40 THE MICROSCOPE. 



on the material universe by the earthquake, the 

 volcano, the hurricane by rain, frost, and snow ; 

 we mark the additions made to it by the decay 

 of its thousand forests, and the degradation of 

 its lofty mountain-rocks, and the interment of 

 its gigantic inhabitants, the elephant, the rhino- 

 ceros, the whale ; but how striking is it to find 

 that vastly more ancient, and still more exten- 

 sive changes have been wrought by those minute 

 creatures, which the Microscope has for the first 

 time presented to the eye of man ! And while 

 such views should exalt our conceptions of the 

 perfections of the Deity, how ought they to fill 

 man's breast with humility and gratitude : with 

 humility, as he thinks how his interests have 

 been dependent on the agency of these least of 

 all existences ; and with gratitude, as he realizes 

 how much, in the mysterious economy of nature, 

 he owes to the silent, secret, but ceaselessly ac- 

 tive, invisible agents, who, by land and water, 

 are thus ever elaborating the atmosphere neces- 

 sary for man's existence, or soil for his occu- 

 pancy, or higher vegetables and animals for his 

 food ! Well may the author of that delightful 

 little volume, The Sea-side Book" say" We 



