THE LITHOPHYTES AND SPONGES. 



573 



It was upon these he tried his principal expe- 

 riment. He took out the oysters which were 

 thus furnished with coralines, and placed them 

 in a large wooden vessel, covering them with 

 sea-water. In about an hour, he perceived 

 the animals, which before had been contracted 

 by handling, and had shown no signs of life, 

 expanding themselves in every direction, and 

 appearing employed in their own natural man- 

 ner. Perceiving them, therefore, in this state, 

 his next aim was to preserve them thus ex- 

 panded, so as to be permanent objects of curi- 

 osity. For this purpose, he poured, by slow 

 degrees, an equal quantity of boiling water into 

 the vessel of sea- water in which they were 

 immersed. He then separated each polypus 

 with pincers from its shell, and plunged each 

 separately into small crystal vases, filled with 

 spirit of wine mixed with water. By this 

 means the animal was preserved entire, with- 

 out having time to contract itself, and he thus 

 perceived a variety of kinds, almost equal to 

 that variety of productions which these little 

 animals are seen to form. He has been thus 

 able to perceive and describe fifty different 

 kinds, each of which is seen to possess its own 

 peculiar mode of construction, and to form a 

 coraline that none of the rest can imitate. It 

 is true, indeed, that on every coraline sub- 

 stance there are a number of polypi found, no 

 way resembling those which are the erecters 

 of the building : these may be called a vaga- 

 bond race of reptiles, that are only intruders upon 

 the labours of others, and that take possession 

 of habitations which they have neither art nor 

 power to build for themselves. But, in general, 

 the same difference that subsists between the 

 honeycomb of the bee, and the paper-like 

 cells of the wasp, subsists between the differ- 

 ent habitations of the coral-making polypi. 



With regard to the various forms of these 

 substances, they have obtained different names 

 from the nature of the animal that produced 

 them, or the likeness they bear to some well- 

 known object, such as corallines, fungi-madre- 

 pores, sponges, astroites, and keratophytes. 

 Though these differ extremely in their out- 

 ward appearances, yet they are all formed in 

 the same manner by reptiles of various kinds 

 and nature. When examined chemically, 



they all discover the marks of animal forma- 

 tion ; the corals, as was said, dissolve in 

 acids, the sponges burn with an odour strongly 

 resembling that of burnt horn. We are left 

 somewhat at a loss with regard to the precise 

 manner in which this multitude of cells, which 

 at last assume the appearance of a plant or 

 flower, are formed. 



If we may be led in this subject by analogy, 

 it is most probable, that the substance of coral 

 is produced in the same manner that the shell 

 of the snail grows round it : these little reptiles 

 are each possessed of a slimy matter, which 

 covers its body, and this hardening, as in the 

 snail, becomes a habitation exactly fitted to 

 the body of the animal that is to reside in it ; 

 several of these habitations being joined to- 

 gether, form at length a considerable mass ; 

 and as most animals are productive in propor- 

 tion to their minuteness, so these multiplying 

 in a surprising degree, at length form those 

 extensive forests that cover the bottom of the 

 deep. 



Thus all nature seems replete with life ; 

 almost every plant on land has its surface 

 covered with millions of these minute creatures, 

 of whose existence we are certain, but of whose 

 uses we are entirely ignorant ; while numbers 

 of what seem plants at sea, are not only the 

 receptacles of insects, but also entirely of in- 

 sect formation. This might have led some 

 late philosophers into an opinion, that all na- 

 ture was animated ; that every, even the most 

 inert, mass of matter was endued with life and 

 sensation, but wanted organs to make those 

 sensations perceptible to the observer : those 

 opinions, taken up at random, are difficultly 

 maintained, and as difficultly refuted; like 

 combatants that meet in the dark, each party 

 may deal a thousand blows without ever 

 reaching the adversary. Those, perhaps, are 

 wiser who view nature as she offers; who, 

 without searching too deeply into the recesses 

 into which she ultimately hides, are contented 

 to take her as she presents herself; and stor- 

 ing their minds with effects rather than with 

 causes, instead of the embarrassments of sys- 

 tems, about which few agree, are contented 

 with the history of appearances, concerning 

 which all mankind have but one opinion. 



