74 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “LITTLE ANIMALS” 
A little later, in a letter to the Rev. George Garden’ he 
wrote °: 
I must say to you, as I’ve oft-times said already, that 
‘tis not my intention to stick stubbornly to my opinions, 
but as soon as people urge against them any reasonable 
objections, whereof I can form a just idea, I’ll give mine 
up, and go over to the other side: and especially because 
my efforts are ever striving towards no other end than, 
as far as in me lieth, to set the Truth before my eyes, to 
embrace it, and to lay out to good account the small 
Talent that I’ve received*: in order to draw the World 
away from its Old-Heathenish superstition, to go over to 
the Truth, and to cleave unto it. 
The following characteristic passages * are all from the last 
published series of Letters—the Send-brieven, written by 
Leeuwenhoek to various people at various dates : 
I have said before now, that, if ever I came to err in 
my discoveries, I would make open-hearted confession 
thereof.’ 
In the observations aforesaid I have spent a lot more 
time than many people would believe: yet I made them 
with pleasure, and paid no attention to people who say to 
me ‘‘ Why take so much pains?” and ‘“‘ What’s the use 
* George Garden (1649-1733), a Scottish divine, and minister at 
Aberdeen till 1701—when he was deposed for writing an “ Apology’’ for 
Antoinette Bourignon, the religious fanatic who assisted in Swammerdam’s 
downfall. Garden was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. 
* Quoted in Letter 81, to the Royal Society. 19 March 1694. Cf. 
Brieven, 4de Vervolg, p.671-2. There is no extant MS. of this letter, 
which was sent to the Society by L. in the form of a printed proof-sheet 
and was not published in the Phil. Trans. 
* The reference is obviously to Matth. XXV, 25 sq.—the parable of the 
talents. Li. does not here use the biblical words, but his own have a strong 
flavour of the Bible—as was only meet, in writing to a clergyman. 
* I translate from the Dutch versions, as nearly as I can: for the flavour 
of the originals is almost wholly lost in the more formal Latin translations. 
> Send-brief II, p. 16. 
