STUDY I. 



muft prefent, to them, a fpeflacle of which we can 

 form no idea. The yellow anthers of flowers, fuf- 

 pended by fillets of white, exhibit to their c^'es, 

 double rafters of gold in equilibrio, on pillars 

 fairer than ivory ; the corolla^ an arch of unbounded 

 magnitude, embellidied with the ruby and the to- 

 paz ; rivers of nedar and honey ; the other parts 

 of the flowret, cups, urns, pavilions, domes, which 

 the human Architeâ: and Goldfmith have not yet 

 learned to imitate. 



1 do not fpeak thus from conjeélure: for having 

 examined, one day, by the microfcope, the flowers 

 of thyme, 1 diftinguilhed in them, with equal fur- 

 prize and delight, fuperb flagons, with a long 

 neck, of a fubftance refembling amethyft, from 

 the gullets of which feemed to flow ingots of liquid 

 gold. I have never made obfervation, of the co- 

 rolla Amply, of the fmalleft flower, without finding 

 it compofed of an admirable fubftance, half tran- 

 fparent, ftudded with brilliants, and fliining in the 

 moft lively colours. 



The beings which live under a reflex thus en- 

 riched, muft have ideas, very different from ours, of 

 light, and of the other phenomena of Nature. A 

 drop of dew, filtering in the capillary, and tran- 

 fparent, tubes of a plant, prefents, to them, thou- 

 fands of cafcades ; the fame drop, fixed as a wave 



on 



