Fanciful Ideas for a Museum of Shells. ^5 



exceedingly delighted me. They were neither strewed upon 

 tables, labelled in glass cases, nor arranged in the drawers of 

 a cabinet ; but so disposed as to form statues of men and 

 women, some of them as large as life. But as the ancient 

 feast (I think it was Philopoemen's), notwithstanding the great 

 variety of dishes it contained, was still nothing but hog ; so 

 these, notwithstanding the variety of forms in which they 

 aippeared, were all the while nothing more than Dutch. 



I would have mine a gallery applicable to all men, since I 

 would have these characters familiar to them all. The elo- 

 quent man of genius should be formed from shells of the Ph6_ 

 las [pholed, to seek a hiding place ; habitat) kind {fgi 4}, a a wj^ 

 b 4 



c, Cy\)rcB^a arabica. h, Cypr<^'^a Aurbra. 



dj'Volilta milsica, ^, uliama glgas. 



e, >V^olilta h&rpa. 



since we are told that that little animal, with its tongue alone, 

 is found to penetrate even into the hearts of rocks themselves; 

 it is found also to contain an illuminating property that dark- 

 ness cannot resist : and are not these characteristic of true 

 eloquence and true genius ? Perhaps to form such a charac- 

 ter I might be found borrowing also from the Helix {Jieileo^ 

 to twist round ; shell spiral, or with circumvolutions of the 

 whorls) tribe {fg. 4. h) ; for, notwithstanding all that the hor- 

 ticulturist may advance to his disadvantage, I confess that I, 

 who am little of a botanist, can never see a snail in my path 

 without feeling for him sentiments of more than ordinary 

 respect and consideration. When I behold his telescopic 

 eye, I always think of a man of science ; and when I see the 

 dignity with which he supports the whole weight of a house 

 of which he is himself the architect, T cannot, in my own mind. 



