354 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Tra 



as it were, elevated while in a state of repose; they open their 

 mouth so wide that the two jaws form an obtuse angle ; they 

 erect their fangs, the body uncoils like a loosened spring ; and 

 the serpent, aiding the sudden assault by resting upon its tail, 

 darts at a single bound upon its victim, to inflict the fatal 

 wound. The act is the work of an instant; the head, by the 

 sudden and violent contraction of its flexor muscles, executes 

 with the rapidity of lightning a movement by which it plunges 

 its fangs deep into the flesh of its prey. Such are movements 

 which resemble those of "that old serpent the devil." MU. 



A Moral Transformation. 



There are marvellous transformations in the material as also 

 in the moral world, Look in the material world. The full- 

 fed maggot, that has rioted in filth till its tender skin seems 

 ready to burst with repletion, when the appointed time arrives 

 leaves the offensive matters it was ordained to assist in removing, 

 and gets into some convenient hole or crevice ; then ifys body 

 contracts or shortens, and becomes egg-shaped, while the skin 

 hardens, and turns brown and dry, so that, under this form, the 

 creature appears more like a seed than a living animal ; after 

 some time passed in this inactive and equivocal form, during 

 which wonderful changes have taken place within the seed-like 

 shell, one end of the shell is burst off, and from the inside 

 comes forth a buzzing fly, that drops its former filthy habits 

 with its cast-off dress, and now, with a more refined taste, seeks 

 only to lap the solid viands of our tables, or sip the liquid 

 contents of our cups. Look again into the moral world. There 

 you see a transformation as wonderful. The selfish debauchee, 

 whose horrid taste has grubbed in every sort of immoral filth, 

 and become habituated to the harsh, the cruel, and the dis- 

 honourable, has been brought into contact with the necessary 

 spiritual conditions for a change, and behold from one stage to 

 another he passes until at last his tastes are entirely altered, his 

 existence is changed, and even he is able to soar in the light ami 

 purity of the world. Elsewhere, behold, the miser is transformed 

 to the philanthropist, the coward into a hero. We watch the 

 fly's serial circlings in the sunbeam, and remember with wonder 



