[Illustration: Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean.]
(_Phosphorences gleam in the moustaches of the seals, shift in the scales of fish. Echini whirl like wheels; ammonites uncoil like cables; oysters make their shell hinges squeak; polypi unfold their tentacles; medusæ quiver like balls of crystal suspended; sponges float hither and thither, anemones ejaculate water; wrack and sea-mosses have grown all about._
_And all sorts of plants extend themselves into branches, twist themselves into screws, lengthen into points, round themselves out like fans. Gourds take the appearance of breasts; lianas interlace like serpents._
_The Dedaims of Babylon, which are trees, bear human heads for fruit; Mandragoras sing;--the root Baaras runs through the grass._
_And now the vegetables are no longer distinguishable from the animals. Polyparies that seem like trees, have arms upon their branches. Anthony thinks he sees a caterpillar between two leaves: it is a butterfly that takes flight. He is about to step on a pebble: a grey locust leaps away. One shrub is bedecked with insects that look like petals of roses; fragments of ephemerides form a snowy layer upon the soil._
_And then the plants become confounded with the stones._
_Flints assume the likeness of brains; stalactites of breasts; the flower of iron resembles a figured tapestry._[2]
_He sees efflorescences in fragments of ice, imprints of shrubs and shells--yet so that one cannot detect whether they be imprints only, or the things themselves. Diamonds gleam like eyes; metals palpitate._
_And all fear has departed from him! He throws himself down upon the ground, and leaning upon his elbows, watches breathlessly._
_Insects that have no stomachs persistently eat; withered ferns bloom again and reflower; absent members grow again._
_At last he perceives tiny globular masses, no larger than pinheads, with cilia all round them. They are agitated with a vibratile motion_):
"O joy! O bliss! I have beheld the birth of life! I have seen the beginning of motion! My pulses throb even to the point of bursting! I long to fly, to swim, to bark, to bellow, to howl! Would that I had wings, a carapace, a shell,--that I could breathe out smoke, wield a trunk,--make my body writhe,--divide myself everywhere,--be in everything,--emanate with odours,--develop myself like the plants,--flow like water,--vibrate like sound--shine like light, squatting upon all forms--penetrate each atom--descend to the very bottom of matter,--be matter itself!"