Inc] AND SYMBOLS. 161 



Distinct and Faint Impressions. 



The organs of perception are like wax, and outward events 

 are the seals which are stamping impressions. If the organs or 

 faculties of perception, like wax overhardened with cold, will 

 not receive the impressions of the seal from the usual impulse 

 wont to imprint it, or like wax of a temper too soft, will not 

 hold it well when well imprinted, or else supposing the wax of 

 a temper fit but the seal not applied with a sufficient force to 

 make a clear impression in any of these cases the print left 

 by the seal will be obscure. LO. 



Impudence Balked by Stupidity. 



The jackal is most impudent ; but its impudence would be 

 more profitable were it not checked by stupidity. It sometimes 

 happens that a jackal steals silently into an out-house to seize 

 the poultry or devour the furniture, but hearing others in full 

 cry at a distance, without thought it instantly answers the call, 

 and thus betrays its own depredations. The peasants sally out 

 upon it, and the impudent animal finds, too late, that some- 

 thing more than impudence is requisite to success. Many men 

 and boys have had to learn the same lesson. If impudence 

 could ensure the triumph of their plans, all would be well with 

 them ; but it often happens that Nature, by way of counter- 

 poise to their impudence, has weighed them with stupidity. 

 Society is thereby protected from some of their rascality. A. 



Incongruous Advantages. 



There is a peculiarity attending the constitution of the great 

 water-beetle (ditiscus marginalis) which marks it as a creature 

 specially endowed for the station in which it is placed. Multi- 

 tudes of insects exist in the larva state for a certain space of 

 time in water ; and having accomplished a given period in this 

 state, perfecting their forms, they take wing, and become aerial 

 creatures, after which a return to the element whence they sprang 

 would be death to them. But this beetle, when it has passed 

 from the larva state and obtained its wings, still lives in water, 



L 



