3 GO EVENINGS AT THE MICEOSCOPE. 



By which, uncoiled at times, she moors and rides; 

 From these, as hook-hairs on a fisher's line. 

 See feathery fibrils hang, in graceful twine, 

 Graceful as tendrils of the mantling vine. 

 These, swift as angler, by the fishy lake. 

 Projects his fly, the keen-eyed trout to take, 

 She shoots with rapid jerk to seize her food, 

 The small green creatures of crustaceous brood ; 

 Soon doomed herself a ruthless foe to find. 

 When in th' Actinia's arms she lies entwin'd. 

 Here prison'd by the vase's crystal bound. 

 Impassable as Styx's nine-fold round. 

 Quick she projects, as quick retracts again. 

 Her flexile toils, and tries her arts in vain : 

 Till languid grown, her fine machinery worn 

 By rapid friction, and her fringes torn. 

 Her full round orb wanes lank, and swift decay 

 Pervades her frame till all dissolves away. 

 So wanes the dew, conglobed on rose's bud, 

 So melts the ice-drop in the tepid flood : 

 Thus too shall many a shining orb on high 

 That studs the broad pavilion of the sky. 

 Suns and their systems fade, dissolve, and die." 



While we have been admiring our lovely little 

 Cijdijjpe, and comparing notes M'itli other observers and 

 admirers, other species as small, as transparent, as 

 sprightly, and scarcely less elegant, have been impa- 

 tiently waiting for their share of admiration ; shooting 

 to and fro, tossing their little bells of ductile glass about, 

 •tnd alternately lengthening and snatching-in their sen 

 tjitive tentacles, in astonishment at our stoical indifler 

 ence to their charms, and saying, sua more, with the 

 jittle urchin whose feelings were hurt by the neglect of 

 his papa's visitor — "You don't notice how beautiful I 

 bel" 



A thousand pardons, sweet little Sarsia ! "NYe will 

 now give you our undivided attention ; and for this 



