UNCLE IN ENGLAND, 39 



been the opinion of St. Paul, that the passage 

 through the waters of the Red Sea was intended 

 as a type of the Christian baptism, and of our 

 conditional resurrection to eternal happiness. 

 And it was this idea that probably induced the 

 framers of our liturgy to introduce the history of 

 that event into the service appointed for the day 

 of our Lord's resurrection." 



19f/i. We amused ourselves for some time 

 after dinner this evening with our favourite 

 question-play, animal, vegetable, and mineral ; 

 Marianne is well acquainted with it. 



I thought of sponge as a good puzzling thing : 

 however, it puzzled me not a little, in the pro- 

 gress of their questions, to describe it satisfac- 

 torily. In the first place, 1 had heard some one 

 tell you that sponge was a vegetable production 

 but I have since read that it is a substance 

 formed by some species of marine worm ; so 

 when I was forced to give distinct answers to the 

 questions, was it animal, or was it vegetable, 

 I was divided between those two ideas. Then 

 came questions as to what part of the world it 

 was found in ; and I set them all wrong by 

 saying, only in the Mediterranean. In short, I 

 found that even in children's plays people may 

 have to blush for their ignorance. 



After I had puzzled in and out of the ques- 

 tion, and that our play was ended, my uncle 



