 minute but mighty agent has been some species or other of the 

 genus Scolytus. This is an illustration of the singular power 

 for mischief often possessed by small enemies whose capacity 

 seems but is not despicable. RO. 



The Power and Method of Small Enemies. 



Very often the little cares of life break down the constitution 

 which successfully dared great dangers and defied vast dim- 



