84 The Microscope. 



image formed by a good objective that is entirely lacking in the 

 performance of a poor one, or of one that is not first class. It 

 is advisable therefore always to select the best that the purchaser 

 can afford to buy ; and if he cannot take the two or three that 

 he will need, and have them all good, it is much better to take 

 two or even one that shall be at the top of the list in regard ta 

 performance, rather than to burden himself with several of a 

 second rate, and be compelled to waste his time and money, the 

 one trying to see what they can not show him, the other in sac- 

 rificing them in order to get better that he must have or fall be- 

 hind the workers that are no more than his equals in study 

 with the instrument. A good brain must have good objectives 

 to work with, or the microscopist with the good brain would do- 

 well to put an immediate end to his attempts to go forward, as 

 it is the duty of every man to do. It is a Bible command, this of 

 going forward. Progress is ever the watch word in spiritual 

 things, as it is in the affairs of the world. It is emphatically so 

 in the microscopical world. The microscopist that attempts to- 

 stand still will soon be left behind, lost in the mists and the- 

 swamps from which he will never escape. He must go forward 

 or disappear. To do it he should have good objectives, or he- 

 would do well to stop at once and go to digging ditches for a rec- 

 reation, or to white-washing for a pastime. 



The reader cannot too soon free his mind of the belief that he- 

 can get something for nothing. That is contrary to Nature, for 

 even Nature which seems to be so open handed and generous,, 

 demands her price, and sooner or later gets it although it may 

 leave the victim bankrupt. Optical tools are works of skill and 

 the result of skilled labor, and we must pay their price, although 

 it may at times seem excessive, and in many cases is excessive. 

 But a good thing is always worth its price. That too is a law 

 of Nature. A good objective will take considerable hard earned 

 money, but it will never deteriorate, unless the reader shall select 

 an apochromatic ; of these he may be suspicious, as they seem 

 destined sooner or later to undergo an obscure chemical change 

 that makes them semi-opaque. Other kinds can be trusted to 

 remain as good after fifty years of use as after one. Let me re- 

 peat then. Get the best that you can afford at the beginning. 

 If two cannot be taken, then take one and wait for the other. 



Much, too, has been said about an ideal series of objectives. 



