deadly attractiveness. Not only the curiosity of the little deep-sea fishes, but their appetite is appealed to by the worm-like objects close to or in relief against the phosphorescent bulb of the anglers."
(759)
DEVICES, FATAL
It is easy to go into evil by the trap-*door of temptation; it is not so easy to retrace the steps.
The bladderwort is a water-plant and
catches much of its food. Underneath the
surface of the water in which the plant
floats are a number of lax, leafy branches
spread out in all directions, and attached to
these are large numbers of little flattened
sacks or bladders, sometimes one-sixth of
an inch long. The small end of each little
bladder is surrounded by a cluster of bristles,
forming a sort of hollow funnel leading
into the mouth below, and this is covered
inside by a perfect little trap-door, which
fits closely, but opens with the least pressure
from without. A little worm or insect, or
even a very small fish, can pass within, but
never back again. The sack acts like an eel-trap
or a catch-'em-alive mouse-trap. These
little sacks actually allure very small animals
by displaying glandular hairs about the entrance.
The small animals are imprisoned
and soon perish and decay to nourish the
wicked plant. (Text.)—Prof. W. J. Beal,
The Popular Science Monthly.
(760)
Devil, A Prayer to the—See Children's Religious Ideas.
Devil's Slide—See Evil, Beginnings of.
DEVIL, THE, CHOSEN
The course of some men makes it seem as if they had chosen the devil with more purpose than did this lawyer:
St. Evona, or Ives, of Brittany, a famous
lawyer in 1300, was lamenting that his profession
had not a patron saint to look up to.
The physicians had St. Luke; the champions
had St. George; the artists each had one;
but the lawyers had none. Thinking that the
Pope ought to bestow a saint, he went to
Rome, and requested his Holiness to give the
lawyers of Brittany a patron. The Pope,
rather puzzled, proposed to St. Evona that
he should go round the church of St. John
de Lateran blindfold, and after he had said
so many Ave Marias, the first saint he laid
hold of should be his patron; and this solution
of the difficulty the good old lawyer
willingly undertook. When he had finished
his Ave Marias, he stopt short, and laid his
hands on the first image he came to, and
cried out with joy, "This is our saint—this
be our patron." But when the bandage was
taken from his eyes, what was his astonishment
to find that, tho he had stopt at St.
Michael's altar, he had all the while laid hold,
not of St. Michael, but of the figure under
St. Michael's feet—the devil! (Text.)—Croake
James, "Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers."
(761)
Devolution—See Down Grade, The.
Devotion to a Leader—See Kindness
Stimulating Devotion.
Devotion to Christ—See Christ's Face.
Devotion to Duty—See Faithfulness;
Life; A Devoted.
Devotion to Science—See Science, Devotion
to.
DEVOTION TO THE HELPLESS
In a newspaper account of a ship-*wreck, a touching incident is thus described by a survivor:
There was one incident which came particularly
to my notice—the devotion of a
woman to her blind husband. With her arm
linked in his, she sought the rail of the
Florida to be transferred to the Baltic.
An officer grabbed the man and hurled him to the rear. "Women and children only in these boats," he yelled, as the man tumbled backward. The wife ran to her husband's side and, again taking his arm, she appealed to the officer.
"He is blind! Can't you see he is helpless?" she said. "I have never left him. If he can not go in the boat with me, I will stay here until this ship sinks under me."
The unwritten law of the sea was waived before this plea, and that lone man, sightless and helpless, was permitted to accompany his wife, who would not leave the Florida until her husband was permitted to go with her.
(762)
Dew, The Existence of the—See Separation.
DIABOLICAL POSSESSION
An old man, nearly octogenarian, who has
been in bed for twenty-seven years, being a
harmless monomaniac, having the delusion
