168 



THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



Very interesting it is to consider the harmony of nature. 

 The Divine Author has often given the same patterns 

 of His workmanship in the animal that He has in the 

 vegetable kingdom. For example, take the case of the 

 Myliobates, one of the cartilaginous fishes, of which 

 the common ray is the type, and to which family the 

 skate belongs ; its teeth are large, flat, and mosaic- 

 like, and, when examined as an opaque object, exhibit 

 cellular structure similar to the petals we have just had 



before us, which pat- 

 terns have uncon- 

 sciously been copied 

 in many an article 

 manufactured by man. 

 Let me very strong- 

 ly recommend you to 

 study the most com- 

 mon of flowers, if you 

 would know what a 

 wonderful Workman 

 God is. You look at 

 them with your eyes, 



and, if you have a taste for the beautiful, you admire 

 their loveliness ; but you can only see their marvellous 

 structure by means of the microscope. A low power, a 

 deep eye-piece, good light, and a ready mind, and you 

 will then discover the difference between looking at a 

 thing and seeing into it. 



I cannot resist introducing here an anecdote sent me 

 by a friend during the compilation of these pages. He 

 says 



" Two poor little children lived in one of the worst of 

 the courts leading out of Golden Lane. They lived 

 alone no uncommon thing in such quarters as these. 



Transverse section of tooth of Myliobates. 



