THE MUSIC OF NATURE.

and wrote in her table-book the following sentences, in Latin, Greek, and English. The Greek was, "If his slain body shall give testimony against me before men, his most blessed soul shall render an eternal proof of my innocence before God." The Latin was, "The justice of men took away his body, but the Divine mercy has preserved his soul." The English was, "If my fault deserved punishment, my youth, at least, and my innocence, were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will show me favor."

Soon after, she was conveyed to the place of execution, where, addressing the spectators in a very feeling speech, and committing her soul to God, she prepared for death, by unloosing her gown, and giving herself into the hands of the executioner, who implored her forgiveness; and having placed her head upon the block, it was soon severed from her body. The following was written in her prison, just before her end:

"Think not, O mortal, vainly gay,

That thou from human woes art free;
The bitter cup I drink to day,
To-morrow, may be drunk by thee.
Fruitless all malice, if our God is nigh;
Endless all pains, if he his help deny;
Patient I pass these gloomy hours away,
And wait the morning of eternal day."

Sounds thrill sublimely, from winds that bear
The clouds on their wings abroad,

For the rumbling of the wheels, they are
Of the chariot of a God.

249

When clouds have mustered their gloomy forms,
And the lightnings are flashing free,

I love the deep peals, for the rush of storms
Is always a music to me.

The glowing stars have a melody,

Softly breathing from all their rays,
That gladly echoes the calm blue sky,

As they hymn their Creator's praise.
How sweetly the song of a mother flows,

When she soothes her baby to rest;
As it lays its head in dreamy repose,

So still on her snowy white breast.
There's a gladness, too, in the softened tone
Of a sorrowing father's voice,

When he pardon speaks to a faithless son,
That makes a sad spirit rejoice.

There's a stirring touch in the very words,
When they breathe of a changeless love;
A touch that thrills all the bosom's chords,
Like a strain from the world above.

How strangely sweet are the last faint sighs
That rise on the laboring breath,
When the Christian closes his peaceful eyes,
In the spirit repose of death.

And even a joyous anthem swells

From the darkness of the tomb,
And glad'ning the mourner's bosom tells
Of a sun-rise beyond its gloom.

O! when to a fallen world like ours,
Such exquisite notes are given;
How sweetly ring the Elysian bowers,
With a music that gladdens heaven.

FOR THE TOMB OF ONE,
Who is said to have lost a large family in one day, and to have
died of a broken heart.

SHE saw-and gave no shriek of woe,
But shudd'ring kiss'd them, cold as they:
Speechless she felt death's bitter throe,
And sunk his unresisting prey.

Others there be, that brave distress,
'Reft of some dearly treasur'd one;
That live in utter loneliness,
Their life of life, their solace, gone.

These, if perchance they pass by here,
With slow-sad step, and care-worn brow,
Will cry, Vain woman! claim no tear,
Thy griefs were transient-happy thou.

Original.
CONCHOLOGY.

chamber or compartment, the argonauta argus, that lovely tenant of the deeply sounding sea whose dark blue wave bathes Grecia's classic shore, stands pre-eminent, as by its admirable contrivances it has the ability ALTHOUGH Conchology presents a field of research of floating on ocean's bosom, or sinking at will to her more extensive than Neptune's wide and watery realm, lowest deeps. Its beautiful, fragile, and snow-white yet from its difficult access, it has not as yet received shell, has excited the admiration of both ancients and that careful, accurate, and persevering examination moderns; whilst naturalists have been delighted and with which other branches of natural science have been edified by examining its singular structure and wonderfavored; hence man's knowledge of the structure ful economy. It probably, by its gentle gliding o'er the and habits of its numerous tenants, their capacities for, peaceful sea with its elevated mantle, taught man the and sources of enjoyment, is by no means so extensive art of raising the lofty mast, and spreading the broad or exact, as he may in his ardent wish to become ac-sail to catch the favoring breeze, and waft him to the quainted with nature's workmanship desire. Yet a wished for haven. multitude of facts have been collected from all its various families, which afford abundant evidences of the combined wisdom, power, and benevolence of the Almighty being exerted in behalf of these, at first sight, apparently almost useless creatures. Some families present more striking evidences of design and benevolence than others, and among these may be reckoned some of the several varieties of chambered shell fish. Amongst those which are unilocular, or have but one

