Vol. III. 



JANUARY, 1893. 



CoPYBiGHT 1893. All Rights Reserved. 



No. 26. 



THE PARLOR AQUARIUM. 



We know of nothing more likely to 

 stimulate the mind to healthy exertion, 

 and take it out of the immediate track 

 of common interests and pleasures, the 

 monotony of which is so oppressive, 

 than the study of natural history in 

 f ome of its least explored fields, espec- 

 ially its extraordinary development in 

 connection with the aquarium. And 

 yet how few there are who seek that 

 charming mode of dissipating the 

 dreary monotony of every-day life, such 

 as it is made by the routine of fashion 

 or habit I A popular love of natural his- 

 tory, even in its best known divisions, 

 is, in fact, of quite recent date. Indeed, 

 the very existence of such a science has 

 been, till recently, altogether ignored 

 hy our great national seats of learning. 

 The earnest investigators, who have 

 done so much to lay bare its wonders, 

 were either ridiculed or treated with 

 but small resjiect — as useless dreamers 

 upon very small and insignificant mat- 

 ters. To appreciate Nature, as well as 

 Art, the mind requires a si^ecial educa- 

 tion, without Avhicli the eye and the 

 ear perceive but little of the miracles 

 passing before them. Each department 



of science requires a separate and dis- 

 tinct kind of sight. Those who cannot 

 see Nature, who cannot see more than a 

 "funny thing " in a little polywog are 

 like one gazing at a carved Egyptian 

 record, who perceives, in the hiero- 

 glyphic character, simply the sculp- 

 tured figure of a polywog, and no more 

 — they are in a state of Egyptian dark- 

 ness as regards one of the highest and 

 most enchanting fields of human re- 

 search. 



When, however, the language of 

 Nature is learned, and her voice is no 

 longer a confused murmur to the ear, 

 but becomes a brilliant series of elo- 

 quent words, full of deep and exquisite 

 meaning, then the student will see as 

 well as hear ; but till then, in his inter- 

 course with Nature, he is both deaf and 

 blind. " Speak," said Socrates to a 

 youth; "say something, that I may 

 see you.'^ Socrates saw not a silent 

 man ; and those who do not hear and 

 understand Nature's language cannot 

 see her wondrous beauty. 



The aquarium has been at all times 

 and in all ages a source of information 

 and amusement for the cultured and 

 rich. Already, thousands of years ago, 



