Spider occurs in; . In the first of these passages, the reference seems clear to the spider's web, or literally, house, whose fragility is alluded to as a fit representation of the hope of a profane, ungodly, or profligate person; for so the original word really means, and not 'hypocrite,' as in our version. The object of such a person's trust or confidence, who is always really in imminent danger of ruin, may be compared for its uncertainty to the spider's web. 'He shall lean upon his house (i.e. to keep it steady when it is shaken); he shall hold it fast (i.e. when it is about to be destroyed); nevertheless it shall not endure (). In the second passage () it is said, 'The wicked weave the spider's web' (literally, 'thin threads'); but it is added, 'their thin threads shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works;' that is, their artifices shall neither succeed, nor conceal themselves, as does the spider's web. This allusion intimates no antipathy to the spider itself, or to its habits when directed towards its own purposes; but simply to the adoption of those habits by man towards his fellow-creatures. There has long been a popular prejudice against spiders, and the poet Thomson has stigmatized them as
'Cunning and fierce—
but these epithets are in reality as unjustly applied to them (at least with reference to the mode by which they procure necessary subsistence), as to the patient sportsman, who lays snares for the birds that are to serve for the dinner of his family: while it can be further pleaded in behalf of spiders, that they are actively serviceable to the human race, in checking the superfecundity of other insects, and afford in their various procedures the most astonishing displays of that Supreme Intelligence by which they are directed.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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