Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/167

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126
THE JERUSALEM ABOVE.

for a moment, whatever be the occasion. When I look on the multitudes of Polypes inhabiting such a structure as I have alluded to, each bearing his starry crown, and all engaged in harmony, building up, wall by wall and cell by cell, an edifice whose walls are of crystalline clearness, often studded with what look like gems,[1] and whose cells are closed with pearly doors;[2] when I watch the building growing up into a City, a commonwealth, of myriad individuals; when I know that, besides the separate life of each, there is a common life, a bond of identity, that constitutes the vast assemblage but one Being,—One though Many—I cannot help thinking of the heavenly City, the Jerusalem which is above.

  1. As in Membranipora, and Crisia, for instance.
  2. As in Cellularia.