Of Ocean-weeds 



flint-box, but of a Higher Intelligence whether 

 that of the Creator Himself directly, or whether, 

 as may seem to some more probable, the mind of 

 some intermediate Worker, Divinely appointed 

 to the task. 



Why should not Angelic or other beings, in 

 the Unseen World, be allowed to exercise their 

 powers in such wise, even as man upon Earth is 

 allowed to think, to plan, to discover, to devise, 

 to invent, according to his mental gifts ? 



Some such possibility may well suggest itself 

 to a thoughtful imagination, as the variety of 

 developments in these tiny sea-shells or cases 

 becomes apparent. All the more, because the 

 developments are not found scattered, haphazard, 

 in single specimens, but as above stated are 

 accurately followed out by the multitudes belong- 

 ing to each variety. 



It seems that every individual of every sepa- 

 rate kind has power to form certain shapes, with 

 certain markings, and no more. It is as if upon 

 each minute speck of vegetable life had been 

 originally impressed its own not individual 

 character, but class character. This character 

 unconsciously expresses itself in such and such 

 a form of shell, just as with men the individual 

 character expresses itself in such and such out- 



