SEA-ANEMONES : THEIR WEAPONS. 355 



CHAPTER XIX. 



SEA-ANEMONES : THEIR WEAPONS. 



A very vast amount of the energy of animal life is spent 

 either in making war, or in resisting or evading it. 

 Offence and defence are sciences which the inferior 

 creatures can in nowise neglect, since all are interested 

 in one or other, and many in both ; and various are the 

 arts and devices, the tricks and stratagems, the instincts 

 and faculties, employed in that earnest strife which 

 never knows a suspension of hostilities. All classes of 

 animals, invertebrate as well as vertebrate, are warriors 

 by profession : the Spider is as carnivorous as the Lion, 

 and more strategic ; and the invisible Brachion is as 

 ruthless and insatiable as either. 



An enumeration and description of the different kinds 

 of weapons, by means of which this truceless warfare is 

 carried on, would make a volume : nor would the subject 

 be then exhausted; for, since it enters so largely into the 

 very existence of animal life, the discoveries of advancing 

 science are ever bringing to light new forms and modifica- 

 tions, strange and unexpected contrivances, all calculated 

 to enhance our view of the inexhaustible resources of the 

 Lord God Omnipotent, " Who is wonderful in counsel, 

 and excellent in working." 



I am going to bring under your notice this evening 

 some highly curious examples of animal weapons, of which 

 the very existence was until lately altogether unsus- 

 pected : yet so profusely distributed that they are 

 eminently characteristic of the animals we have been 



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