372 The Microscope. 



thing will go wrong, and the microscopist, unless he be persist- 

 ent and willing to help himself to the cross-roads, will put aside 

 the instrument and feel that he has been deluded, and that all 

 microscopists are in league to conceal their own failure. The 

 trouble is that he has expected an inanimate thing to lead him, 

 whereas he must lead it. Let him creep and stagger, and 

 drag the microscope along till he gets to the first cross-roads, 

 and if the angel should happen to be absent he will not be 

 missed, for the microscopist, by that time, will have learned 

 something. His muscles have become so steady that the mirror 

 is conquered ; he will handle thin glass with seemingly careless 

 ease; he will now begin to catch glimpses of something in the 

 microscopical highway, and once there he may come face to 

 face with Jeffries W^'man's heart-filling experience ; he will 

 surely find the angel then. 



Others help those who help themselves, it is said, and the 

 microscopist soon discovers the truth of that. There can be n© 

 less selfish class of human beings than the class of the micro- 

 scopists. But to cry and whine and mope and then give up, be- 

 cause the whole universe does not stand still at your wish, and 

 the whole army of microscopists does not rush back to lift you 

 up, is no way to get help. The editor of the Druggist's Circular 

 has put the matter in this pungent shape : 



" Relying on the help of others to the exclusion of individual 

 exertion is not the way to learn. He who gives evidence of 

 having exhausted his powers of direct inquiry will always re- 

 ceive the cheerfull}^ given aid of others more experienced, and 

 aid so acquired will be of far more value on account of the pre- 

 vious preparation by research than it would be without such 

 eflfort. Information gained by labor is apt to be remembered, 

 and a man's fund of available knowledge will always be in 

 proportion to the thought and work expended in its acquire- 

 me.it." 



Only show a willingness to help yourself, and any one of the 

 great army of investigators will gladly turn back to lend a 

 hand when asked. If he should refuse, set him down for a 

 fraud and a mountebank. There is no more subtle test of a 

 true microscopist than the asking for microscopical help. The 

 beginner himself will soon feel the promptings of the micro- 

 scopical philanthropy, and will actually be on the look out for 



