THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. Al 
vast size of some, the strange and uncouth forms 
of others, and the extreme delicacy and vivid hues 
of many, cannot fail to attract attention: and it 
needs not the additional knowledge that many of 
them are pressed into the service of man to assure 
us that they are not less worthy of the consideration 
of rational beings than others of the glorious works 
of God. “Viewing these tribes,” observes Dr. Gre- 
ville, “in the most careless way, as a system of sub- 
aqueous vegetation, or even in a merely picturesque 
light, we see the depths of ocean shadowed with 
submarine groves, often of vast extent, intermixed 
with meadows, as it were, of the most lively hues; 
while the trunks of the larger species, like the great 
trees of the tropics, are loaded with innumerable 
minute kinds, as fine as silk, or transparent as a mem- 
brane.”* In stating some particulars of the history 
of but a few of the species found on our own shores, 
I hope to show that the contempt which has been, 
even to a proverb, cast upon the “vile sea-weed,” 
is very much misplaced. It is only a contracted 
mind, governed by debasing selfishness, which mea- 
sures the esteem in which it holds any object by 
the degree to which it ministers to the comfort or 
profit of man; the instructed Christian will feel a 
higher gratification in the thought that the perfec- 
tions of God shine forth more luminously the more 
His handiwork is examined. It was no selfishness 
that prompted the Sons of God, when they saw this 
beautiful and glorious world, fresh in its unsullied 
prime, come from the hands of its Maker,—to sing 
* Alge Britannice. Intr. 
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