THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 123 



class of phsenomena, it is perhaps better not to talk 

 about tbem at all, but observe a stoic " epoclie," 

 waiting for more liglit, and yet confessing tliat our 

 own laughter is uncontrollable, and therefore we 

 hope not unworthy of us, at many a strange crea- 

 ture and strange doing which we meet, from the 

 highest ape to the lowest polype. 



But, in the meanwhile, there are animals in which 

 results so strange, fantastic, even seemingly horrible, 

 are produced, that fallen man may be pardoned, if 

 he shrinks from them in disgust. That, at least, 

 must be a consequence of our own ^vrong state ; for 

 everything is beautiful and perfect in its place. It 

 may be answered, " Yes, in its place ; but its place 

 is not yours. You had no business to look at it, and 

 must pay the penalty for intermeddling." I doubt 

 that answer ; for surely, if man have liberty to do 

 anything, he has liberty to search out freely Ms 

 heavenly Father's works ; and yet every one seems 

 to have his antipathic animal ; and I know one 

 bred from his childhood to zoology by land and sea, 

 and bold in asserting, and honest in feeling, that aU 



