Soc] AND SYMBOLS. 325 



third associates only with his clan. He cannot endure the 

 neighbourhood of creatures formed like himself, with similar 

 necessities and inclinations, if they differ in even a few imma- 

 terial points. p. H. 



Social Skunks. 



The skunks (Mephitis) inhabit North and South America, and 

 are remarkable for the horrid stench which they diffuse around 

 them when provoked. The effluvium no living creature can 

 endure even at a considerable distance. Even clothing is ren- 

 dered unwearable. Amongst mankind may be found social 

 skunks : individuals who, whenever the least annoyed, make the 

 moral atmosphere so utterly offensive that even robust honesty 

 (however desirous of vindicating itself) is compelled to with- 

 draw. 'So detestable is the effect which these follows produce 

 that a moral fumigation of all that has been near them does 

 not absolutely remove all traces of their rascaldom ; and years 

 after coming into contact with them, a reference to even trivial 

 circumstances which have been tainted by their association 

 will produce nausea. M. 



Inequalities in Social Life. 



The inequalities of society are startling. The social strata is 

 irregular, full of faults and breaks. We cannot account for the 

 singular social position of some men any more than, when we are 

 examining rocks, we can account for the juxtaposition of worthless 

 stone and valuable ore. We find that ores of the useful metals 

 have been sometimes thrown down in a fissure at one time and not 

 at another : the deposit of one ore sometimes repeated, at others 

 not. Thus there may have been a coating of a zinc ore at one 

 time, of copper ore at another, and a covering of tin ore upon 

 these, sometimes separated by other mineral substances, at others 

 in deposits one above the other. Again we find in the succes- 

 sive dislocations which are sometimes seen to have effected the 

 lines of fissures, that while the lines of least resistance to the 

 applied force have been chiefly through the contents of the original 

 fissure, occasionally a new fissure has been made through portions 



