ZOOLOGY. 



such as snuffboxes, knife handles, combs, doors of cabinets 

 and other articles of ornament; their only practical disad- 

 vantage, and which seems to prevent the more general use 

 of these, is their cheapness, and their yielding inelegance 

 of lustre to the Nacre, or Mother-of-pearl. 



The ancient lyre, so much celebrated in the history of 

 Greece and other ancient nations, derives its form from the 

 Tortoise-shell, out of which it was originally formed by the 

 ancient artists, and still appears in the remains of their sculp- 

 ture and basso-relievos, forming a most pleasing and inter- 

 esting object. The Romans also adopted the name Testudo, 

 for one of their most celebrated military arrangements in 

 Avar, which consisted in placing a phalanx of their troops, 

 closely wedged together, in such a manner that the whole of 

 their shields should join at the top, forming a collected 

 covering, like that of the Tortoise, impenetrable to all the 

 arrows, stones, or darts, with which their enemies could 

 assail them. 



Thus from obvious hints, originally suggested by the 

 simple forms of nature, arise the grander and more compli- 

 cated arrangements of man, and from these alone the arts 

 and sciences take their source, and from the Silk-worm, the 

 Nautilus, and the Tortoise, mankind have borrowed the 

 most useful or celebrated inventions, improved and extended 

 through the different ages of the world. 



