I am impressed with the fact that the greatest 

 thing a human soul ever does in the world is to see 

 something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. 

 Hundreds of people can talk for one who can 

 think, but thousands can think for one who can 



— Emerson. 



The invention of the microscope made small 

 things seem large, and revealed to sight what was 

 too small to be seen without it ; but the use of 

 magnifying glasses brought an advantage with it 

 of a different kind — it taught those who used 

 them to see scientifically and exactly. In arming 

 the eye with these increased powers the attention 

 was concentrated on definite points in the object ; 

 what was seen was to some extent indistinct, and 

 always only a small part of the whole object; 

 perception by means of the optic nerve had to be 

 accompanied by conscious and intense reflection, 

 in order to make the object, which is observed in 

 part only with the magnifying glass, clear to the 

 mental eye in all the relations of the parts to one 

 another and to the whole. Thus the eye armed 

 with the microscope became itself a scientific 

 instrument, which no longer hurried lightly over 

 the object, but was subjected to severe discipline 

 by the mind of the observer and kept to methodi- 

 cal work. The philosopher Christian Wolff 

 observed very truly in 1721, that an object once 

 seen with the microscope can often be distin- 

 guished afterwards with the naked eye, and this, 

 which is the experience of every microscopist, is 

 sufficient evidence of the effect of the instrument 

 in educating and training the eye. 



— Sachs 



