8 The Bible of Nature 



that some microbes in certain phases can pass 

 through the most carefully constructed water-filter 

 and are invisible to the best microscope. We know 

 that they pass through by the results; we can get 

 cultures of them out of the water. Yet these in- 

 visibly minute creatures have so much constructive 

 power that from one, in a few hours, a million 

 may result, and so much destructive power that 

 a small dose of them soon kills an ox. 



Abundance of Life. — We need only allude to the 

 actual abundance of life. The roll-call of animals 

 includes so many tens of thousands of species that, 

 so far as our power of realizing the total is con- 

 cerned, it is hardly affected when we note that 

 more than half of them are insects. More than 

 two thousand years ago Aristotle recorded a total 

 of about 500 animals, but there may be more new 

 species in a single volume of the Challenger Re- 

 ports. We speak of the number of stars, yet more 

 than one family of insects is credited with includ- 

 ing as many different species as there are stars to 

 count with the unaided eye on a clear night. And 

 besides the number of different kinds, think of the 

 uncountable numbers of individuals. 



" But what an endlesse worke have I on hand 

 To count the sea's abundant progeny 

 Whose fruitful seede farre passeth those on land, 

 And also those which wonne in th' azure sky, 

 How much more eath to tell the starres on hy, 



