114 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



Every time the clock ticks it speaks to us in a 

 fragmentary second ; the pendulum is solemnly vocal. 

 " Now ! now ! now ! " it says ; and another voice silently 

 joins in the sound " Passing away." * " Economy " ! 

 let me give you an illustration. One evening I was 

 sitting in my study, very busy a-thinking. I saw a very 

 minute spider descend from the ceiling, lowering itself 

 by the rope it let loose out of its spinneret. That little 

 creature was no bigger than a grain of sand. When it 

 came within my reach I mischievously sent a whiff of 

 tobacco-smoke over it. For a moment it seemed stupe- 

 fied, but, directly recovering itself, it rushed upwards 

 along its rope, taking care, hoivever, to haul it up after it ; 

 and I have no doubt that, could I have seen what was 

 going on aloft, it would have been found to swallow the 

 rolled-up thread and have been immediately employed 

 in its remanufacture. 



How many lessons may we learn from this remarkable 

 creature, which for centuries, nay ! for ages, as we have 

 said, has been silently preaching to our race ! Will you 

 think I am going a little too far in teaching you a 

 lesson of heavenly-mindedness from such a humble thing 

 as a spider ? Let me try. 



I told you that there are water-spiders that is, those 

 who have a fancy for building their dwellings in ponds 

 and streams, where they may safely rear their young. 

 You may have seen the human diver going down into 

 the water, while from dry land a pump supplies him 

 with air to enable him to carry on his dangerous work 

 below : well, the aquatic spider is a diver, but the method 

 she employs is far cleverer than that of the human diver ; 

 for, under those eight little legs of hers, she contrives to 



* Motto over the large clock in the South Kensington Museum. 



