PLANT-ANIMALS, OR ZOOPHYTES. 179 



We cannot close this history better than in the. 

 words of Ellis, one of the oldest of our writers on 

 the Corallines : " And now, should it be asked, 

 granting all this to be true, to what end has so much 

 labour been bestowed in the demonstration ? I can 

 only answer, that as to me these disquisitions have 

 opened new scenes of wonder, and astonishment, in 

 contemplating how variously, how extensively, life is 

 distributed through the universe of things ; so it is 

 possible, that the facts here related, and these in- 

 stances of nature, animated in a part hitherto unsus- 

 pected, may excite the like pleasing ideas in others ; 

 and in minds more capacious and penetrating, lead 

 to farther discoveries, farther proofs (should such be 

 wanting), that One infinitely wise, good, all-powerful 

 Being has made, and still upholds, the whole of what 

 is good and perfect ; and hence we may learn that, 

 if creatures of so low an order in the great scale of 

 nature, are endued with faculties that enable them to 

 fill up their sphere of action with such propriety ; we 

 likewise, who are advanced so many gradations above 

 them, owe to ourselves, and to Him who made us, 

 and all things, a constant application to acquire that 

 degree of rectitude, and perfection, to which we also- 

 are endued with faculties of attaining." 



N 2 