Fig. 1. Animal and Shell of Nautilus Pompilius.

a. b. c. d. e. e. Siphuncle. The dessicated membrane of the siphuncle is laid bare at a. b. e. d. At e. e. and thence inwards, it is covered by a soft calcareous coating or sheath.

n. Hood or ligamento-muscular dish that surrounds the head. p. p. The digital tentacles protruded from their sheaths.

Amongst the multilocular, or many chambered shells, the nautilus pompilius, or the pearly nautilus, affords very striking evidences of design and benevolence, in the greater complexity of its structure, and the necessary employment of additional agencies, in adapting the several portions of the animal and shell to each other, and of both to their intended habitation and duties in the animal kingdom; and as it is not so generally known, it will be selected for description.

k. Funnel.

y. y. Collar projecting inwards from the transverse plates, and supporting the siphuncle.

A. Upper horny mandible of the beak, with a hard calcareous point.

B. Lower horny mandible similarly armed.

The nautilus pompilius (fig. 1) is a univalve,* of the || chamber, is much larger than any of the others, and is spiral discoidal form, and being multilocular, is divi- intended as a place of residence for the animal. The ded into a number of different compartments, termed chambers, by the intervention of transverse plates, passing across the cavity nearly at right angles to the sides of the shell. These chambers have no connection with each other, or the body of the animal, except by an aperture in each transverse plate for the passage of a siphuncle or tube, which runs from the body of the animal to the interior of the shell. The first or external

* Univalves are shells which are formed in one piece, as the murex, cypræa, and strombus, common as mantle ornaments. Bivalves, are those having two parts or valves, generally connected by a cartilage or strong ligament, or by a hinge, as the common unio or muscle, so abundant in the western rivers. Multivalves have more than two parts, the rough lepas or balanus rugosus may be taken as an example.

extreme lightness of the shell counterbalances the weight of the animal, so that both become so near the specific gravity of sea water, that the difference produced by the tube being either empty or filled, and which scarcely amounts to half an ounce in weight, causes the whole to sink or float. The interior chambers being filled with nothing but air, are in great danger of being broken by the pressure of the ocean, which must be im

Fig. 2. Drawing of the animal of the Nautilus Pompilius. a. a. The heart.

b. b. A bristle passing from the pericardium, through the membranous siphuncle laid bare.

c. c. Bristles passing from the pericardium, through the orifices of communication with the branchial chamber.

d. d. d. d. Follicles communicating with the branchial ar

In describing the process by which the siphuncle and air chambers assist the animal, either in the operations of rising or sinking, the theory of Dr. Buckland, in his very able Bridgewater treatise, will be presented to the reader, as being much more consistent than any other, with the probable purposes to which the organs of the animal would appear by their anatomical structure to be adapted.

The animal inhabiting this shell is a sepia, which constitutes the tenth genera of the third order, vermes mullusca of the Linnæan system. It has a fleshy body, When this shell first obtained the attention of natureceiving its breast in a sheath, with a tubular aperture ralists, from a want of correct anatomical knowledge at its base. It has eight arms, beset with numerous of its several parts, erroneous ideas concerning its mode warts or suckers, and in most of its species two pedun-of operation were formed. Some supposed that the act culated tentacula or feelers; the head is short, the eyes of rising and sinking depended on the air chambers large, the mouth resembling a parrot's beak, and having being filled alternately with water or air; others, two mandibles, each of which is armed with a hard and amongst whom was Parkinson, a distinguished student calcareous point, fitted to the purpose of crushing shells of nature, admitted that the air chambers were imperand crustaceous animals. It is also armed with a dread-vious to water, but thought the change of position was ful apparatus of holders, furnished with suckers, by which it fastens upon its prey, and conveys it to its mouth.

