INTRODUCTION. 45 



What the Allwise did not disdain to create cannot be un- 

 worthy of our notice ; and if in the minute Desmidiese, so 

 long concealed from the unassisted eye, we have been at 

 length enabled to recognize objects as carefully organized 

 as the bulky elephant or the majestic oak, and as happily 

 adapted to their position in nature, possessing too an eco- 

 nomy whose laws are no less constant and regular, shall we 

 not gladly examine this fresh evidence of an Almighty hand, 

 as distinctly impressed on them as on the rest of his crea- 

 tion? 



" To Him no high, no low, no great, no small ; 

 He fills, He bounds, connects and equals all." 



jectas, nullius in vita usus, indagaverim, iisque describendis tantum temporis 

 et operse impenderim. Cui respondeo. Quod Dei opera sunt in quibus con- 

 templandis memet exerceo ; quod Divinse Artis et Potentise efFecta, quibus 

 exquirendis subsecivas horas addico ; quod Ille me in hunc mundum intro- 

 duxerit, tam inexplicabili rerum varietate instructum et ornatum ; quod oculis, 

 quos mihi contulit, ea videnda, animo consideranda objecerit. In Dei ergo 

 contumeliam redundat, quod haec, quae eum creasse negare non audes, super- 

 vacua et inutilia esse affirmes." — Hist. Plant, v. 3. praef. p. ii. 



