386 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Vic 



Vice Giving 1 Warning- of its Approach. 



There are evils which, give warning of their coming. 

 Drunkenness does not seize upon a man suddenly. It gives 

 warnings often and many. Avarice, and a number of other 

 vices, can be detected long before we are within their reach. 

 There are infallible indications by which we may be warned. 

 The approach of vice is like the approach of the rattlesnake. 

 This horrible reptile, one of the most venomous of serpents, 

 warns man involuntarily against its formidable presence. At 

 the end of its tail there is placed a rattle, which consists of a 

 string of hollow, dry, and semi-transparent bones, which con- 

 stantly datter against each other as the reptile moves, with a 

 hoarse, dull, echoing sound. The bony rings increase in number 

 with the reptile's age, and it gains an additional one, it is said, 

 at each casting of the skin. The warning which it is thus 

 compelled to give of its approach enables those who hear to 

 escape an awful death. Happy are those men whose ears are 

 open to the warnings which social monsters, far more horrid 

 than even the rattlesnake, in like manner invariably give of 

 their presence and movements, and, profiting thereby, manage 

 to escape ! D. 



An Allegory of Virtue Triumphing over Vice. 



St. George triumphing over the dragon is not prettier in con- 

 ception than the secretary-bird vanquishing the snake is in fact. 

 The latter incident makes a good allegory of virtue triumphing 

 over vice. The reptile, when attacked by the secretary-bird, 

 suddenly stops and rears itself up, swelling its neck, and showing 

 anger by shrill hissing. At this instant, says Levaillant, the 

 bird of prey, spreading one of his wings, holds it in front of him, 

 and covers both his legs as well as the lower part of his body 

 with it as if with a buckler. The reptile makes a spring at his 

 enemy ; the bird makes a bound, and spurning the serpent with 

 his wing, retreats again, jumping about in every direction in a 

 mode which, to a spectator, appears highly grotesque. He soon 

 returns to the combat, ever presenting to the venomous teeth of 

 his adversary nothing but the end of his well- protected wing. 



05 



