Yen] AND SYMBOLS. 3?3 



lest we convey an erroneous impression. In our loose use of words 

 we call many things valuable which are altogether valueless, and 

 which, if a crucial moral test, instead of a conventional one, 

 were applied, would be pronounced injurious. PR. 



Venal Politicians. 



The hydra a genus of polype possesses some points of 

 resemblance to the venal politician. The digestion of the 

 hydra is so peculiar that not only can it absorb creatures of a 

 far higher organisation than itself, but it may actually be turned 

 inside out without any derangement of its functions. The old 

 inner surface in that case acts the part of a skin, whilst that which 

 was the outer skin adapts itself without difficulty to the perform- 

 ance of the work of digestion. The venal politician possesses the 

 power to destroy higher reputations than his own, and to turn 

 them to his own advantage. He, too, can shift his principles in- 

 side out. The Whig surface takes the place of the Tory surface 

 when he so pleases ; and he enjoys the capacity for appropriating 

 political concerns to his own advantage whatever specious sur- 

 face he may exhibit for the time being to the outside world. 



N. H. 



The Venomous Disposition. 



There are plants which may be said to distil venom of their 

 own accord. The manchineel-tree, for example (by no means 

 uncommon in the West India Islands), affords a milky fluid, 

 which blisters the skin as if it were burnt with a hot iron ; and 

 indeed so dangerous has the vegetable been accbunted, that if a 

 traveller should sleep under its shade it was once popularly 

 believed he would never wake again. The venomous disposition 

 of these plants has its representative in the human family. 

 There are persons to be met with who are so spiteful as to cause 

 pain the moment you come into contact with them. Their lips 

 distil malice, and it seems the object of their life to inflict 

 malignant wounds. If you trust them, your happiness will 

 sleep the sleep of death. PO. 



