226 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



which it is said requires eleven successive days, 

 the mother star-fish remains in this recurved and 

 contracted form necessary to her purpose, and in 

 that attitude cannot obtain any nourishment. 

 This singular circumstance affords one of the 

 many proofs which have been discovered that 

 parental instincts are not confined to the higher 

 orders of animated beings, but are shared with 

 them by the humblest creatures, to whom for 

 wise ends the Great Parent of all has permitted 

 the exercise of parental solicitude. 



Another observation we would make before 

 passing on, is one suggested by the statement 

 made by Professor Forbes of the voluntary dis- 

 memberment of the luidia, on the subject of 

 pain as endured by the humbler orders of crea- 

 tures. 



Various species of Crustaceans, such as crabs 

 and lobsters, possess the power of dismember- 

 ment, and share it not only with the " brittle stars," 

 but with many other creatures both terrestrial 

 and aquatic. These and a great many analogous 

 phenomena seem to afford very conclusive evi- 

 dence that in a numerous class of animated crea- 

 tures, bodily injury is not accompanied by what 

 we call pain, as is the case in the higher order of 

 animals. 



If this be so, and there is little reason to doubt 

 it, the fact presents us with a very beautiful and 

 striking illustration of the beneficent wisdom 

 of that Great Being " whose tender mercies are 

 over all his works." Pain is to man an admoni- 



