26 



LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS. 



" Without doubt," you still reply. The worm, the cater- 

 pillar, the snail, the oyster 1 "Yes," you say still, perhaps 

 hesitating a little upon the last, as its energy and vivacity 

 are confessedly not great. Still, probably, you have been 

 accustomed to consider an oyster as an animal, though one 

 in which the animal life is in about its lowest condition ; 

 and you think you have got through your catechism with- 

 out any great difficulty. Stay : we must ask you to 

 descend with us a step or two lower than the oyster. You 

 have, perhaps, seen on the sandy shore in summer the 

 flat cakes of motionless, colourless jelly, commonly called 

 sea-blubber : are these animals ? If you have seen them 

 in the sea, possibly you will consider the spasmodic 

 contraction of the circular disk at regular periods as an 

 indication of life, though you begin to see that in such a 

 mass of clear jelly as this, without limbs, without organs, 

 without senses, without intelligence, without a power of 

 governing its movements, we have departed somewhat 

 considerably from such a standard of animal nature as the 

 horse or the tiger presented. 



But let us look further yet, The brilliant-hued Sea 

 Anemone that adheres to the rock, and expands its lovely 

 fringed disk like the blossom of a flower, — what is this 1 

 People call it an animal-flower ; but what is it, animal or 

 flower 1 Probably you are at last puzzled ; you are 

 inclined to think it a sort of marine flower, though its 

 fleshy substance, and its shrinking when touched, produce 

 some misgivings in your decision. Well, try again. In 

 the baskets of dried sea- weed which are exposed for sale in 

 watering-places, you have often seen the papery leaves of 

 pale-brown hue, or feathery plumes of pure white, mingled 



