72 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



two little ear-like appendages you may see projecting 

 from its big head. 



There is a crisis in its little life-history, just as there 

 will be in yours and mine ; and that crisis is when it is 

 passing away from the life that now is to that which is 

 to come, when it is no longer to live in water, but air. 

 When the time of this crisis arrives, or when the time of 

 this pupa would have arrived had it not been taken and 

 prepared for our inspection, it would have reposed very 

 quietly on the surface of its watery bed. In a moment 

 its outer skin, which, in its former state, became detached 

 from its body several times as exuvia3, would have split 

 from one end of the body to the other, and presently the 

 "imago," the final and perfect form of the gnat, would 

 have appeared. This is what it has been preparing for ; 

 it is the last chapter in its curious life, and so this is 

 what I chiefly want you to see and to think about. 



Let me first tell you what happened when I fortunately 

 came into possession of this precious object. I looked at 

 it with a low power, and saw nothing but a big-headed 

 creature, having nothing in particular to attract atten- 

 tion, and I put it into my cabinet between the larva and 

 imago of its fellow in the division on which I have told 

 you I have written, " Resurrection at Sight." One day 

 I looked at this pupa with a greater magnifying power, 

 when I no longer recognized it as the same object; I still 

 further increased my aid to vision, when, to my inde- 

 scribable delight, for the first time in my life, I saw the 

 future life mysteriously wrapped up and concealed in the 

 object before me. 



It appeared too marvellous to be true, and as I saw the 

 doubled-up feet, six in number, and the embryo wings, 

 even to the minute scales (one of the test-objects for 

 high magnify ing-glasses), my heart leaped up within 



