ZOOPHYTES FODND ON THE COAST OF BANFFSHIRE. 233 



at least an inherent, principle or propensity in man, ever to be dissatisfied, 

 and always longing for something or other which he has not. The poor 

 wish to be rich ; the wealthy pant for more ; the honoured desires more 

 homage, and the exalted yearns to be still higher. But, Reader, these are 

 not my wishes. They are these, — and I think I have hinted something of 

 the kind to you before : To possess the wings of a seraph, with the speed of 

 thought ; the eye of the eagle by day, and the vision of the owl by night ; 

 never to grow weary or tired, so as neither to require slumber nor rest ; the 

 properties of the mole; the qualities of a fish; the acquirements of the 

 scholar, and the talents of an author, combined with the gifts of an orator. 

 Then, Reader, then, — if all these gifts were mine, — I would give you, and not 

 only you, but the world at large, something worthy of your perusal, some- 

 thing worthy of fair Nature's self; instead of the vulgar and almost unmean- 

 ing scraps which I now pen. I would first soar far, far away, beyond this 

 almost imperceptible speck in Nature's map, and traversing the boundless 

 immensity of space, would willingly scale yon azure vault, where worlds on 

 worlds innumerable roll. And having surveyed them all, and scanned them 

 well, and having visited the workshop of Creation, I would again return, full 

 of the mighty and wondrous things which I had beheld ; and which, as we 

 may well judge from what we see and know here below, exhibit the glory, 

 the goodness, and the power of the universal Architect and incomprehen- 

 sible Author of all, — the God of Nature. 



I would then traverse the earth from pole to pole, and from zone to zone. 

 I would also descend into its bowels, and having searched for and procured 

 its mysterious and hidden treasures, — things curious, things old, things 

 lovely and wonderful, — strange relics of periods long since gone by, and of 

 which we know but little, and that little all but conjecture ; thus loaded 

 with the spoils of former times, and ages long anterior to the creation of 

 man, I would again come forth. Then would I go down to the ever fruitful 

 and teeming channels of the mighty deep, to search out the numberless and 

 inconceivably curious creatures which inhabit that vast and watery abyss. 

 There would I bask among the inviting groves of Zoophytes, and roam 

 through the forests of Algae ; I would leap among the coralline rocks ; would 

 carefully scan the shelly caverns ; would tread the slimy path ; creep around 

 and over the sandy hillocks ; descend to the valleys, among the bleached 

 skeletons of those who have been engulphed by the angry waves, and who 

 there sleep the watery slumber of an ocean death. I would climb the rocky 

 precipice, and the briny mountains ; sport in mid water with the finny tribes, 

 and commune wdth those that love to dwell in old Ocean's darker chambers 

 and hidden recesses. 



All this done, then would I pass from town to town, and from city to city, 

 proclaiming that which I had seen of the marvellous wonders of the uni- 

 verse, in a voice that should be heard far above the terrific blast of the war 



