Uses of Shells. 17 
But without believing all these fables, more 
poetical than true, we may soon convince ourselves 
that in the hollow chambers of a shell, there does 
seem to dwell, like an imprisoned spirit, a low, sad 
kind of music. An English poet, named Walter 
Savage Landor, has well described this in these 
lines— 
“Of pearly hue 
Within, and they that lustre have imbibed, 
In the sun’s palace porch, where, when unyoked, 
His chariot wheel stands midway in the wave; 
Shake one, and it awakens ; then apply 
Its polished lips to your attentive ear, 
And it remembers its august abodes, 
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.” 
Wordsworth, too, gives a beautiful description 
of a child applying one of these pearly musical- 
boxes to his ear. 
Many other uses of shells might be mentioned, 
to show that they perform an important part in the 
operations of nature, as the means and modes by 
and in which God sees fit to order the affairs of 
this world are frequently calied ; and also promote 
the ends of science, and the arts of every-day life. 
By the decomposition of the shells, of which they 
are partly composed, solid rocks frequently crumble 
to pieces, and spreading over a considerable sur- 
