3C0 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



surface thus becomes specifically heavier, and sinks. On 

 the other liaiid, the little marine architect below, as he works 

 upon his coral edifice at the bottom, abstracts from the water 

 there a portion of its solid contents ; it therefore becomes 

 specifically lighter, and up it goes, ascending to the top with 

 increased velocity to take the place of the descending column, 

 which, by the action of the winds, has been sent down loaded 

 with fresh food and materials for the busy little mason in 

 the depths below." 



Was I not justified in saying that the Mollusc was deeply 

 interesting in its relations to the great forces of the Universe ? 

 Does not this one example show how the great Whole is 

 indissolubly connected with its minutest parts ? The simple 

 germination of a lichen is, if we apprehend it rightly, directly 

 linked with the grandest astronomical phenomena ; nor could 

 even an infusory animalcule be annihilated Avithout altering 

 the equilibrium of the universe. 



" Nothing in this world is single ; 

 All things by a law divine 

 In one another's being mingle." 



Plato had some dim forecast of this when he taught that 

 the world was a huge animal ; * and others, since Plato, 

 when they conceived the universe to be the manifestation of 

 some transcendent Life, with which each separate individual 

 life was related, as parts are to the whole. 



• Plato : Philebus, p. 170, od. Bekkor. 



