4 PREFACE. 



magnitude. Yet here we trace the workings of Infinite benevolence, as visibly impressed on 

 minute forms and organizations, as in the' starry vault, emblazoned upon its rolling worlds. 

 Here we learn with new force the harmony of Nature with Revelation, and how true it is, 

 " that a sparrow shall not fall to the ground without our Father." 



Influenced by these considerations, I have been led to believe, that a popular work upon the 

 revelations of the microscope might at once be interesting and useful. This belief has resulted 

 in the present little treatise, which does not profess to be a panorama of the microscopic 

 world, but simply an exhibition and description of some of its most rare and curious objects. 



In the preparation of this volume, liberal use has of course been made of the discoveries of 

 the distinguished Ehrenberg, without which it must necessarily have been very defective. I 

 have also drawn copiously from the writings of Grew, Adams, Pritchard, Mantell and others ; 

 and from these sources the greater part of the illustrations have also been obtained. Without 

 specifying other portions of the book, the chapter on the crystallization of salts (except the 

 remarks upon snow) is the result of my own observations, and the drawings it contains are repre- 

 sentations of actual crystallizations, seen and studied by the artist. Besides these delineations, 

 many other original drawings and cuts are scattered throughout the work. The frontispiece is 

 an accurate representation of one of Chevalier's microscopes, which I have employed in all my 

 researches. The original drawings, as well as the copies of the selected cuts, were, for the 

 most part, executed by Mr. W. R. Lawrence, a young artist of this city, to whose taste and skill 

 I am much indebted. 



HARTFORD, Nov. 4th, 1850. 



