The same power is possessed by the Griffon vulture or "eagle" of Holy Scripture. "_Her eyes behold afar off_." A dozen eagles may be soaring upwards in the sunlight, until they become mere specks against the blue of heaven, but they are carefully watching each other in their wheeling circles, and diligently scanning the desert below in the hope of discovering some prey. The moment the object is sighted, and even one bird has made a swoop downwards, the movement is detected by the one nearest, which immediately follows; while the second is followed by a third, and the third by a fourth, until in a few minutes, "wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Their vast power of wing and acuteness of sight have led them to the prey. And the lesson is not far to seek. In the Carlyle use of the word it emphasises the need of being able to _see_. "To the poet, as to every other, we say first of all, _see_. If you cannot do that, it is of no use stringing rhymes together and calling yourself a poet, there is no hope for you." And in religion it is the pure in heart that see God. If the inner eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. The aged _seer_ on Patmos saw into the heaven of heavens. Like Paul, he heard words not lawful to be uttered; and thus in the symbolism of the Christian Church, he is known as the New Testament _eagle_. He was the one who "saw more and heard more, but spake less than all the other disciples." But all the saints of God may soar and _see_ in some measure as he did— "On eagles’ wings, they mount, they soar, Their wings are faith and love, Till past the cloudy regions here They rise to heaven above." III.—THE EAGLE AND HER YOUNG. "Her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she" (ver. 30). The eagle is one of the most rapacious of birds, and her terrible instincts are transmitted to her young, which "_suck up blood_." This is heredity in its most awful form, and is well fitted to shadow forth the grim heritage of woe which is handed down to _their_ children by the drunkard, the libertine, and the thief. But in any form the thought is a solemn one, forcing even the Psalmist to wail, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The fountain of the life is polluted, as well as the streams—"Her young ones also suck up blood."