Ric] AND SYMBOLS. 307 



from behind by as many more. Rats and mice speedily suc- 

 cumb to the onslaught of their myriad foes, and the snakes 

 and lizards fare no better. In a wonderfully short time the 

 foraging ants have completed their work, the scene of turmoil 

 gradually ceases, the scattered parties again form into line, and 

 the procession moves out of the house, carrying its spoils in 

 triumph. When the inhabitants return to the house they find 

 every intruder gone. The foraging ants are by no means 

 pleasant creatures, but in this case they do very useful work. It 

 is analogous to that which, when political rascalities have be- 

 come unbearable, has to be done for mankind by revolutionaries. 

 Revolutionaries are not the most select people on earth any 

 more than foraging ants are the most pleasant insects; but 

 when Nature decides upon a thorough extermination of any- 

 thing, she selects, not the daintiest, but the most capable 

 instruments for the case in hand. She takes care to have the 

 work thoroughly well done. H. 



The Cost of Getting Rich. 



The condor of the Andes possesses the habits and voracity of 

 other vultures, has the loftiest flight of all the winged race, 

 enormous strength, and great audacity. He frequently pounces 

 upon living animals, but his non-retractile talons, blunted by 

 their attrition on the rocks, do not permit him to carry off his 

 prey ; he contents himself with fixing it against the ground with 

 one of his claws, while he rends it to pieces with his powerful 

 beak. Gorged with food, he becomes incapable of flight, and 

 you may then capture him. And does not this resemble the 

 career of many a vulgar wealthy man? His brilliant daring 

 and rapid upward rising into the light have excited admiration 

 and stimulated high hopes. Soon, however, you discover that 

 he ascended so high only because it made more certain his 

 intended grasp of the low earthly object on which his greed was 

 set. Behold, the climax of the brilliant career after all is the 

 coarse, vulgar, greedy snob, abandoning himself to gluttony and 

 abominable self-gratification, deprived by his own lust alone of 

 every power which enabled him once to rise. D. 



