The lower grades of animal life know no other law than the instinct which prompts them to devour the types which are lower still.  This destruction of the weaker by the stronger pervades the whole brute creation; it is a life of violence throughout.  On the other hand, all weaker creatures, exposed to such ravages, protect themselves universally by deception.  The grouse shields her young from hawks or other carnivora by running in the opposite direction, with the assumed appearance of a broken wing.  The flat fish, to escape its mortal enemies, lies upon the bottom of the stream, scarcely distinguishable in color or appearance from the sand which constitutes its bed.  Nature seems to aid and abet its falsehood by the very form which has been assigned to it.  And so also the gift of transparency helps the chameleon in seeming to be a part of the green plant, or the brown bark, upon which it lies.  And Professor Drummond, in his interesting account of his African travels, describes certain insects which render themselves indistinguishable either in color or in form from the branchings and exfoliation of certain grasses upon which they feed.  Deception therefore becomes a chief resource of the weak, while violence is that of the strong.  And those which are in the middle of the scale practise both.  There are still other animals which are invested with attributes of all that is meanest and most contemptible in character.  The sly and insinuating snake gliding noiselessly toward the victim of its envenomed sting—­the spider which spreads forth its beautiful and alluring net, sparkling with morning dew, while it lurks in a secret corner, ready to fall upon its luckless prey—­the sneaking and repulsive hyena, too cowardly to attack the strong and vigorous, but waiting for the crippled, the helpless, the sick, and dying—­if all these are in the school of preparation for that noble stage of manhood when truth and righteousness shall be its crown of glory, then, where is the turning-point?  Where do violence, meanness, and deception gradually beam forth into benevolence and truth?

   “The spider kills the fly.  The wiser sphinx
    Stings the poor spider in the centre nerve,
    Which paralyzes only; lays her eggs,
    And buries with them with a loving care
    The spider, powerless but still alive,
    To warm them unto life, and afterward
    To serve as food among the little ones. 
    This is the lesson nature has to teach,
    ‘Woe to the conquered, victory to the strong.’ 
    And so through all the ages, step by step,
    The stronger and the craftier replaced
    The weaker, and increased and multiplied. 
    And in the end the outcome of the strife
    Was man, who had dominion over all,
    And preyed on all things, and the stronger man
    Trampled his weaker brother under foot.”