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community. Unable to possess all that knowledge 

 with the molluscous tribes of the watery deep, which 

 we could wish, the study and taste, which prompts to 

 an intimate acquaintance with their singularly fabri- 

 cated habitations speaks of the delight experienced in 

 any contemplation of Nature. The topics for inquiry, 

 which the fragile shell of some production of the 

 waters may call forth, the elegance and symmetry of 

 form and proportion, the richness of coloring, mocking 

 even the rainbow's tints, the value to mankind as an 

 article of luxury or use, the perfection and adaptation 



of means to the end are but a few arguments in favor 



o 



of so rational and so refined a taste. Circumstances 

 of the greatest importance, facts of the most serious 

 moment, may be indebted to this single branch of 

 knowledge. The minutiae of Nature are truths in 

 themselves, each important in the great scheme. The 

 adventurous exploits of the little and fearless voyager 

 in its pellucid and pearly bark, engaged the attention 

 of the earliest Naturalist, and to this day, though 

 speeding with outstretched sail and pendent oars over 

 the ocean's surface, its real economy and habits are 

 by no means ascertained. 



Thus the whole history of the lower animals and of 

 organized matter is bui a constant arid tangible witness 

 of our own ignorance. With a perception and fore- 

 sight peculiar to each, the very operations, which years 

 of the most patient industry and the concentrated ef- 

 forts of ingenuity can only effect, have been from the 

 first executed in perfection, unperceived. The pensile 

 nests of several species of birds exhibit a facility of 

 interweaving various and heterogeneous substances in 



