EMBRYOLOGY AND CLASSIFICATION. 297 



no man capable of original research has the 

 time to prepare for the uninitiated the attendant 

 circumstances essential to his more difficult in- 

 vestigations, or to train their eyes to see what 

 he sees. So is it also with the microscopic 

 observer ; the deeper insight he has gained by 

 long training in steadiness of hand and eye, as 

 well as in the concentration of intellect that 

 makes the brain work harmoniously with them, 

 he cannot communicate. He may interest and 

 amuse his friends and visitors with some easy 

 exhibition of specimens under the microscope ; 

 he may open the door into the laboratory of 

 Nature, but he cannot invite them to cross the 

 threshold or to enter in with him. I think 

 people are not generally aware of the difficulty 

 of microscopic observation, or the amount of 

 painful preparation required merely to fit the 

 organs of sight and touch for the work. In old 

 times men prepared themselves with fast and 

 vigil for entrance into the temple ; and Nature 

 does not open her sanctuary without exacting 

 due penance from her votaries. It seems an 

 easy matter for a man to sit down and look at 

 objects through a glass which enlarges every- 

 thing to his vision ; but there are subjects of 

 microscopic research so obscure that the student 

 must observe a special diet before undertaking 

 his investigation, in order that even the beating 



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