35 



visibles, these atoms of Natural Creation, be 

 the mysterious Absolute of our existence ? Of 

 our propagation and decease ? Multitudes of 

 these creatui'es toiling silently in the couyoIu- 

 ted brain cells, like the maggots of odd Dean 

 Swift's fancy, may create ideas, intellect, pas- 

 sions. Other legions, laboring in the blood 

 corpuscles, may determine the purity or im- 

 purity of that precious medium and, thereby, 

 its vitalizing or devitalizing virtues ; while 

 yet other hosts may control (or influence) the 

 decay of our organic structures and their per- 

 ishable framework ? May not soils owe their 

 fertility or sterility, their adaptability or im- 

 practicability to the unseen workings of these 

 Genii of the Little? May not water, also, de- 

 rive many of its properties, beneficial or injur- 

 ious as they may happen to be, from its teem- 

 ing contents of microscopical life ? We al- 

 ready know (from Bruce, the traveller,) that 

 the natives of far away Abyssinia are infest- 

 ed with parasite Worms through the agency 

 of the water they drink — may not many dis- 

 eases of the guts originate from germs more 

 minute than these pernicious Larvae ? 



All this I believe will be proven to be fact, 

 and in its darker aspect we are very naturally 



