If destructive moral evils were shown in their real hideousness, no one
would be drawn toward them! Vernon L. Kellogg describes the disguise of
a certain insect:
The whole front of his [a water insect’s] face was smooth and
covered over by a sort of mask, so that his terrible jaws and
catching nippers were invisible. However, we soon understood
this. The mask was the folded-up “catcher,” so disposed that it
served, when not in use, actually to hide its own iniquity as
well as that of the yawning mouth behind. Only when some small
insect, all unsuspecting this smooth masked face, comes close,
do the long tongs unfold, shoot out, and reveal the waiting jaws
and thirsty throat. A veritable dragon, indeed; sly and cruel
and ever hungry for living prey. (Text.)--“Insect Stories.”
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