ANTHOZOA HYDROIDA. 99 - 
cloud he may deign to protect his irrational creatures in the 
present day. When the cuttle-fish is pursued by its enemies, 
it can eject an inky fluid from a bag with which it is fur- 
nished, so that, involved in a murky cloud of atramentous 
water, it is concealed from the grasp of its voracious foes. 
The Ascidia which we mentioned, seems inert and defence- 
less, and would be a very savoury mouthfull to a prowling 
haddock ; but if, when the gourmand begins to nibble its 
prey, it on a sudden became like a live coal, we suspect that 
the boldest haddock would stand aghast. If He thus defend 
with a robe of fire this helpless inhabitant of the deep, how 
much more will He, according to His promise, be “a wall 
of fire around his people and the glory in the midst of them.” 
And when is it that these tiny dwellers in the deep appear 
in greatest splendour? It is in troublous times—in the 
darksome hour of danger. And is it not under the cloud 
of affliction and in the dark night of distress that God’s 
chosen people most sweetly shine? Is not the brightest 
page of their history that which tells how “ they wandered 
about in mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth, not 
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resur- 
rection’? And if they shone in that hour of darkness, it was 
as the moon when she looks on the orb of day,—it was be- 
