VIEWS OF THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD. 



By their means the boundaries of knowledge are extended ; but the aid that 

 each affords is essentially different. The telescope reveals creations that lie be- 

 yond our globe ; the microscope those that are within it, yet too minute to be 

 seen by the unassisted eye. The former tells us of the nature and motions of 

 the starry host which, in their silent march from century to century, have " never 

 fainted in their watches/' and still beam upon us in all their primeval radiance 

 and beauty the only unchanging objects upon which the eye of man can rest. 



It tells us that they are worlds, and suns, and systems of suns like our own, 

 rushing with inconceivable speed through the illimitable fields of space ; the su- 

 perior orbs moving in the midst of a glittering zone of attendant worlds, yet 

 each advancing in a fixed but invisible path, and guided by laws as immutable 

 as the word of Him who made them. At every progressive step the revelations 

 become more amazing, and scenes after scenes of mysterious grandeur are suc- 

 cessively unfolded ; but at the utmost verge of discovery we are still upon the 

 threshold of creation, glimpses only of the infinite are beheld, and far as the 

 loftiest mind may soar, it perceives but a hand-breadth of the splendid pano- 

 rama of the skies. 



The microscope, in its revelations, advances in an opposite direction from the 

 infinite in extent to the infinitely small. Tt places us in the midst of a world 

 before invisible, which, like a new creation in the freshness of beauty, stretches 

 away in enchanting prospects on every side. Far as our assisted sight may 

 pierce, all is instinct with life, enshrined in strange and curious forms, and 

 replete with harmony, and skill, and wise design. And our discoveries terminate 

 not for the want of unknown fields to explore, full of the developments of creative 

 power, but because our sight grows dim, and we have no further means of pour- 

 ing light upon what remains unseen, and dispelling the darkness that rests upon 

 the surrounding regions of infinitude. 



Under this noble instrument the most common substances and objects are fre- 

 quently sources of the highest interest and instruction : a grain of marl or pow- 

 dered rock is seen to consist almost entirely of the flinty shells of minute animals, 

 which ages ago sported in the full activity of life, and have left the enduring 

 records of their existence accumulated in mountains, and deposited through the 

 deep soil of wide-spread plains. The rock and the soil have not simply entombed 

 these shells, but their minute forms, so small that millions are frequently com- 

 pressed within a cubic inch, constitute the chief material of these mountains 

 and plains. Rocks are quarried from their aggregated myriads, and upon them 

 are based the solid edifices of large and stately cities. 



Let the scene be varied. A thin slice of the bark or wood of the most 

 common tree is placed beneath the microscope ; a moment before there was no- 

 thing in its appearance to attract attention ; now a most beautiful organization is 

 before us, and ranges of cells and tubes are seen grouped in symmetrical figures, 

 and forming a delicate tissue, surpassing in the fineness of its texture the richest 

 lace. Or should the unbroken ashes of a leaf be examined, the structure is 

 perceived to be still in existence, the minute veins of the leaf running in various 



