“Let the waters bring forth.”  What necessary object was there that did not immediately appear?  What object of luxury was not given to man?  Some to supply his needs, some to make him contemplate the marvels of creation.  Some are terrible, so as to take our idleness to school.  “God created great whales.” Gen. i. 21.  Scripture gives them the name of “great” not because they are greater than a shrimp and a sprat, but because the size of their bodies equals that of great hills.  Thus when they swim on the surface of the waters one often sees them appear like islands.  But these monstrous creatures do not frequent our coasts and shores; they inhabit the Atlantic ocean.  Such are these animals created to strike us with terror and awe.  If now you hear say that the greatest vessels, sailing with full sails, are easily stopped by a very small fish, by the remora, and so forcibly that the ship remains motionless for a long time, as if it had taken root in the middle of the sea, “Tamen omnia hæc, pariterque eodem impellentia unus ac parvus admodum pisciculus, echeneis appellatus, in se tenet.  Ruant venti licet, et sæviant procellæ imperat furori, viresque tantas compescit, et cogit stare navigia:  quod non vincula ulla, non anchoræ pondere, irrevocabili jactæ…Fertur Actiaco marte tenuisse navim Antonii properantis circumire et exhortare suos donec transiret in aliam.…Tennit et nostra memoria Caii principis ab Astura Antium renavigantes.”  Plin. xxxii. 1.  The popular error was long lived. “Life is a voyage, and, in our life’s ways, Countries, courts, towns, are rocks or remoras.” Donne, To Sir Henry Wotton. do you not see in this little creature a like proof of the power of the Creator?  Sword fish, saw fish, dog fish, whales, and sharks, are not therefore the only things to be dreaded; we have to fear no less the spike of the stingray even after its death, Pliny (ix. 72) says it is sometimes five inches long.  Ælian (Hist. An. i. 56) calls the wound incurable. and the sea-hare, Pliny (ix. 72) calls it tactu pestilens, and says (xxxii. 3) that no other fish eats it, except the mullet. whose mortal blows are as rapid as they are inevitable.  Thus the Creator wishes that all may keep you awake, so that full of hope in Him you may avoid the evils with which all these creatures threaten you.