( iv ) 



made a matter of objection by feveral of his cotemporaries, thci-c- 

 i'ore the foUoAving pallage in his own words, will ierve to Ihite the 

 objection, and the manner in which it was anfwered by the Author 

 himfelf. 



' I have often heard, tlu.t many perfons difpute the truth of 

 ' what I advance in my writings, laying that my narrations con- 

 ' cerning animalcules, or minute living creatures, are merely of my 

 ' ov/n invention. And, it feems, fome perfons in France have even 

 ' veiitured to allert, that thole are not in trutli living creatures, 

 ' which I deicribe as dilcovcrable to our fight, and alledge, that after 

 ' v.ater has been boiled, thele particles in it which I pronounce to be 



* animalcules will be flill obferved to move. The contrary of this, 

 ' however, I have demonft rated to many eminent men, and I will be 

 ' bold to fay, that thole gentlemen who hold this language, have 



* own univcrfe; fuch a fpecul.itioii, by reafon of its nicety, .nppcais ridiculous to thofe who 

 ' have not turned their thoughts that way, though at the fame time it is founded on no Ids 

 ' than the evidence of ademonllration. Nay, we may yet carry it farther, and difcover in the 

 ' fmallert particle of this httle world, a new incxhaufted fund of matter, capable of being 

 ' fpun cut into another univerfe. 



' I have dwelt the longer on this fubj.fl, becaufe I think it may (hew us the proper limit?, 

 ' as well as the defciftivencfs of our imagination; how it is confined to a veryfmall quantity 

 ' of fpace, and immediately flopt in its operations, when it endeavours to take in any thing 

 ' that is very great, or very little. Let a man try to conceive the different bulk of an animal, 

 ' which is twenty, from another which is a hundred times lefs than a mite, or to compare in 



* his thoughts, a length of a thoufand diameters of the earth, with that of a million, and he 



* will quickly find that he has no different meafures in his mind, adjufted to fuch cxtraordi- 

 ' nary degrees of grandeur or minutenefs. The underflandhig, indeed, opens an infinite fpace on 



* every fide of us ; but the imagination, after a few faint efforts, is immediately at a fland, and 



* finds herfelf fwallovvcd up in the immenfity of the void that furrounds it : our reafon can pur- 



* fue a particle of matter through an infinite variety of divifions; but the fancy foon lofes 

 ' fight of it, and feels in itfelf a kind of chafm, that wants to be filled with matter of more fcn- 



* fible bulk. We can neither widen, nor contract the faculty to the dinienfioiis of either 



* extreme. The objetft is too big for our capacity, when wc would comprehend thecircum- 



' ference of a world: and dwindles nito nothing, when vvc endeavour af;er the idea of v.n 



' aiom.' 



., * Spectator, No. 420.' 



