HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-MATS AND SQUIRTS. 139 



Pope's well-known lines, such as the poet then little 

 dreamt of. 



" All are but parts of one harmonious whole, 

 Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." 



The study of natural history is in the direction of 

 filling up the supposed " gaps " in this " harmonious 

 whole/' and every discovery is decidedly in favour 

 of this idea, in spite of the ignorant cry about 

 "missing links." If we knew all that could be 

 known about the animals and plants that have lived, 

 as well as those which still live, such a cry might be 

 respected as having something in it. But science 

 has not yet got to the end of its tether, nor is it 

 likely it soon will be. Until then, therefore, we 

 should advise such alarmists to adopt a prudent 

 silence, more especially as the progress of scientific 

 discovery is so decidedly against them. 



That excessive abundance of life which caused the 

 ancient philosophers to regard the sea with such 

 reverence, can be authenticated by the seaside 

 visitor at almost every step he takes along the shore. 

 There is not a seaweed thrown up after a night's 

 storm that is not a microcosm, a " little world " of 

 its own, crowded with life forms. The rock-pools are 

 miniature universes, in which the balance of the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms is kept up, as if 

 there were not another square yard on the surface 

 of the earth that was inhabited. Hence there need 

 be no dearth in objects of interest to the student of 

 marine zoology or botany. We have endeavoured to 



