Vol] AND SYMBOLS. 391 



are yet near enough to contribute to the happiness and safety 

 of mankind. During the sun's absence they bestow an illumina- 

 tion which, though feeble, is highly useful. "When the moon 

 has forsaken the long polar night, they cast a dim twilight over 

 the snow. In the deserts of the East, stars have served to 

 guide the traveller since those ancient days when astronomy 

 began to be cultivated on the plains of Chaldea. The pilots of 

 antiquity learned to steer by the stars before the loadstone was 

 discovered ; and in these days of science, sun, moon, and stars 

 may be said to cover the firmament with lamps and sign-posts. 

 Familiarity with the fact has long dulled within us the feeling 

 of surprise, still it is a wonderful thing to think that in the most 

 lonely spots of the trackless ocean the position of a ship can be 

 told with accuracy by questioning the aspects of the heavenly 

 bodies. Silently, too, they tell us of distances, magnitudes, and 

 velocities, which transcend our power to conceive. With mute 

 argument stars prove to us that in those far-off regions gravita- 

 tion the power that brings the apple to the ground still 

 reigns supreme, and with winning whispers of probability they 

 persuade us that, like our own bountiful sun, they also bathe 

 attendant worlds in floods of brightest light, deck them in 

 colours of beauty, and shower countless blessings on myriads of 

 beings. BE. 



The Destiny of the Voluptuous. 



Destiny deals with voluptuaries as the Dionaea muscipula of 

 South America deals with the flies. The leaves of this plant, 

 which are spread out on the soil near the roots, are composed of 

 two parts the one elongated, which may be considered as a 

 sort of petiole, the other larger and broader, and nearly circular, 

 formed like two trap-nets, which are united at the base by a 

 nervure, fashioned like a hinge, and furnished round the edge 

 with rough hairy cells. In the upper surface these plates are 

 furnished with certain small glands, whence exudes a viscous 

 liquid which attracts the insects. If a fly lights on this singular 

 apparatus, the trap raises itself quickly by means of its long 

 hinge. They approach and it closes, rapidly crossing its long 

 cilia, and the insect is a prisoner. The efforts of the fly to 



