Eev] AND SYMBOLS. 305 



The Penalty of Being .Revengeful. 



Small birds have an intense natural antipathy of nocturnal 

 birds of prey. If one of these birds happens to be seen out of 

 its lurking-place during the day, they assail it vigorously, resent 

 its intrusion, and avenge the oppression exercised over them, 

 during the night by combined attacks. This antipathy has 

 been taken advantage of for the purpose of catching birds ever 

 since the days of Aristotle. The catcher imitates, for instance, 

 the voice of an owl about an hour before sunset, when the 

 birds will flock together and perch on the trees or bushes in 

 the suspected neighbourhood. The twigs, &c., having been 

 previously covered with bird-lime, the birds pay their liberty 

 and perhaps life as the penalty of their desire to avenge them- 

 selves on the owl. RE. 



Revivification. 



Among the plants of the desert is the rose of Jericho (Anas- 

 tatica hierochuntica), an annual which contracts itself into a 

 ball and, blown about by the breeze, seems a dead and withered 

 mass of twigs. But plunge it into water and it expands, re- 

 gains the bloom of life, affording a remarkable example of 

 what is called "revivification." The fable respecting it is that 

 the first time it ever bloomed was on the eve of the Nativity, 

 and that its flower remained open until Easter. D. 



The Indeterminateness of Revolutionary Forces. 



Volcanoes will remain for centuries in a state of repose, and 

 then, with little or no warning, become fearfully active. 

 Vesuvius, restless in the early world, was so long quiescent 

 that it was considered extinct, when about sixty years after the 

 Christian era it suddenly renewed its eruptions. Ten years 

 afterwards came that tremendous convulsion which brought 

 upon Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Italian cities of the plain, 

 the awful doom of Sodom and Gomorrah. The revolutionary 

 forces of the world somewhat resemble the volcanic. They are 

 indeterminate. They slumber sometimes for generations ; and 



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