34 BEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



Outline of the Organisation of the Animal Kingdom/' richly 

 illustrated, or ^Mr Dallas's recently published volume, " The 

 Natural History of the Animal Kingdom," cheap and very 

 compact. Next you must have Mr Gosse's invaluable 

 " Manual of Marine Zoology" — meant expressly for identi- 

 fication ; and you may add the very cheap and compendious 

 "Manual of the Mollusca," by Mr Woodward, published 

 among Weale's series of Rudimentary Treatises. If you can 

 lay hands on Johnston's "British Zoophytes," Forbes's 

 " Naked-Eyed Medusas" and "British Starfishes," and Alder 

 and Hancock's " Nudibranchiate MoUusca," you will be set 

 up. I say nothing on works of Histology or Comparative 

 Anatomy, because, if your studies lie in these directions, 

 you will already have possessed yourself of what is 

 necessary. 



And now, when all is done, the Microscope is taken out, 

 and severer studies begin. The hours I spent thus, fled like 

 minutes, and left behind them traces as of years, so crowded 

 were they with facts new and strange, or if not absolutely 

 new, yet new in their dofiniteness, and in the thoughts they 

 suggested. The tj-pical iorms took possession oi me. They 

 were ever present in my waking thoughts ; they filled my 

 dreams with fantastic images ; they came in troops as I lay 

 awalce during meditative morning hours ; they teazed me as 

 I turned restlessly from side to side at night ; they made 

 all things converge towards them. If I tried a little relax- 

 ation of literature, the page became a starting-point for the 

 wandering foncy, or more obtrusive memory ; a phrase 

 like "throbbing heart" would detach my thoughts from the 



