AND ITS REVEL /VTIONS. 233 



habits. The school-boj' thus trained, looks forward to the holiday which 

 shall enable him to search afresh iu some favourite pool, or to explore the 

 wonders of some stagnant basin, with as much zest as the keenest sports- 

 man longs for a day's shooting on the moors, or a day's fishing in the best 

 trout-stream ; and with this great advantage over him, — that his excursion 

 is only the beginning of a fresh stock of enjoyment, instead of being in 

 itself the whole." 



In the part of the work devoted to the description of the 

 Microscope, the most full and liberal account is given of the 

 various kinds of instruments constructed bj various makers. 

 No one can, we think, complain tliat they are not fairly 

 treated by Dr. Carpenter. Whenever an instrument exhibits 

 a new feature or application it has been fully described, so 

 that the possessor of this volume will have an ample guide in 

 the purchase of the multiplicity of instruments now courting 

 his attention. The notice of accessory apparatus is not less 

 minute, fair, and comprehensive. Those who become ac- 

 quainted with the Microscope for the first time by this work, 

 will be, perhaps, sojnewhat dismayed at the extent, variety, 

 and expense of the microscopic apparatus, but let them be 

 comforted with the following words : — 



" It cannot be too strongly or too constantly kept in view, that the 

 value of the results of Microscopic inquiry will depend far more upon the 

 sagacity, perseverance, and Accuracy of the observer, than upon the elabo- 

 rateness of his instrument. The most perfect Microscope ever made, in the 

 hands of one who knows not how to turn it to account, is valueless ; iu the 

 hands of a careless, a hasty, or a prejudiced observer, it is worse than 

 valueless, as furnishing new contributions to the already large stock of 

 errors that pass under the guise of scientific truths. On the other hand, 

 the least costly Microscope that has ever been constructed, how limited 

 soever its powers, provided that it gives no false appearances, shall furnish 

 to him who knows what may be done with it, a means of turning to an 

 account, profitable alike to science and to his own immortal spirit, those 

 hours which might otherwise be passed in languid ennai, or in frivolous or 

 degrading amusements,* and even of immortalizing his name by the dis- 

 covery of secrets in Nature as yet undreamed of. A very large proportion 

 of the great achievements of Microscopic research that have been noticed 

 in the preceding outline, have been made by the instrumentality of micro- 

 scopes which would be generally condemned iu the present day as utterly 

 unfit for any scientific purpose ; and it cannot for a moment be supposed, 

 that the field which Nature presents for the prosecution of inquiries with 

 instruments of comparatively limited capacity, has been in any appreciable 

 degree exhausted. On the contrary, what has heen done by these and 

 scarcely superior instruments, only shows how much there is to he done. 

 The author may be excused for citing, as an apposite example of his mean- 

 ing, the curious results he has recently obtained from the study of the de- 

 velopment of the Purpura lapillus (rockwhelk), which will be detailed in 

 their appropriate place (Chap, xii.) ; for these were obtained almost entirely 



* '' I have seen," says Mr. Kingsley, " the cultivated man, craving for travel and 

 success in life, pent up in the drudgery of London work, and yet keeping his spirit 

 calm, and his morals perhaps all the more righteous, by spending over his Microscope 

 evenings which would too probably have generally been wasted at the theatre." 



