72 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
But every reader of Leeuwenhoek’s letters must form his 
own opinion of the man himself. Some have been—and will 
be—revolted by his “‘grossness” and “ vulgarity”: others 
will continue to delight in his very “ commonness”’, and will 
even find in it something meritorious. For my own part, I 
confess that I enjoy his most commonplace sayings, because 
they satisfy my own craving for simplicity and common sense 
in all things—especially in those called “scientific”. When 
Leeuwenhoek makes casual “asides”? about the most trivial 
affairs of his life, it does not offend me: it rather helps me to 
understand him. I like to hear that he generally drank coffee 
for breakfast and took tea in the afternoon, or that he shaved 
himself twice a week and got a rash on his hands when he sat 
in the sun: and I even laughed uproariously when I first read 
the letter in which he gravely told the Royal Society— 
evidently giving it as a tip to the Fellows—that he found it 
advisable to drink a great many cups of extremely hot tea on 
rising if he had had a drop of wine too much the night before 
with a friend. But when he speaks of his little white long- 
haired pet dog, or of his parrot “ which is moulting,” or of his 
horse “‘ which is a mare”’, or incidentally remarks that he was 
wont to throw bread to the sparrows when the snow was on 
the ground, I feel that I really know the sort of man he was. 
Little touches such as these bring the heavy-featured blue- 
eyed Hollander of Verkolje’s painting very vividly before my 
mind's eye, and explain—in an inexplicable and inexpressible 
manner—his crude but inspired discoveries in protozoology 
and bacteriology. They make me want to find excuses for all 
his many mistakes. It is so obviously his works—not his 
words—which count. I do not suppose that he ever read any 
writings of his great contemporary John Bunyan: but had he 
done so he would certainly have understood what Bunyan 
meant when he wrote: ‘‘ Yea, if a man have all knowledge, he 
may yet be nothing, and so consequently be no child of God. 
When Christ said, Do you know all these things? And the 
Disciples had answered, Yes: He addeth, Blessed are ye if ye 
do them.” * 
* John Bunyan (1628-1688), the immortal English tinker. I quote 
from the first edition of the Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), p. 113—written in 
Bedford jail. 
