68 
LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “LITTLE ANIMALS”’ 
lay two microscopes of the small sort. As we marvelled 
at this large store, we asked him whether he never sold 
any? as we would gladly have possessed ourselves of 
some: but he said no, he would sell none in his lifetime. 
He was also very secret about his work, and how he did 
it: but we drew one thing and another out of him with 
all manner of questions. Thus, when we asked him 
whether all these mzcroscopia were identical? he said 
they were all ground in the same grinding-cup, but 
nevertheless there was a difference between the various 
lenses, and as regards those ground last in any cup, 
indeed, a great difference..... When we further 
inquired of Mr. Leeuwenhoek whether he ground all his 
lenses, and did not blow any? he denied this, but 
displayed great contempt for the blown glasses. He 
pointed out to us how thin his microscopia were, com- 
pared with others, and how close together the laminae 
were between which the lens lay, so that no spherical 
glass could be thus mounted ; all his lenses being ground, 
contrariwise, convex on both sides. He also had some 
microscopia with double glasses, which, though they were 
double, and the lenses separated inside at their proper 
distance, presumably by another lamina, were nevertheless 
not much thicker than the simple ones. Notwithstanding 
that these are pretty troublesome to make, they yet are 
not much better than the simple ones, excepting that 
they magnify a little more; but only a little, as Mr. 
Leeuwenhoek himself confessed. As regards the blown 
glasses, Mr. Leeuwenhoek assured us that he had 
succeeded, after ten years’ speculation, in learning how 
to blow a serviceable kind of glasses which were not 
round. My brother was unwilling to believe this, but took 
it for a Dutch joke*; since it is impossible, by blowing, 
to form anything but a sphere, or rounded end. Yet one 
cannot sufficiently marvel at Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s great 
' A pleasing German expression for a falsehood. 
