care, as we have to conceive of Him as infinitely great and powerful; and having established this important truth, he leads us irresistibly to the conclusion, that the exhibition made of the Divine Being in His Revealed Word, is in perfect harmony with the character of Himself, which He has impressed on nature.

They, therefore," says this admirable writer, "who think that God will not put forth such a power, and such a goodness, and such a condescension, in behalf of this world, as are ascribed to Him in the New Testament, because He has so many other worlds to attend to, think of Him as a man. They confine their view to the informations of the telescope, and forget altogether the informations of the other instrument. They only find room, in their minds, for His one attribute, of a large and general superintendence, and keep out of their remembrance the equally impressive proofs we have for His other attribute, of a minute and multiplied attention to all the diversity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in all.

And when I think, that, as one of the instruments of philosophy has heightened our every impression of the first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less heightened our impression of the second of them,—then I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a transgression of sound argument, as well as a daring impiety, to draw a limit around the doings of this unsearchable God; and, should a professed revelation from Heaven, tell me of an act of condescension, in behalf of some separate world, so wonderful that angels desired to look into it, and the Eternal Son had to move from His seat of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the evidence of such a revelation; for, let it tell me as much as it may of God letting Himself down for the benefit of one single province of His dominions, this is no more than I see lying scattered in numberless examples before me, and running through the whole line of my recollections, and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I can betake myself; and, now that the microscope has unveiled the wonders of another region, I see strewed around me, with a profusion which baffles my every at

tempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one portion of the universe of God too minute for His notice, nor too humble for the visitation of His care.”

SIXTH WEEK-MONDAY.

WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE.-INFUSORY ANIMALCULes.

HAVING spoken of the wonders of the microscopic world, as a proof that there is nothing too little to be beneath the care of the universal Father, it seems desirable to follow out this statement by an induction of particulars; and I shall devote this paper to that department of animated nature which, on account of its extreme minuteness, escapes the human vision, unless assisted by the resources of art.

The microscope has revealed to human observation new races, and indeed new systems, of organized and living beings, whose existence, had it not been for the invention of that instrument, could have scarcely been suspected, and whose functions must have been entirely unknown. These are the most numerous of all terrestrial creatures, and exhibit properties which fill the mind with a kind of wonder, different from, but scarcely inferior to, that which is excited by the view of Nature on the largest scale. Although they are so extremely minute, that a single drop of water may contain hundreds of them, and yet appear to the naked eye as pellucid as if it were a pure and simple globule of newly distilled dew, they are discovered, by the magnifying power of the solar microscope, not only to be animated beings, but to possess members, some of them formed in the most delicate symmetry, and all of them framed with consummate art. Their species are incalculably numerous, each adapted to the element which it occupies, and the peculiar sphere in which it is destined to move.

They have obviously volitions, feelings and preferences, like the superior animals; and, like them, they display symptoms of hatred and affection, of rapacity and contentment, of enjoyment and suffering. Here, then, is a new world of living beings, sufficiently resembling that in which we are ourselves destined to exist, to prove that it is the work of the very same Creator; yet, as we shall presently see, so different in many respects, besides its extreme minuteness, as to show, still more distinctly, the inexhaustible resources of the Divine Mind, in the endless variety of created existences. The most minute of these animalcules which have been studied and delineated, are the infusory, that is, those which are found in liquids; and to these we shall at present confine ourselves. They have been divided into two classes, those with external organs, and those in which such organs are wanting. Of the former, seven genera have been enumerated, and 254 species; of the latter, ten genera, and 123 species. These, it is not to be doubted, form a very small part of the actual existences, many of which are so minute, that they elude the action of the most powerful magnifiers, as may be safely inferred from the fact, that new species, descending in minuteness, have constantly been discovered, in proportion as the power of the microscope has been increased.

