WORK AT THE SEASHORE. 249 



was repeated, with enlarged details, in the Devonshire 

 Coast. When he submitted his plan to the Zoological 

 Society, in November of the same year, and offered to 

 supply living specimens at a fixed rate, not the least 

 stipulation that he should limit his supplies to that 

 society was made or hinted at. Indeed, so far was any 

 such thing from his intention, that he mentioned his plan 

 for bringing out a parlour aquarium for sale. He was not 

 the salaried servant of the Zoological Society, and its 

 council had no more right to forbid him to sell specimens 

 elsewhere than to prohibit the tradesman who glazed their 

 tanks from selling glass to any one else. But the fact 

 indubitably was that the notion of the marine aquarium 

 having suddenly seized the public, the tank in the Fish 

 House had proved to be an exceedingly paying attraction. 

 It was, perhaps, not in human nature that the secretary 

 should with equanimity see the same advantages offered 

 to rival and imitative establishments. No doubt it would 

 have been possible to make an arrangement by which 

 Philip Gosse's services would have been exclusively 

 retained for the Zoological Society. But in default of 

 such an arrangement, to turn suddenly from blessing to 

 cursing, and angrily to denounce his want of consideration 

 for the society, was scarcely wise and certainly unjust. 



When, in 1852, the state of his health seemed to render 

 precarious the continuance of that kind of work by which 

 Philip Gosse had hitherto maintained himself, he looked 

 with hope to the scheme of the marine aquarium, as to 

 a possible means by which he might obtain a livelihood 

 without much mental labour indoors, and when his pro- 

 posals were entertained by the Zoological Society, he 

 congratulated himself. But he never considered this en- 

 gagement as more than temporary, and he principally 

 looked forward to parlour aquaria, supplied by him with 



