6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



which vifitecl it during the courfe of the day; flill 

 lefs of thofe which might come only in the night, 

 attraéled by (impie emanations, or, perhaps, by a 

 phofphoric light, which efcapes our fenfes. I was 

 totally ignorant of the various fpecies which might 

 frequent it, at other feafons of the year, and of the 

 endlefs other relations which it might have, with 

 reptiles, with amphibious animals, fifhes, birds, 

 quadrupeds, and, above all, with Man, who un- 

 dervalues every thing which he cannot convert to 

 his own ufe. 



But it was not fufficient to obferve it, if I may 

 ufe the expreffion, from the heights of my great- 

 nefs ; for, in this cafe, my knowledge would have 

 been greatly inferior to that of one of the in- 

 feds, who made it their habitation. Not one of 

 them, on examining it with his little fpherical eyes, 

 but muft have diftinguifhed an infinite variety of 

 objeds, which I could not perceive without the 

 affiftance of a microfcope, and after much laborious 

 refearch. Nay, their eyes are inconceivably fupe- 

 rior even to this inftiument ; for it fhews us the 

 objeds only which are in it's focus, that is, at the 

 diftance of a few lines ; whereas they perceive, by 

 a mechanifm of which we have no conception, 

 thofe which are near, and thofe which are far off, 

 Their eyes, therefore, are, at once, microfcopes 

 and telefcopes. Befides, by their circular difpoli- 



tion 



