The Nautilus Group, Inc.
We meet you where you are, and guide you to the next level
Why Nautilus?
The chambered nautilus is an ancient sea-dwelling mollusk. The shell of the chambered nautilus is a symbol of beauty and proportional perfection. The spiral of the chambered nautilus as well as other logarithmic spirals can be found throughout the human body and nature. The rare and extraordinary chambered nautilus has long captivated scientists, mathematicians, and poets.
As an example of perfect symmetry, the nautilus depends on each component to complement its self-contained system. Yet, it remains open-ended for perpetual evolution and change. A newly hatched nautilus occupies a shell with rainbow-colored chambers of mother-of-pearl. As the nautilus grows, it creates a new, larger chamber and produces a membrane to seal off older chambers. A mature nautilus shell has about 30 chambers. To navigate in the ocean, the nautilus uses these empty chambers and a mechanism known as “jet propulsion.” The older, sealed chambers of the shell contain a gas which compensates for the weight of the animal’s tissues and shell and keep the nautilus neutrally buoyant in the water so that it neither sinks nor floats, and can move freely in the water forward, backward or sideways.
The Chambered Nautilus
by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
