IX 
THE CULT OF SHELLS 
O children and to those who remain young 
in eye, to artists and to unsophisticated per- 
sons generally, shells always make a strong appeal 
—and who can wonder? For shells have lines that 
flow, and shapes that sing, and colors that make 
melody. Each is the constructive work of the life- 
time of a very intricate, yet harmoniously unified, 
creature; each is an architectural achievement 
that has stood the test of time for ages. Every 
mollusk expresses itself in its house (in a way man 
rarely does in his); and it has often an interesting 
personal way of registering in its shell some of the 
crises of its life, just as a tree records in its rings 
a summer of great drought or an autumn of very 
early frost. There is a sheer sensory delight in 
looking at a box of different kinds of cowries, 
cones, or olivas; there is a higher perceptual ad- 
miration in studying the well-adapted edifices built 
by architects whose designs are dreams rather 
than thoughts; there is an even subtler glow in 
sharing vicariously in that triumph of life over 
materials which many shells, like the Nautiloids, 
so well illustrate; but, besides these factors, may 
there not be in our delight over shells some echo 
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