POLYPES. 189 



provides for it ; this can be no physical power, 

 for that is equally without intelligence, and acts 

 necessarily, but it must be the result of the will 

 and original action of Supreme Intelligence, who 

 either so organized the animal as to direct it to 

 certain acts, when placed in certain circum- 

 stances, by the agency of physical powers ; or 

 by his own immediate employment of these 

 powers, influenced its action, as the occasion 

 required. 



I cannot conclude this history of the Polypes 

 without adverting to another circumstance which 

 proves in a very striking manner the interven- 

 tion of the Deity : and that they could not have 

 assumed the various forms under which we 

 behold them, from peculiar circumstances, to 

 the influence of which, in the lapse of ages they 

 were exposed. When we see animals, buried in 

 the bosom of the ocean, symbolize the whole 

 vegetable world from the tree to the moss and 

 lichens that vegetate on its trunk, and the agaric 

 or other funguses that spring up beneath it, we 

 are naturally led to inquire into the reason of 

 this system of representation, exhibited by beings 

 that have no affinity, nor are even contrasted 

 with each other by juxta-position. 



One of the general objects of the vegetable 

 kingdom was to ornament the dry land with 

 what was fair to look upon, as well as with what 

 was good for food. But the depths of ocean, 



N 7 



