The Mighty Deep 



ooze Of mud, which in later times should be 

 slowly hardened into chalk. 



But the greater wonder has yet to be told 

 about these shells — these tiny highly - finished 

 constructions. 



Not only did a speck of living jelly once 

 inhabit each shell. That speck of living jelly 

 actually made the shell. 



Not deliberately. Not with intention. Not 

 even consciously. The " making " is in no sense 

 to be confounded with voluntary effort, with the 

 labour which means exertion and fatigue. It was 

 as instinctive, as involuntary, as the *' making" 

 of bones in your body and mine. 



"But we do not make our bones," somebody 

 may protest, with a touch of indignation. 



Undoubtedly, in a sense, we do. The jelly- 

 speck does not more surely *' secrete " its shell, 

 than a man '' secretes " his skeleton. Personal 

 will has not to do with the task in either case, 

 beyond the taking in of necessary food ; and 

 neither man nor jelly-speck may claim any credit 

 on the score of the pattern worked out. 



We have all seen a garden-snail, carrying 

 lightly upon its back its shell or '* house," or 

 outside skeleton. That shell is formed of car- 

 bonate-of-lime. In the snail's slimy body exists 



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