162 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Inc 



and never uses them except in the case of having to leave one 

 pool for another. It would, therefore, on a superficial view appear 

 to enjoy superfluous advantanges, which are incongruous with its 

 position. In this it resembles a large number of persons in the 

 middle and upper circles of human society. We see many of 

 them raised from lower states and endowed with the wings of 

 wealth, prestige, and honour which should enable them to rise 

 into the azure realms of benevolence and good taste ; yet they 

 never ascend to their possibilities. These advantages are super- 

 fluous and incongruous endowments, and in spite of them they 

 remain in their old world of coarseness, sensuality, and selfish- 

 ness. Libertine Jockey develops into an earl, yet his coronet 

 cannot alter his tastes for the slums ; Rhahab Wanton changes 

 into a duchess, but her instincts direct her to the old ways 

 and haunts. J. 



Incongruous Combinations. 



Mr. Darwin found near Buenos Ayres a shallow lake of brine, 

 which in summer is converted into a field of snow-white ^alt. 

 The border of the lake, like others of the sort in Siberia, is a 

 fetid black mud, in which are imbedded large crystals of gypsum 

 three inches long, and of sulphate of soda. "The mud in 

 many places was thrown up by numbers of some kind of worm. 

 How surprising is it that any creatures should be able to exist 

 in brine, and that they should be crawling among crystals ! " 

 Truly this is an incongruous spectacle ! Yet human society 

 presents views which are equally incongruent. Men who are 

 in goodness and intelligence the very " salt of the earth," are 

 often hemmed in in their narrow grooves of action by that which 

 is morally putrescent. A ring of loathsome law and customs 

 has often surrounded and enclosed saints and martyrs. In the 

 midst of society's basest pollution we often catch a ray of moral 

 goodness, and discover that, like the crystal glittering in the 

 black mud, there are some better elements than first appearances 

 suggested. The presence of worms crawling among pure salt 

 and beautiful crystals is not more unbecoming than the sight 

 of rascals wearing coronets, rogues assuming the ermine, and 

 tyrants wearing crowns. N. v. 



