26 IXTRODUCTION TO COXCHOLOGl. 



invested liis moral faculties; or rather, to borrow the 

 emphatic language of inspiration, " He is quickened, when 

 dead in trespasses and sins ; he stands forth in all the per- 

 fection of his nature, and remembering that he is no longer 

 his own, that he is bought with a price, he seeks to glorify 

 his Maker with his body and his spirit, which are His." ^ 



To return from this digression. AYe admit that shells 

 are beautiful, and that they are admirably adapted to the 

 exigencies of the wearer ; but how shall we account for the 

 endless diversity of shades and colours, varnng from the 

 sober coating of the garden snail to the dehcate and glowing 

 tints which are diffused over some of the finer species, in 

 the infinite profusion of undulations, clouds, spots, bands, 

 and reticulated figures, with which these admirable architects 

 enrich the walls of their beautiful receptacles ? The means 

 of producing them must be sought for in the animals them- 

 selves. Their mantles are furnished with pores replete with 

 colouring fluid, which blends insensibly with the calcareous 

 exudation already noticed, and thus occasions that exquisite 

 variety in their testaceous coverings, which art attempts to 

 emulate, but can never fully equal. 



Thus far the result of observation and experiment. It 



* Ephes. ii. 1. 



