A gentleman in Paris desired to buy a ring, and, as he tried
on several rings in the jeweler’s store, he noticed one that
was set with tiny eagle’s claws. The next day his hand began to
swell. The doctor told him that he was poisoned, and on inquiry
he found that the old ring came from Italy, and was once used
for poisoning an enemy. For four centuries that particle of
poison had remained between the eagle’s claws.
Watch the rings of pleasure which the world offers, there are within
them the eagle’s claws with the poison. Those pleasures may sparkle
with fascination and seem greatly desirable, but they mean death in the
end. The poison is subtle; the claws are concealed; but at last poison
and claws do their fatal work.
(2393)
=Pledge=--See LOYALTY.