The great swimmers, supplied with formidable mandibles and immense and elastic stomachs, prefer the fortunes of war, the pursuit of living prey, and devour,as the carnivorous devour the herbivorous on land,all the little feeders on débris and plancton.

Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast, And fierce devours it like a mountain beast.

But from a cloud of smoke he breaks to light, And pours his specious miracles to sight; Antiphates his hideous feast devours, Charybdis barks, and Polyphemus roars.

Where I could not avoid them in my narrative of events, I have done so without reference to the revolting details which everybody so hungrily devours.

" "Hear me, some gracious heavenly power, Let lions dire this naked corse devour.

Which he, with all designs of art or power, Doth with unbridled appetite devour: And as all poisons seek the noblest part, Pleasure possesses first the head and heart; Intoxicating both by them, she finds, And burns the sacred temples of our minds.