2g4 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



supposed to use as sails, when Webster, in his great stan- 

 dard dictionary, describes the one and figures the other as 

 one and the same animal ; and when a writer of the cele- 

 brity of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes also blends the two in 

 the following poem, containing a sentiment as exquisite as 

 its science is erroneous. I hope the latter distinguished 

 and accomplished author, whose delightful writings I enjoy 

 and highly appreciate, will pardon my criticism. I admit 

 that the beauty of the thought might well atone for its 

 inaccuracy (of which the author is conscious), were it not 

 that the latter is made so attractive that truth appears 

 harsh in disturbing it. 



"THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS." 



" This is the ship of pearl, which poets feign 



Sails the unshadowed main, 



The venturous bark that flings 

 On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings, 

 In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 



And coral reefs lie bare, 

 Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 



Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl, 



Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! 



And every chambered cell, 



Where its dim, dreaming life was wont to dwell, 

 As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 



Before thee lies revealed, 

 Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed ! 



Year after year beheld the silent toil 



That spread his lustrous coil; 



Still, as the spiral grew, 

 He left "the past year's dwelling for the new, 

 Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 



Built up its idle door, 

 Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 



