250 Tue MiIcroscopr. 
derful Doctor’s” reflections above referred to, cannot but be con- 
vinced, that he is also entitled to the inventive honors of the micro- 
scope. Certainly, many inventions have been awarded on much 
less obscure grounds, than those on which both telescope and 
microscope are given to Roger Bacon, the learned and _perse- 
cuted English monk. But assuming that the microscope thus 
found its shapely birth in the 13th century, it would seem as 
though six hundred years ought to have given it a more brilliant 
future than it has in fact earned. 
Perhaps one of the chief reasons is, that the revelations of the 
instrument, have not, until of comparatively late years, been 
turned to practical use. This is a utilitarian age of ours, and un- 
less a discovery or invention can be made “to pay,” it is very 
apt to be labelled and set aside as of “no account.” No matter 
that this wonderful instrument,—in its scope transcending its twin 
brother that ranges through regions more distant than geometry 
has ever measured,—reveals to the inquisitive student a world in 
every atom, tribes and families of a busy population in every liquid 
drop, worlds teeming with life and numberless as the stars in the 
flowers of every garden, and hidden within, beyond all that minute- 
ness which the aided eye of man has hitherto been able to explore, 
points to the possibility of an undiscoverable region of invisibles; 
still, men, “ busy here and there” in their own daily affairs, have 
not crowded the gates of this new world, nor cared to realize the 
magnificent exhibition of Nature’s wonders here awaiting them. 
Had they but made steady explorations in this direction, even for 
the last century, how much further the world’s advance would 
have been to-day. This untraversed country, like that of the 
womb of chemistry, is pregnant with a thousand wonders yet to 
be revealed to our race. And the pleasant thought is, that these 
gates of knowledge stand open day and night; no passport, save 
that of an honest desire after truth, is required of those who would 
enter and explore. Everyone is more than welcomed by those al- 
ready busy within these limitless fields, and who, like the startled 
travellers in the granite-walled canyons of the Yosemite, are glad 
to proclaim to each new comer, the wonders they themselves have 
seen. This brotherhood in scientific inquiry and exploration, is as 
beautiful as it is inspiring and productive of great results. And 
the spirit of it, we would fain impart to our associates and readers } 
