100 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



by the finger, and is individually the very type of 

 weakness, can by the multiplication of its numbers, 

 construct a mountain on which the fiercest billows 

 of the ocean spend their fury in vain ; on whose 

 shores the proudest ship that ever illustrated 

 human genius may be broken to fragments, and 

 on whose surface plains full of beauty and verdure 

 may appear, and towns and^villages the habitation 

 of man be erected. 



And how marvellous the thought thus suggested 

 to us! By this means the component parts of 

 the limestone rocks of countries far removed from 

 the sea may be gradually carried thither, and then 

 transported by oceanic currents may be formed 

 into new mountains at the bottom of remote seas, 

 thus giving origin to new countries which in some 

 future geological convulsion may be raised into 

 lands far above the sea level, on whose mountains 

 rains shall fall, and through whose valleys rivers 

 shall flow, again to repeat the process by which 

 the limestone which formed its rocks found its 

 way to the original coral-builders. 



And what relation has the coral-building polype 

 to the circulation of the sea ? Let us consider this 

 question. Out of the sea- water this little creature 

 has the power, a power in itself marvellous, 

 of extracting the lime necessary to the building it 

 is to erect. It secretes this substance, no doubt, 

 for its own individual use; but in so doing it 

 is accomplishing a grand design of Him who 

 originated the economy of the globe we inhabit. 

 It cannot be doubted that the secretion of lime 



