2 THOUGHTS ON ANIMALCULES. 



ful mythology of Fairy-land, and the dreamy creations 

 of the ancient philosophers, who, like the Chaldeans, 



watch'd the stars. 



Till they had peopled them with beings bright 

 As their own beams. 



Childe Harold. 



A sublimer creed succeeded, and is shadowed forth 

 in the following noble lines of our divine poet : — 



Nor think, though Man were none, 



That heav'n would want spectators, God want praise. 

 Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth, 

 Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep ! 



Paradise Lost, Book IV. 



This faith in the existence of supernatural beings, 

 whose presence is but rarely made manifest to mortals, 

 appears to be innate in the human mind. Its creations 

 have varied with the progress of civilisation and refine- 

 ment, and the inhabitants of the unseen world been 

 invested with higher attributes and subtler natures; 

 but the beautiful superstition, though modified, still 

 retains its influence, and even yet throws its spell over 

 the imaginings of the poet, and the speculations of the 

 philosopher and the sage. 



Who, in the bloom and freshness of youth, ere the 



