50 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “LITTLE ANIMALS”’ 
my merits must fall far short of. Under which protest 
I notwithstanding hold myself most straitly pledged 
hereby, by unalterable intent and promise, to the Fellows 
of the said Society, for the signal favour they have shown 
me, to strive with all my might and main, all my life 
long, to make myself more worthy of this honour and 
privilege. 
Wherewith commending you, most noble Gentlemen, 
one and all, to the merciful protection of Almighty God, 
I remain, Gentlemen, 
Your most humble servant 
Antony Leeuwenhoek. 
An amusing sidelight is thrown upon Leeuwenhoek at this 
moment in his career by a passage in a letter to Christiaan 
Huygens from his brother Constantijn." Writing on 13 
August 1680 he says’: 
Everybody here is still rushing to visit Leeuwenhoek, as 
the great man of the century. A few months ago the 
people of the Royal Society in London received him 
among their number, which gave him some little pride ; 
and he even seriously inquired of Sir Father* if, being 
now invested with this dignity, he would be obliged in 
future to take a back seat in presence of a doctor of 
medicine ! 
Leeuwenhoek never came to London to sign the Register 
of Fellows or attend any meeting of the Royal Society. He 
was a busy man, and seldom went far from home—though he 
tells us of occasional short excursions from Delft in some of 
his letters. For example, in those here translated there are 
* Constantijn Huygens filius (1628-1697), son of Constantijn pater—the 
“grand seigneur”’ and English knight—and elder brother of Christiaan. 
2 Printed in Clwres Compl. de Chr. Huygens (1899); No. 2226, 
Vol. VIII, p. 295. The original MS. is in the University Library at Leyden, 
and is written in French—from which I translate. 
3 ql Signor Padre orig.—meaning Sir Constantijn, their father. 
Constantijn jun. sometimes lapsed thus into Italian when writing in French 
to his brother—whom he called occasionally “ fratello caro”’. 
