8 THE UNIVERSE. 



declaring that his discoveries, published for the most part 

 in a low and servile style, were absolutely chimerical. In- 

 sult followed hostility, and at last Hartzoeker resolved to 

 stick at no means, and determined, at all hazards, to pry 

 into the labors of his rival. By the aid of the chief magis- 

 trate of Leyden, he introduced himself, under a feigned 

 name, to Leuwenhoeck, in order to pirate his labors; but 

 the old microscopist, recognizing him, very speedily showed 

 him the door. 



Leuwenhoeck's discoveries are really wonderful when 

 compared with his means of investigation ; the acute obser- 

 vation of the philosopher transcended the power of his in- 

 struments, and even now we ask how he can have guessed 

 at so many truths, which they could not have revealed to 

 him. 



In fact, the illustrious Dutchman never possessed an in- 

 strument to be compared, in point of perfection, to those 

 which we use nowadays ; he only employed simple lenses 

 which he made himself. It was with instruments like these 

 that he made his most important discoveries. Any one can 

 verify this assertion in the museum of the Royal Society of 

 London, to which, on his death-bed, he bequeathed those 

 magnifying glasses that had gained him so much glory. 



Leuwenhoeck's most powerful lenses did not magnify 

 more than sixty diameters, whereas we now possess achro- 

 matic microscopes which magnify 1200 to 1500 diameters. 



It was recently stated in some of the scientific journals 

 that two London opticians had succeeded in constructing 

 lenses of 7500 diameters, equal to an enlargement of the 

 surface of 56,000,000 times. It was added that, notwith- 



