NATURAL HISTORY. 101 



" It is because you see so much of God's 

 knowledge in them ; is it not ?" 



" Yes, my dear boys, it is. When I look at 

 many things which man makes or does, I 

 think to myself, < Now this thing is likely to 

 have a mixture of sense and nonsense in it; 

 the sense is God's, and the nonsense is man's.' 

 But when I look at a thing made by one of 

 the dumb creatures for its own comfort and 

 safety, like the spider's house, with its door 

 and hinge, for instance, I say to myself, ' Now 

 here is the wisdom of God, without any of 

 man's nonsense.' And yet, boys, men are far 

 wiser than any other animal in this world." 



" But, Uncle Philip, you said that a piece 

 of man's best work was really coarse : some 

 things must be neat, we should think. Is the 

 point of a needle coarse ? It does not seem so." 



" Boys, you have mentioned the very thing 

 which was in my mind when I spoke. The 

 point of the smallest needle is very coarse. 

 You have heard me talk of the microscope. 

 I told you it was a set of glasses, so fixed that 

 when you looked through them, it made small 

 things appear very large : on some other day, 

 perhaps, I will let you look through my mi- 

 croscope for yourselves ; but now, I just wish 