It not unfrequently happens that ruins of crustacea are found in the gizzard of the nautilus, thus showing that though occasionally seeking its food on the surface of the water, it forages for it at the bottom.

produced by the alternate introduction of air or water into the siphuncle. An able description of this animal has been published by Mr. Owen, within the last few years, showing with much greater accuracy than had ever before been done, the structure and arrangement of its several parts; and from a careful examination of them, Dr. B. has most probably discovered the correct manner of their action.

It has been already shown, that the siphuncle terminates in a cavity or sac surrounding the heart. This cavity contains a fluid denser than water, which is secreted by the glandular follicles, fig. 2, d. d. The size of the sac is such as to induce the opinion that its contents would fill the siphuncle. This fluid forms the medium of adjustment, and regulates the ascent and descent of the animal, by changing its location from

The siphuncle is a thin but strong membranous tube, running from the innermost whorl of the shell, and through the air chambers and cavities of the transverse plates, and terminating in a large sac or bag near the heart, and hence termed the pericardial cavity. (Fig. 1, y. y. a. b. c., fig. 2, 0. o.) In the inner chambers, from d. fig. 1, inwards, it is inclosed by a thin, calcareous, but soft sheath, which, with the siphuncle itself, may doubtless admit of expansion and contraction. At fig. 1, y. y. y., will be seen the collar, or a portion | the pericardial cavity to the siphuncle. When the aniof shelly substance belonging to each transverse plate, which at the orifice for the passage of the siphuncle surrounds it like a cylinder for about one-fourth of the distance of each chamber.

By referring to fig. 2, g., will be seen the branchial chamber, and at f. the branchia, or gills, the office of which is to purify the blood by the admission and passage of water through them; but as this cannot be the case but to a limited extent when the animal is contracted in its shell, nature has provided a number of septa, or thin muscular receptacles filled with follicles, or small glands, which, collecting the impurities of the blood, pour them into the pericardial cavity, whence they find their exit through the orifices of communication with the branchial chamber, c. c., into that cavity, and thence by the funnel or branchial outlet (h.) into the sea.

teries. These discharge the impurities of the blood into the pericardium when the animal is contracted in its shell, and consequently the water does not find access to the branchia or gills. The excess of pericardial fluid passes out through the orifices marked c. c.

e. e. Pericardial septa, or divisions, forming their muscular receptacles for the follicles.

f.f. The branchiæ, or gills.

g. The branchial chamber.

h. The funnel, or branchial outlet.

mal expands its arms and body, the fluid is in the pericardial cavity, the siphuncle is empty and collapsed, and surrounded by the air contained in each chamber. Under these circumstances, it is evident that the specific gravity of the body and shell being less than that of sea water, the animal will rise; when from necessity or inclination it wishes to sink, it contracts its arms and body, draws them into the first chamber, and thus pressure is applied to the pericardium, and its fluid contents forced into the siphuncle, while the bulk of the body is diminished, without increasing the bulk of the shell into whose chambers the distended siphuncle passes; the specific gravity is increased, and the wish of the creature gratified. As long as the swollen siphuncle remains in this condition from these causes, the air in each chamber is compressed in proportion to the relative size of the chamber and the siphuncle; but

when the pressure of the body and arms is withdrawn || collectively, very materially increase the power of refrom the pericardium, returning to its former rarity by sistance; fourthly, the position of the transverse plates, means of its elasticity, it forces the fluid back again to which are placed with their edges nearly at right angles its former situation, and the shell thus lessened as to its to the sides of the external shell, thus acting as cross weight, will necessarily rise to the surface. The place braces, and imparting support where most required. of the pericardial fluid is therefore in the pericardium, Man has learned from the close calculations and rigid except when forced into, and retained in the siphuncle demonstrations of exact science, that this curved and by muscular pressure. braced arrangement of parts is best calculated for such When the animal expands his arms, either at the sur- a purpose; and hence constructs his bridges, and vesface or bottom of the sea, the water will obtain access sels destined for dangerous voyages amongst the dreadto the branchia, and supply the blood with the neces-ed icebergs of the polar regions, with curved surfaces sary amount of oxygen as its food; removing, at the and transverse beams. A fifth contrivance is observasame time, its impurities. The heart will then act freely || ble in the relative form of the transverse plates, and the in the distended pericardium, which will be emptied entirely of its fluid only when the body is closed, and the water prevented from any access to the branchia. When at the bottom of the ocean, the animal moves beneath its shell as does the helix albulabris or common snail; the air in the inner chambers imparts sufficient buoyancy to the shell to keep it in a vertical position, without the exertion of much muscular power on the part of the animal; thus leaving it at perfect ease, in performing the various operations connected with mov-creased in proportion to the increase in the diameter, ing its arms and tentacula, crawling, and seizing and devouring its prey.

