208 



send it into the clay, and by that means not on [7 

 thrive themselves, *)ut provide a shelter far other 

 plants. 



I shall add only one observation more, concerning 

 the difference between natural and artificial things. 

 If we examine the finest needle by the microscope, 

 the point of -it appears about a quarter of an inch 

 broad, and its figure neither round, nor flat, but irre- 

 gular and unequal. And the surface, however smooth 

 and bright it may seem to the naked eye, is then seen 

 full of raggedness, holes, and scratches, like an iron 

 bar from the forge. But examine in the same manner 

 the sting of a bee, and it appears to have in every 

 part a polish most amazingly beautiful, without the 

 least flaw or inequality, and ends in a point too fine 

 to be discerned by any glass whatever. And yet 

 this is only the outward sheath of far more exqui- 

 site instruments. 



A small piece of the finest lawn, from the distance 

 and holes between its threads, appears like a lattice 

 or hurdle. And the threads themselves seem coarser 

 than the yarn wherewith ropes are made for anchors. 

 Fine Brussels lace will look as if it were made of a 

 thick, rough, uneven hair line, intwistcd or clotted to. 

 gether in a very awkward and unartful manner. But 

 a silk worm's webb on the nicest examination appears 

 perfectly smooth and shining, and as much finer than 

 any spinster in the world can make, as the smallest 

 twine is than the thickest cable. A pod of this silk 

 winds into nine hundred and sixty yaYds. And as it 

 is two threads twisted together all the length, so it 

 really contains one thousand eight hundred and sixty } 

 and yet wefghs but two grains and a half. What an 

 exquisite fineness ! and yet this is nothing to the 

 silk that issued from the worm's mouth, when newly 

 hatched. 



The smallest dot which caa be made with a pen, 

 appears through a glass, a vast irregular spot, rough, 

 jagged and uneven about all its edges. The finest 



