98 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
creatures topics of devout contemplation, fitted to fill them 
with wonder, and to lead them to show forth His glory and 
praise, we doubt not that the luminosity of these marine 
“minims” was intended to be one of those topics of con- 
templation. ‘Praise him, ye dragons and all deeps,” says 
the Psalmist,—or, “all inhabitants of the deeps.” The ele- 
gant zoophytes, and the jelly-like Meduse, which abound so 
much im the deep, are well calculated to show forth His 
praise during the day; and should not our pious admiration 
be increased, when the former, on being handled during the 
night, become more brilliant than rubies; and when the lat- 
ter, though often, from their pellucidity, invisible through 
the day, render, in the darkness, every troubled portion 
of the deep a splendid whirlpool of mnocuous fire ? 
But should not we still more adore his wonder-working | 
hand, if we find that what is beautiful in our eyes is highly 
beneficial to the floating torch-bearers themselves? May 
not this garment of fire be their armour of defence,—their 
panoply of protection? They have their enemies amidst 
the waves ; and may not this sudden flash of fire in the dark- 
ness of the deep be intended to alarm the foes by which they 
are assailed? ‘The Lord was to his people of old a pillar 
of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. By fire and 
