A gentleman in India went into his library and took down a book
from the shelves. As he did so he felt a slight pain in his
finger like the prick of a pin. He thought that a pin had been
stuck by some careless person in the cover of the book. But soon
his finger began to swell, then his arm, and then his whole
body, and in a few days he died. It was not a pin among the
books, but a small and deadly serpent.
There are many books that contain moral poison more deadly to character
than this serpent. (Text.)
(273)