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Being naked. Has nature then behaved to it as a 

 mother, by denying it so necessary a garment ? By no 

 means: as she is beneficent towards every other ani- 

 mal, so has this likewise been the object of her atten- 

 tion. It is true, she has not provided it with a shell - y 

 but has made it amends by enabling it to clothe itself 

 with one. Taught by so great a mistress, our hermit 

 has the sagacity to take up his lodging in the first empty 

 shell he meets with : he applies himself indifferently to 

 all that are of a spiral construction. He often retires 

 so far into them, as not to be perceived, whereby the 

 s-hell appears empty : if the shell should prove too nar- 

 row, he quits it in order to seek for another, more suit- 

 able to his bulk. It is said, there sometimes happen 

 contests between our hermits about a shell, and that 

 victory is decided in favour of him who has the strongest 

 daws. Our battles have scarcely ever a cause of equal 

 importance for their object* 



23. You have been already astonished at the skill 

 displayed in the progressive motion of several shell- 

 fish ; your amazement will be redoubled when you 

 learn that some of them can spin : and you are impa- 

 tient to see them at work. Let us walk on the sea- 

 shore. You there discover a number of muscles, some 

 by themselves, and others joined in companies. Con- 

 sider them more attentively, you will observe that some 

 of them are fastened to stones, or to each other, by a 

 great number of small slender strings. I-et us select 

 one of these muscles, that we may observe it more 

 closely, the better to discover their operations. Here is 

 one of them endeavouring to fix itself to this stone that 

 is near the surface of the water. The shell is partly 

 open; it has thrust out from it a kind of supple tongue, 

 Which it lengthens and contracts alternately. Remark 

 that it often applies the ends of it to the stone, and im- 

 mediately draws it back again into the shell, that k may 

 again put it forth the next moment. From the root of 

 this kind of tongue there issue certain threads, which 

 are equal in size to a hog's bristle. These threads part 



