THE OYSTER AND THE DOCTOR. 327 



its shell when a sufficiency of food has been brought to it 

 by the waters. Lucian ridiculed the philosophers who, 

 according to his satire, spent their lives in inquiring into 

 the souls of oysters. But the mere gourmand, whether he 

 be so notoriously or secretly, overlooks his soul, and treats 

 his body as if that were the man. And can mind the 

 soul be disregarded with impunity ? 



" Sure He that made us \vith such large discourse, 

 Looking before and after, gave us not 

 That capability and godlike reason 

 To rust in us unused." 



" All things," says Coleridge, " strive to ascend, and 

 ascend in their striving. And shall man alone stoop ? 

 Shall his pursuits and desires, the reflections of his inward 

 life, be like the reflected image of a tree on the edge of a 

 pool, that grows downwards and seeks a mock heaven in 

 the unstable element beneath it, in neighbourhood with 

 the slimy water-weeds and oozy bottom grass that are yet 

 better than itself, and more noble, in as far as substances 

 that appear as shadows are preferable to shadows mis- 

 taken for substances." "No!" Reason exclaims; "it 

 must not be." 



To assume that it may is even to degrade human 

 existence below the level humble as it is of an oyster's 

 life. The oyster scorn it who will yes, the oyster, 

 whether it perishes on its native beach, or lives on the bed 

 to which it is transferred to gratify the human palate 

 perfectly answers the purpose of its being. In no respect 

 does it fail of the end contemplated by Him who called it 

 into life, and who " openeth his hand, and satisfieth the 

 desire of every living thing." Let, then, each one ponder 

 the question : " Do I answer the purpose for which I was 



