Literature Network » Oliver Goldsmith

A tale in its sting. (the desert scorpion)

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From: The Economist (US)
Date: 19880514
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"When a female, big with young, was inclosed in a glass vessel" wrote Oliver Goldsmith in his History of the Earth and Animated Nature' (1774), "she was seen to devour them as fast as they were born; there was but one only of the number that escaped the general destruction, by taking refuge on the back of its parents; and this soon after revenged the cause of its brethren by killing the old one in its turn. Such is the terrible and unrelenting nature of this insect which neither the bonds of society nor of nature can reclaim."

Goldsmith, who is better remembered as a ...

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