Inj] AND SYMBOLS. 169 



Unconscious Injurers. 



The little boring wood-beetle attacks books, and will even 

 bore through several volumes. An instance is mentioned of 

 twenty-seven folio volumes being perforated in a straight line 

 by one and the same insect, in such a manner that by passing 

 a cord through the perfect round hole made by it the twenty- 

 seven volumes could be raised at once. It also destroys prints 

 and drawings, whether framed or kept in a portfolio. These 

 poor insects have no conception of the value of the things they 

 may destroy. Any common trash of closely packed paper would 

 suit them just as well ; but in their ignorance they are destroyers 

 of that which is of value to the world. They have their imitators 

 amongst humanity. There are dull men on societies who nibble 

 away in their petty line of action until the programme of the 

 entire institution is defaced. There are others in churches and 

 chapels, who, boasting that they " will go straight," bore their 

 petty lines of attack even through the most beautiful of spiritual 

 designs. There are women in households whose narrow spirit 

 blemishes the entire glory of home. All of these creatures belong 

 to the class of beings who in asserting their own rights destroy 

 that which is valuable without even knowing that they are so 

 doing. L o. 



The Propagation of Posthumous Injuries. 



The alligator lays her eggs in some secluded place in the sand, 

 on the banks of a river ; or else in some places, such as the 

 neighbourhood of Cayenne and Surinam, she buries them under 

 a kind of mound raised .by the collection of damp leaves and 

 herbaceous stems. She departs altogether, and then, without any 

 further assistance from her, the eggs get hatched ; in the first 

 case by the solar rays, and in the other by fermentation and the 

 increase of temperature. It does not matter if the parent dies. 

 The infant alligator is sure to be hatched. In the archives of 

 solicitor's offices we have found that the mind of man often 

 propagates its ideas upon a similar general principle. They 

 look harmless, are wrapped up in inoffensive form, and put out 

 of sight for a time. But, as in the case of a will, the day conies 