The wonderful diversity of shape in these animalcules, has been thus described:-"Let one suppose himself transported to a region, where the appearance, figure, and motion, of every animal is unknown, and he will form some idea of the variety presented by a drop of an infusion, observed by means of the microscope. One animalcule is a long slender line; another is coiled up like an eel or a serpent; some are circular, elliptical, or globular; another a triangle or a cylinder; some resemble thin flat plates; and some may be compared to a number of articulated reeds; one is like a funnel, and another like a bell; and the structure of many cannot be compared to any object familiar to our senses. Certain animalcula, such as the Proteus diffluens, can change their figure at pleasure, being sometimes extended to immod

erate length, and then contracted to a point; one moment they are inflated into a sphere, the next completely flaccid, and then various eminences will project from the surface, altering them apparently into animals entirely different. Neither is the peculiar motion of animalcula less remarkable; in several species, it consists of incessant gyration on the head as a centre, or around a particular point, as if one of the foci of an ellipse; the progression of others is by means of leaps or undulations; some swim with the velocity of an arrow, and the eye can scarcely follow them; some drag their unwieldy bodies along with painful exertion; and others, again, seem to persist in perpetual rest.

In turning to the organs of these microscopic animals, we shall find equal subject for admiration. Some take their food by absorption, being destitute of a mouth; others have a mouth, and several stomachs, amounting, sometimes, to the remarkable number of forty or fifty; some are without eyes, others have several; some have mandibles, and others have processes resembling eggs; while many have their mouths fringed with ray-like bristles. In many, the internal structure is quite peculiar; in others, it bears a remarkable analogy to that of higher species. Each class has its own particular food; some live on vegetable substances, others are predaceous, and others, again, seem to derive their nourishment entirely from absorbing the liquid in which they exist.

Let it not be forgotten, that all this minute organization, and these various appetites, habits, and motions, belong to existences too minute, in most instances, to be even discernible by the human eye; and we shall find it almost as difficult to stretch our imagination downwards, to the infinitely little among created objects, as it was to rise to the contemplation of the infinitely great. To the minute subdivision of matter there seems to be no conceivable bounds. This is not very hard to admit ; but, to be compelled to believe that the most minute particle

* Edinburgh Encyclopedia article Animalcule, written by Dalzell, the Translator of Spallanzani.

which our fancy can frame is an organized and living being; that it has a complex system of members, each of which is most skilfully fitted for its peculiar functions; that the processes of digestion, of nutrition, and of reproduction, are carried on in these invisible particles with equal perfection as in our own bodies; that they have instincts, and habits, and powers of choice and of enjoyment all this appears so amazing, that the mind can scarcely yield itself to the belief. And yet, why should it not? All magnitude and quantity are relative. We judge of them merely by the measure of our own experience; and, if we could but sufficiently disengage our minds to take an abstract view, we should perceive that there is, in reality, nothing more incredible in the subdivision and organization of what appears to us infinitely minute, than in the construction of the animals with which our senses are conversant.

Yet what an amazing view is opened to us, of the Creator, and his infinitely diversified works! The exclamation of Pliny, with regard to insects, may, with peculiar emphasis, be applied to the wonders of the microscopic world :-In his tam parvis, atque tam nullis, quæ ratio, quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio! It may be difficult to determine to what extent, or even in what manner, these innumerable myriads of invisible beings produce a salutary effect on the visible world; but we may be sure that it was not without a benevolent object that they were every where scattered over the world. Like the larvæ of certain insects, they probably act the important part of scavengers, in removing nuisances from the liquids in which they live, and preserving in them a healthy action. At all events, besides enjoying, as they doubtless do, a kind of happiness in themselves, they furnish food to animals of a somewhat higher species, while these, again, afford support to animals still higher in the scale, and so on through all the gradations of animated beings, one species preying upon another, and thus, by a mysterious arrangement, increasing the quanti

* [In these atoms, and, as it were, nothings, what a plan is exhibited, what power, what inscrutable perfection!'-AM. ED.]