INNUMERABLE ORGANIZED BEINGS, 85 



result being general and profound harmony — harmony always 

 worthy of admiration. The Creator alone is unchangeable, 

 omnipotent, and permanent ; all else is transition. 



The inhabitants of the water are at least as numerous as 

 those of the solid earth. " Upon a surface less varied than 

 we find on continents," says Humboldt, " the sea contains 

 in its bosom an exhuberance of life, of which no other por- 

 tion of the globe could give us any idea. It expands in the 

 north as in the south ; in the east as in the west. The seas, 

 above all, abound with this life ; in the bosom of the deep, 

 creatures corresponding and harmonizing with each other 

 sport and play. Among these the naturalist finds instruc- 

 tion, and the philosopher subject for meditation. The 

 changes they undergo only impress upon our minds more 

 and more a sentiment of thankfulness to the Author of the 

 universe." 



Yes, the ocean, in its profoundest depths — its plains and 

 its mountains, its valleys, its precipices — is animated and 

 beautified by the presence of innumerable organized beings. 

 Among these we find the Algae, solitary or social, erect or 

 drooping, spreading into prairies, grouped in patches, or 

 forming vast forests in the ocean valleys. These submarine 

 forests protect and nourish millions of animals, which creep, 

 which run, which swim among them ; others, again, sink into 

 the sands, attach themselves to rocks, or lodge themselves in 

 their crevices; these construct dwellings for themselves; 

 they seek or fly from each other; theypursueor fight, caress 

 each other lovingly, or devour each other without pity. Our 

 terrestial forests do not maintain nearly as many living be- 

 ings as those which swarm in the bosom of the sea. 



The sea influences its numerous inhabitants, animal or 

 vegetable, by its temperature, by its density, by its saltness, 

 by its bitterness, by the never-ceasing agitation of its waves, 

 and by the rapidity of its currents. 



When the tide retires from the shore, the sea leaves upon 



