90 POPULAE, HISTORY OF THE AQUAEIUM. 



placed at the bottom of a vessel, they take a good while to 

 consider whether they shall fix themselves on another ; and 

 a still longer time in effecting their purpose. When on 

 the look-out for prey, they never lengthen their tentacles to 

 reach it unless it come in actual contact with them. Dr. 

 Hamilton, a pastor of the Scotch Church, in a little work 

 called ' Life in Earnest,' has happily seized upon this appa- 

 rent laziness of the Zoophyte, in rebuking those who are 

 satisfied with living in the world without a definite object. 



''Those of you, who are famihar with the shore, may 

 have seen attached to the inundated reef a creature, whether 

 plant or animal you could scarcely tell, rooted to the rock 

 as a plant might be, and twirling its long tentacula as 

 an animal would do. This plant-animaFs life is somew^hat 

 monotonous, for it has nothing to do but grow and twirl 

 its feelers, float in the tide, or fold itself up on its foot- 

 stalk when that tide has receded, for months and years 

 together. Now, would it not be very dismal to be trans- 

 formed into a Zoophyte? Would it not be an awful pu- 

 nisliment, with your human soul still in you, to be anchored 

 to a rock, able to do nothing but spin about your arms 

 or fold them up again, and knowing no variety, excepting 

 wdien the receding ocean left you in the daylight, or the 



