368 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Und 



ducting our defence in an action of debt, runs us up a bill vastly 

 in excess of the claim, it is obvious we have placed ourselves in 

 the hands of very undesirable protectors. We are more injured 

 than protected. Yet as a fact we are constantly setting a thief 

 to catch a thief, and being ruined by our excessive shrewd- 

 ness. So the inhabitants of St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica, 

 finding themselves greatly inconvenienced by the number of 

 ants in the district, determined to bring to the rescue one kind 

 of ant which they discovered could exterminate them. They 

 accordingly introduced "the rifle ants." They did their work 

 well : ate up all the other ants ; but then they commenced to 

 eat up everything else which came in their way ; and as there 

 was no way by which they themselves could be exterminated, 

 they continued the practice. And in their practice they teach 

 us this lesson : that we cannot be too cautious as to what persons 

 we summon to our aid. For though there are many who may 

 do their work well, they may also be too much for us after- 

 wards. JO. 



Undeveloped Capacities. 



Have you not sometimes come into contact with a strong 

 mind, and felt regret that beauty and grace of disposition were 

 not added to that mental strength ? You have felt that they 

 were by nature intended to be found in association, and though 

 charmed with what there was, you sighed for what ought to 

 have been. There are many men whose natures ripen into per- 

 fect strength, but without ever developing the charms and graces 

 which you know must be indigenous. They are like those 

 plants which Humboldt tells us grow with the greatest vigour 

 in certain localities without ever flowering, though of the 

 flowering kind. And the accidents of circumstance and place 

 account for these facts in the man and plant alike. vi. 



An Undividable Blessing. 



It is scarcely a metaphor to speak of the living ocean ; life is 

 so intimately blended with its substance, is so inherent in its 

 chemical composition. The analyses recorded in books do not 

 furnish a very exact idea of this composition ; they represent 



