204 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



feel assured that something shall be found to 

 justify our laudation of a sea-beach ramble. The 

 bard of Avon sings of " books in the running 

 brooks," and " sermons in stones : " we doubt not 

 that we shall discover many goodly volumes even 

 in the little pools left by the receding waters ; and 

 although we shall not look for homilies in the 

 stones, since we are not now to discuss the subject 

 of mineralogy, we shall obtain under them many 

 a text for seaside divinity. We are not dis- 

 appointed! Here, hopelessly entangled among 

 the still dripping seaweed, is one of the largest 

 of those strange creatures which naturalists term 

 Acalephse, the Greek word for nettles, a title 

 they have merited from the power of stinging 

 they possess. 



It is impossible to contemplate these creatures 

 without surprise. Their bodies are frail in the 

 extreme. They appear to be no more than a 

 mass of jelly. Yet that jelly is animated. The 

 sacred and mysterious principle of life is contained 

 in it, and gives motion, and no doubt a kind of 

 perception, to the simple structure. 



And the structure is indeed marvellously simple. 

 A large jelly-fish weighing two pounds when 

 recently taken from the water will be represented, 

 when the fluid parts are allowed to drain off, as 

 Professor Owen remarks, " by a thin film or mem- 

 brane not exceeding thirty grains in weight." 

 The structure of a body exhibiting apparently so 

 little complexity baffles the skill of the anatomist, 

 but even it, if fully understood, would evince the 



