48 NOTES ON 
CHAPTER VI. 
THE WHEEL ANIMALCULE. 
Vorticella Rotatoria.— Miller. 
THROUGHOUT the entire range of the animal 
kingdom, there is no portion the contemplation 
of which calls into more active exercise the 
powers of the imagination, and produces in every 
uncontaminated mind higher feelings of admira- 
tion and delight, than that which comprehends 
those animated beings, the evidence of whose 
existence is not attainable by our unassisted 
organs of vision. Animals endowed with free- 
dom of action, capable of selecting such situa- 
tions as are most conducive to their well-being, 
possessing appropriate organs for procuring the 
food they affect, and evincing an instinct not 
inferior to many of the higher animals, con- 
tained in a portion of space too minute to be 
discerned by our visual organs, furnish sublime 
and striking examples of creative wisdom and 
power that must have remained for ever con- 
