10 



THE FAMILY AQUARIUM. 



of the glittering ocean-bed, breathing the emerald atmos- 

 phere of its valleys forested with crimson and purple 

 foliage, or gathering in picturesque groups upon its moun- 

 tain tops lit up with the gorgeous water-rays of phosphor- 

 escent gold ? The serpent may be, alone, for some wise 

 purpose, and through some, anomalous condition of his or- 

 ganization, occasionally manumitted — a prisoner on parole. 

 Navigating his tedious way through the amethystine 

 gates and coral palaces of the great deep, may he not 

 come to us, from time to time, a messenger of God^s infi- 

 nite wonders in that universe of mysterious romance ? 



It is not for us to unveil the awful secrets interred by 

 His hand amid those inaccessible gulfs of rare magnifi- 

 cence. It is sufficient for us to know that poet^s pen and 

 painter's pencil shrink back, appalled, in the attempt to 

 depict their surpassing marvellousness. We may, with 

 aerial inventiveness, soar boldly upwards towards the gUt- 

 tering stars. With sub-aquean audacity we may dive 

 down, down, towards the gem-strewed floor of the ocean. 

 Alas ! how limited are our most ambitious endeavors in 

 either direction. Ere we can reach the feeblest height 

 or depth, our panting lungs bid us, peremptorily, return 

 or die. The taunting clouds roll open, that the blue 

 firmament may laugh, beyond, at our discomfiture. The 

 murmuring billows divide, that the myriad creatures of 

 the surge may mock at, far below, our human impot^ce. 

 The limit to man's curiosity is fixed, the field of his per- 

 sonal explorations is circumscribed, by the organism of 



