MAGNITUDE AND MINUTENESS. 



bodies are composed* 8. Solid, liquid, and gaseous states how pro- 

 duced. 9. Mechanical subdivision. 10. Pulverised marble. 11. 

 Inequalities of polished surfaces. 12. Particles of gold on touch- 

 stone. 13. Filaments of glass. 14. Micrometer wires. 15. Gold 

 leaf. 16. Gilt silver threads for embroidery. 17. Soap bubbles. 

 18. Insects' wings. 19. Filaments of wool, silk, and fur. 20. Red 

 Particles in the blood. 21. Animalcules. 22. Spider's web. 23. 

 Minute subdivision of a grain of salt. 24. Of sulphate of copper. 

 25. Of musk. 26. Of strychnine. 27. Of ammoniacal hyposulphite. 

 28. Of sugar. 29. Is matter infinitely divisible ? 30. Crystallisa- 

 tion of salt. 31. Ultimate atoms. 32. Natural crystals. 33. Plane 

 of cleavage. 34. Determinate figure of ultimate atoms. 35. Prin- 

 ciples of mechanical science independent of this hypothesis. 36. 

 Matter not destructible. 37. By combustion. 38. By evaporation. 

 39. By destructive distillation. 40. Nor by any other process. 



1. ALL our conceptions of material objects are relative. Great 

 and small, long and short, big and little, and such like, are words 

 which severally have tacit reference to some standards which 

 habit, and the things among which we live, and by which we are 

 surrounded, have established in our thoughts. "Whenever objects 

 are presented to the senses or raised in the imagination, departing 

 in any extraordinary degree from these familiar and habitual 

 standards, emotions of surprise, astonishment, wondei, admira- 

 tion, ridicule, pity, or contempt, according to varying circum- 

 stances, are excited. How susceptible we are of such feelings, 

 and how peculiar is the enjoyment produced by their excitement, 

 will be understood when it is recollected with what skill Swift has 

 played upon them in his fiction of Gulliver, and the unbounded 

 pleasure derived by young minds from tales of giants, dwarfs, and 

 fairies. 



2. The contemplation and study of the natural world, aided by 

 the lights of science, disclose to us objects which soon emancipate 

 the mind from the narrow limits imposed upon it by all those 

 familiar and habitual standards of magnitude, and show us creative 

 power working with equal sublimity, perfection, and wisdom, upon 

 masses compared with which the most enormous objects around 

 us, the most stupendous mountains, nay, the entire globe of our 

 earth itself, dwindle into insignificant atoms ; and, on the other 

 hand, upon objects so minute as to be rendered perceptible to the 

 senses only by extraordinary expedients supplied by the resources 

 of science, such as the microscope. In both extremes of creation 

 are found the same character and manifestations of infinite power, 

 wisdom,, and skill, compared with which, the greatest attainable 

 by the most exalted human intellect are mere foolishness ; benevo- 

 lence of purpose, of which there appears neither end, limit, nor 

 cessation; and grandeur of -design, compared with which all* 



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