Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. (the Phenomena Of Crabs, Etc., Casting Their Shells.) 4 As Samson at his marriage propounded a riddle to his companions to try their wits thereon, so God offereth such enigmas in Nature, partly that men may make nse of their admit ing as well as of their understanding; partly that philosophers may be taught their distance betwixt themselves, who are but the lovers, and God, who ia the giver of wisdom.'—Introduction To Conchology, page 384. The Armory of the Tower of London forms, it is generally admitted, one of the most interesting sights of the great metropolis. No one can look without wonder upon that goodly array of knights and noble warriors, nor help an involuntary sigh over the degeneracy of modern humanity. Though the figures before us are technically and irreverently termed ' dummies,' the hardened shell with which their body and limbs are cased we know has felt the throb of many a true English heart, maybe, glistened beneath the sun at Cressy and Agincourt, or perhaps on the bloody fields of Worcester and Jtarston Moor. It requires no great power of the imagination to transport ourselves to bygone centuries, and listen to the ring of hostile arms, the sepulchral voices of men whose heads are inurned in casques of steel, blended with the clash of battle-axes, the whizz of arrows, the neighing of steeds, the rattle of musketry, and at intervals the deep booming cannon's roar. 112 A. CRUSTACEOUS ARMORY. But, asks the gasping reader, what has this parade of mail-clad warriors and old battle-fields to do with so prosaic a theme as the exuviation of crabs ? I must acknowledge that the question is a very natural one, for there appears at first sight no connection between the two subjects. The analogy will not, I believe, appear so forced when I mentio... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.