204 JELLY-FISH. 



by which such beautiful results are accomplished. 

 To him also the sea, with its physical geography, 

 becomes as the main-spring of a watch ; its waters, 

 and its currents, and its salts, and its inhabitants 

 with their adaptations, as balance wheels, cogs, 

 and pinions, and jewels. Thus he perceives that 

 they too are according to design ; that they are 

 the expression of one thought, a unity with har- 

 monies, which one intelligence only could utter/ To 

 his eye all created things possess an interest doubly 

 great, not only from their marvellous structure, but 

 from the mission they are destined to fulfil in this 

 lower world. 



What peculiar mission the Acalephao (which we 

 are now about to consider) were destined to fulfil it 

 has long puzzled men of science to explain. Nor can 

 this be wondered at, when we remember the amazing 

 number of these creatures, and also the extreme deli- 

 cacy of their structure. Some indeed appear almost 

 as if they were formed by the sportive combination 

 of air and water, as if the sea-breeze ruffling the face 

 of ocean caused bubbles innumerable to arise, which 

 becoming mysteriously endowed with life, thenceforth 

 existed as Medusae. 



They have, indeed, frequently been spoken of as 

 ' animated sea-water/ or ' living jelly/ These ex- 

 pressions seem most appropriate when we remember, 

 that if one of these creatures be placed upon a plate 

 of glass, and allowed to remain exposed to the sun's 



