TWO NEW WORLDS 



CHAPTER I 



A NEW MICROCOSM 



1. To throw the image of a drop of stagnant water 

 on a screen under a high magnifying power, and to 

 reveal the intense and manifold life which pervades 

 that aqueous microcosm, is a favourite proceeding 

 of the popular science lecturer. It never fails to 

 fascinate the audience, and often terrifies it. There 

 is something uncanny in the thought that a dew- 

 drop may contain thousands of small animals 

 which eat, and fight, and love, and die, and whose 

 span of life, to judge from their intense activity, 

 is probably filled with as many events as our own. 

 But some consolation may be derived from the 

 reflection that, when the water is boiled, all that 

 life disappears, and nothing remains but dead 

 matter organic, maybe, but no longer organ 

 or furnished with a complete set of emotions, 

 sensations, and purposes. 



But what guarantee have we that an instrument 

 of much higher power than the microscope an 



3 



