266 Anima Mundi. 



is as pure a bit of mechanics as the bridge ; 

 both being structures in which the same ar- 

 rangement is adapted to the same end." l 



M Small, but a work divine ; 

 Frail, but of force to withstand, 

 Year upon year, the shock 

 Of cataract seas that snap 

 The three-decker's oaken spine." ' 



This is but one instance out of a number that 

 no man can count. 



The Electric Ray, or Torpedo, has been pro- 

 vided with a Battery which, while it closely 

 resembles, yet in the beauty and compactness 

 of its structure, it greatly exceeds the Batteries 

 by which Man has now learned to make the 

 laws of Electricity subservient to his will. In 

 this Battery there are no less than 940 hexa- 

 gonal columns, like those of a bees' comb, and 

 each of these is subdivided by a series of 

 horizontal plates, which appear to be analogous 

 to the plates of the Voltaic Pile. The whole is 

 supplied with an enormous amount of nervous 

 matter, four great branches of which are as large 

 as the animal's spinal cord, and these spread 

 out in a multitude of thread-like filaments round 

 the prismatic columns, and finally pass into all 



1 " The Reign of Law," pp. 99, 100. 

 " Maud." 



