ZOOLOGY. 15 



ence, believing that the horny skeleton is a veritable 

 sea- weed. The very Jelly-fish, as it swims in the wave, 

 expanding and contracting its umbrella, and thus pro- 

 pelling itself through the water, has its beauty ; but 

 few are aware of the singularity of its history, how its 

 eggs are of the nature of seeds, which, sown on their 

 rocky bed, sprout and grow, throwing out buds and 

 suckers, each of which forms an animal stem, quite un- 

 like the parent Jelly-fish ; till, at a certain time, young 

 Jelly-fish begin to be formed, and to be thrown off by 

 the several branches, just as flowers are formed, and 

 expand on the several branches that originate from 

 a vegetable-seed. And if the abject Jelly-fish, whose 

 body consists of little more than organized water, 

 have a history so wonderful, shall we not expect to 

 find, in tracing the history of other tribes of animals, 

 matter of equal interest 1 The structures, as we ascend 

 in the scale, gradually become more complex ; and if 

 those strange metamorphoses which arrest our attention 

 in the lowest tribes give place to more accustomed phe- 

 nomena, we are amply compensated by the progressive 

 development of the wonderful faculty of instinct. In 

 observing the variations of structure of the analogous 

 organs of different animals, and noticing how, accord- 

 ing to the necessities of their life, they are provided 

 with proper instruments, innumerable proofs of the 

 care of Providence over His creatures are offered to our 

 contemplation. These cannot fail to interest us, if for 

 no other reason, because they forcibly remind us of our 

 own dependence on the same bountiful Hand, and thus 

 soothe the most desponding with the thought that, if 



