3io SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [See 



charges him on that ground, as he says. Whereas it will often 

 be found that the charge against the man was one of which the 

 law could take no cognizance, or else which the magistrate felt 

 himself unable to grapple with. He gets great credit for his 

 clemency. His manoeuvre, however, reminds those who see 

 through it of the spider's tricks. We well know that the 

 moment an ill-starred fly or other insect comes in contact with 

 the net of the spider, it is sprung upon with the rapidity of 

 lightning, and if the captured insect be of small size the spider 

 conveys it at once to the place of slaughter, and having at its 

 leisure sucked all its juice, throws out the carcass. If the 

 insect be somewhat larger and struggles to escape, the spider 

 envelops its prey in a mesh of thread passed round its body in 

 various directions, and its wings and legs thus effectually secured, 

 it is conveyed to the den and devoured. But when a bee or 

 large fly, too powerful to be mastered by the spider, happens to 

 get entangled in its toils, then the wary animal, conscious of its 

 incapacity to contend against such fearful odds, makes no at- 

 tempt either to seize or embarrass the victim. On the contrary, 

 it assists the entangled captive in its efforts to free itself, and 

 often goes so far as to break off that part of the web from which 

 it may be suspended. This act has upon it the colour of seem- 

 ing generosity, but in reality it is nothing more than the 

 performance of selfish cunning. The tyrant, feeling himself 

 incapable of doing an injury, determines to have no molestation. 

 To obtain this end he performs an act of manumission. In 

 this policy he is not only like the magistrate, but he is also very 

 like the man who gets great credit for generosity in giving, but 

 who gives not out of the fulness of a warm heart, but because 

 he desires to avoid the inconveniences to himself, which he 

 knows will attend any other policy than that of seeming gene- 

 rosity. The applicant is to him just a great awkward intrusion 

 into the web of circumstance ; if he does not attend to it there 

 will be some embarrassment. In his position it is prudent to 

 attend to it. Therefore he does. This is his generosity. 

 Nothing more. p. 



