Pvn H,i I'UitlS

XIV INTRODUCTION.
Who that breathes, and is endued with the powers
that so widely separate man from the brute, can for one
instant withhold his acknowledgment of an omnipresent
Being, which is sensibly spread
" o'er all that glides
Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself,
And mighty depth of waters " ?
I will now resume the special purpose of this work,
commencing with the Brachiopoda, as having
the lowest
organization, and advancing upwards to the higher or
more perfect Mollusca. The descriptions of the ani-
mals or soft parts will, I regret to say, be sometimes
scanty and occasionally wanting. They are principally
taken from the observations of the late Mr. Clark and
Professor Forbes, Mr. Alder, and myself. My deficien-
cies in this respect will, I trust, stimulate other natu-
ralists to supply the desired information ; and I would
especially
invite the assistance of those who have an
aquarium, and opportunities of keeping it supplied from
the various parts of our extensive seaboard. Every fact,
however trivial, is worth recording, because (even
if it
is not new) it may be useful for the sake of confirming
the accounts given by other naturalists. Most of the
illustrations of molluscous animals in this volume have
been copied from the plates in Forbes and Hanley's
work, or engraved from original drawings by Mr. Alder.
For the figures of Crania, Crenella, and Cyamium I
am indebted to Dr. Saxby, and for that of Pinna to
Mr. Spence Bate.
The 1st Class, or Conchifera, has been described in
the first volume, so far as it relates to the freshwater
Mollusca ;
and the only other division of the Acephala
is the Brachiopoda, which will now be noticed.