MICROGRAPHY AND MICROPHOTOGRAPHY 137 



and he hath written as much in one of his little leaves as 

 a great leaf of the Bible." 



By most people, such achievements are considered mar- 

 vels of skill, and the newspaper accounts of them which are 

 published always attract special attention. And it must 

 be acknowledged that such work requires good eyes, steady 

 nerves, and very delicate control of the muscles. But with 

 ordinary writing materials there are certain mechanical 

 limitations which must prevent even the most skilful from 

 going very far in this direction. These limitations are im- 

 posed by the fiber or grain of the paper and the construc- 

 tion of the ordinary pen, neither of which can be carried 

 beyond a certain very moderate degree of fineness. Of 

 course, the paper that is chosen will be selected on account 

 of its hard, even-grained surface, and the pen will be chosen 

 on account of the quality of its material and its shape, and 

 the point is always carefully dressed on a whetstone so as 

 to have both halves of the nib equal in strength and length, 

 and the ends smooth and delicate. When due preparation 

 has been made, and when the eyes and nerves of the writer 

 are in good condition, the smallness of the distinctly read- 

 able letters that may be produced is wonderful. And in 

 this connection it is an interesting fact that in many me- 

 chanical operations, writing included, the hand is far more 

 delicate than the eye. That which the unaided eye can 

 see to write, the unaided eye can see to read, but the hand, 

 without the assistance or guidance of the eye, can produce 

 writing so minute that the best eyes cannot see to read it, 

 and yet, when viewed under a microscope, it is found to 

 compare favorably with the best writing of ordinary size. 

 And those who are conversant with the more delicate 

 operations of practical mechanics, know that this is no ex- 



