Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-08-23
THINGS OF BEAUTY.
by DARLEY DALE,

ptD'V " tfAt oCLf A<tN.
"A thing cfbeauty is Joy for eyer."-Ksats
Then why is there so much sadnes:
in this beautiful world?
Surely because of our blindness; WI
do not see the beauty around us
Beauty is cheap; why not rejoice in it;
Let us leave our sordid cares and petty
troubles for n while, let us turn aside
from sin and sorrow, and gaze for d
few moments on some things ol
beauty
~We would run to and fro, and hide and seek
On the broad sea-wOlds IN the crimson shells
Whose siivery spikes are highest the sea-
We shall find plenty of beauty there to
make ms pause and wonder, ,snd love and
rejoice. Let US join the water-babie-
under the clear blue sea, and look nj
some of oceans toys with which they
daily sport and play. Those very Grim.
son SHELLS with silvery spikes are some
of the prettiest toys in the ocean nui s.
cry; they are the murexes which
Keats described as "crimson-m -mouthed
shells v itn stubborn curls of every size
and shape"
So beautiful are they that even stern
science has given credence TO tie
pretty fancy that the Goddess OF
Beauty comhed her golden locks with
the "silyery spik, S" of one Grim sou
lIIped murcx, and has allowed it to Lc
called Nenus's Comb.
No shells are so beautiful In color,
30 varied in form as the murexes
Notice the difference between their
rough, spiky exteriors, as quaint as
they are graceful, and the smooth,
polished, marble-like surface of the
cones, family of shells so named be-
cause of their coue-like shape. 1t i
bard to say which Is the most to be
admired, the quaint, toothed, spindle
shaped Nenus's Comb (Nurer tcnuis-
pima or the smooth, exquisitely mot
tied surface of the Field of the Cloth
of Gold COHps tertiLiits), or the price
less, cha-tely- marked Glory of the Sea
(COHus gioTia n1qriS).
Who painted those crimson mouths? :?
Who designed those chaste patterns?
We know from whence the Greeks
obtained the Greek fret (at least those
who know the story of Ariadne and
D@dalus DO we know that a spiders
web was the model for that "thing of
beauty" which is likely to be "a joy
forever" to architects and artists and
designers of all kinds of things. But
neither history nor myth, science nor
poetry can tell us who designed the
fretted ne work of the Field of Tie
Cloth OF Gold or of the Glory of the
Sea.
No one can tell who the artist wrs
who set tie palette from whence to
paint the red lips of the Rosebud Muir
ex, no one knows from whence he got
his pigments; no human artist has as
yet produced such exquisite tInts, MOI
blended them so softly as the tints
which line the Comb of Venus.
And yet we fGin would penetrate the
mystery which surrounds these she'll
palaces, rooted as they are with
mother f-pearl, decorated as no royal
palace was ever yet decorated.
Who built those spires?
Who rooted thUse inner chambers?
Who painted those walls?
Science endeavors toanswer all these
questions; but she cannot wholly solve
the mystery; much remains untold
when she has spoken and told us all
she has to tell. Thank God, she can
not solve the problem, she cannot pen
citrate the mystery; but we Christians
know that God was the architect, de-
sigDer, and artist, and we know, too,
that "IIi5 WAYS are unsearchable and
past finding out"
Each of these beautiful shells is in
itself a poem, for 1t is the embodiment
of divine thought; we can no more
penetrate that underlying thought
than We can discover entirely the way
in which it was clothed. Surely 1t
must he a beautiful thought, since the
form which expresses it is so beautiful
A little We DO know about the mys.
terry; much remains undiscovered; but
to understand even that little we must
first learn something of the creatures
which inhabit these beautiful she'll
houses.
At first it seems incredible that
these hard shelly substances should be
formed by jelly-Ike, boneless crea-
lures; and yet it is a fact that the
inhabitants of these shells are soft
bodied animals who need no other
help than sunlight and air to construct
their beautiful dwellings.
Molluscs, as these strange beings are
called, are boneless, and though not
nerveiess, their nerves instead of being
devel, ped in a spinal chord are dis
persed about their bodies in groups
called gangIIa.
1t is perhaps rather a shock to find
that the inhabitants of such ideal
homes are so exceedingly realistic that
their bodies consist almost entirely of |
The organs of nutrition. The keadless |
molluscs possess but one sense, the |
-ense of touch; they can neither see |
Dor hear, nor smell, nor taste; those |
which have heads, Rs the mureX and |
cone, generally have also tentacles by |
which they feel their way, and organs
IF sight and hearing.
Sad TO say, they are not only very |
greedy creatures, but they are not at
All particular what they eat: and while |
highest art, they will dine off any an
mai or vegetable substance that comes
Il their way. We say advisedly, comes
n their way, for they seldom go in
search of their food; many of them are
uoOred to n certain rock by bunch of |
breads called byssus, and so cannot
20 beyond the length of their tether;
md all of them are compelled to carry
heir shell-houscs with them wherever
hey go, This in itself would make a
excuse for not wishing to /
raveI, but besides this their organ of
is limited to a broad disc
allied the foot, on which they crawl
rom spot to spot.
But the part of q mollusc's body
,hlch most concerns us is the mantle
a which nearly all the mollusca are
nveloped, for it is from the mantle
nat the shell is formed. The mantle
al outer skin or envelope from
hich exudes an albuminous liquid
hich hardens when exposed to the
II or water; from this liquid and the
n rbonate of lime which it secretes the
iell is formed in layers. The nucleus
the shell is generally developed be-
re the embryo leaves its eggs; fresh '