ribs of the shell; the former being convex inwards, whilst the latter are convex outwards, thus intersecting the curved edges of the plates at numerous points, and dividing them into a number of curvilinear parallellograms, the two shorter sides of each being formed by the edges of the transverse plates, and the two longer by segments of the external ribs. A sixth advantage is gained by the distances at which the transverse plates are situated from each other. Had the distance in

and consequent area of each chamber, it would have been too weak; but by approaching nearer to each other On arriving at the surface the nautilus inverts its as the chambers enlarge, they afford a due amount of shell, as represented in fig. 1; throws out into the sea power. A seventh contrivance is the filling of the inits arms and tentacula (fig. 1, p. p.) for the purpose, terior chambers with air, because it renders the shell probably, of guiding its course as well as seizing its lighter, hence easier to float; and when at the bottom, prey; raises its hood and mantle, which to some extent more convenient to maintain in a vertical position, than serves the purpose of a sail, and by means of a funnel if filled with water, which would then have required situated in its body, (fig. 1, k., fig. 2, h.,) ejects a suf- || considerable muscular exertion to support it, and thus ficient quantity of water to urge it onward with a retro-to a considerable extent embarrass the movements of grade motion. Fearing that it would become tedious the animal. The eighth and last contrivance to be adto enter into a more minute description of the several || duced on this part of the shell, is the support imparted parts of this singular animal, and hoping that enough has already been described to enable the reader to behold evidences of design and benevolence on the part of its Maker, I will endeavor to show the adaptation of every portion of the shell and body to each other, to enable them to discharge the duties for which they were created; and at the same time, contribute to the pleas-ture of this animal may be found in the siphuncle. ure and enjoyment of the animal.

to the interior of the chambers from the condensed state of the air within them, produced by the distension of the siphuncle when filled by the pericardial fluid, and which must very considerably aid in protecting the shell from the pressure to which it is exposed.

The next illustrations of design afforded by the struc

This has been already described as a membranous tube, The first evidence that presents itself to the mind, is divided into a series of from thirty to forty oval sacs, that derived from the use and structure of the shell, which communicate with each other by a contracted serving at once as a protection to, and residence for the neck, and are thus firmly supported by the collar of animal; by its extreme lightness allowing it to float on each plate. It is evident that the strength of each sac the wave or sink to the greatest depths at its pleasure, is thus very considerably increased by the shortness of and by its peculiar form, imparting a strength sufficient the distance between the two extremities; and the tube to resist the ocean's pressure, which none of the works thus separated into such a number of sacs, receives of human art have hitherto been able to do. The va- from each an amount of strength much greater than rious contrivances by which this purpose is accomplish-had it been in one continuous cylinder. At fig. 1, e. e., ed are, first, the arched form of the shell, which figure the siphuncle is covered with a soft calcareous coating has been found the best adapted to resist a uniform and or sheath, for the purpose of supporting it, being smalpowerful pressure; secondly, the arch is coiled spirallyler here than at the opposite end, from the excessive on itself, so that the base of the outer whorls rests upon force of the pericardial fluid in its rush to the inmost the crown of the inner, and thus the keel or back is extremity of the shell. calculated to resist pressure; thirdly, it is supported by numerous ribs, forming ridges on the shell, which, though individually of little strength, yet when taken

The upper portion, or neck of the siphuncle, in the peculiar form of its arrangement, presents another most striking evidence of design on the part of its Maker.