338 THe MICROSCOPE. 
suggest many a subject on which to enlighten his pupils, and he 
cannot tell until he dies and his work is reviewed, how much 
good he may have done by the exhibition of a single thing 
under the instrument, or a single description of a microscopic 
object. A pupil who is dullness and stupidity personified when 
the arithmetic is to the fore, may possess just that mental ele- 
ment needed to make him an investigator of Nature, but it may 
be in abeyance, waiting only the chance word to arouse it, or a 
chance glimpse through the magical tube to awaken it to an 
endless life. 
The teacher has a fearful responsibility, so fearful that it ought 
to terrify him, unless he takes advantage of every little thing to 
help him in his often monotonous labor. One of these little 
things which is not a little thing, is the microscope. It aston- 
ishes even the most mature, when seen for the first time; to a child 
it is like a glance through the portals of another world. It is the 
door-way to another world, and the teacher who qualifies him- 
self to do no more than to lead the pupil to that magical door- 
way, although he can only place it never so slightly ajar, is worth 
infinitely more in the world’s history than the teacher who can 
“say his Popes,” or repeat “his English kings,” or give the dates 
of all the battles of the Ashantees, 
It takes but little effort to arouse a child’s interest in Nature, 
for all children are curious about the world around them, but 
where that interest will lead and where it will end, the teacher 
cannot tell, and need not care, for it will never lead to the bad, 
nor end in anything but good. And the world may profit by it. 
A private letter from an eminent professor of histology in one 
of our most prominent universities is in touch with this idea 
when it says: “ My interest in microscopical work began as a 
school boy, and I am not one of those who decry microscopy 
because of the tendency of some of its devotees to become lovers 
of pretty objects on slides, for the reason that I believe that if 
~we could only cultivate that boyish love of the curious and the 
beautiful carefully enough, and then guide it aright, we could 
do a world of good to biological science, and save some of our 
young men from hours of ennui which lead to hurtful associa- 
tions and habits, by having their leisure hours occupied by a 
profitable and healthful pursuit of information. This is one of 
the English ideas that I wish we could copy in this country. 
