THOUGHTS ON ANIMALCULES, 



" The majesty of God appears no less in smaU things than in great; 

 and, as it exceedeth human sense in the immensity of the Universe, so 

 also doth it in the smallness of the parts thereof." — Hobbes. 



I. 



INTRODUCTORY.— THE IDEAL INVISIBLE WORLD. 



In every country and in every age, a belief in the 

 existence of beings invisible to mortal eye has more 

 or less generally prevailed; and the air, the earth, and 

 the waters have been peopled by ideal forms, invested 

 with natures and attributes partaking of the charac- 

 ters of the minds from which thej emanated. Hence 

 sprang the Gnome of the mine and the cavern; the 

 Goule of the charnel-house and the tomb ; the beauti- 



