HABITATIONS OF MEN AND MOLLUSCS. 33 



a drop of water. In flat districts a town looks impos- 

 ing ; even a single house raises its head with haughti- 

 ness. There is nothing around to rival it in height ; 

 and from it we may fondly imagine earth our pedestal. 

 But our thoughts are otherwise when we see the house 

 lost on the broad side of a noble hill ; and still more 

 when, from a little distance, we see a number of houses 

 clustered on the side, clinging to it like so many Bar- 

 nacles clinmno' to a rock ; we then begin to think of 

 our family resemblance to all other building, burrow- 

 ing, house-appropriating animals. In vain does our 

 pride rebel at the thought of consanguinity with a mol- 

 lusc ; the difference between Brown, with the house he 

 built, and Buccinum, with the shell he secreted, lies in 

 the number of steps or phenomena interposed between 

 the fact of individual existence and the completion of 

 the buildino;. Brown is ao;hast at the suo-aestion, and 

 says he hates metaphysics. This much he will per- 

 haps admit, namely, that whatever other advantages 

 our habitations may have over those of insects and 

 molluscs, it is clear they have not the advantage in 

 architectural beauty subservient to utility. Consider 

 man from a distance — look at him as a shell-fish — and 

 it must be confessed that his habitation is surprisingly 

 ugly. Only after a great many intermediate " steps or 

 phenomena'' does he contrive to secrete here and there 

 a Palace or a Parthenon which enchants the eye. 



While thus moralising we have reached our lodg- 

 ings, and another work begins. Our treasures must be 

 displayed, and, where needful, identified. The animals 



c 



