THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 33 
scientia scientiarum, the priceless art of learning ; 
no branch of science has more utterly confounded 
the wisdom of the wise, shattered to pieces systems 
and theories, and the idolatry of arbitrary names, 
and taught man to be silent while his Maker speaks, 
than this apparent pedantry of zoophytology, in 
which our old distinctions of “animal,” “vege- 
table,” and “mineral” are trembling in the balance, 
seemingly ready to vanish like their fellows—“ the 
four elements” of fire, earth, air, and water. No 
branch of science has helped so much to sweep away 
that sensuous idolatry of mere size, which tempts 
man to admire and respect objects in proportion to 
the number of feet or inches which they occupy in 
space. No branch of science, moreover, has been more 
humbling to the boasted rapidity and omnipotence 
of the human reason, or has more taught those who 
have eyes to see, and hearts to understand, how 
weak and wayward, staggering and slow, are the 
steps of our fallen race (rapid and triumphant 
enough in that broad road of theories which leads 
to intellectual destruction) whensoever they tread 
D 
