40 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



The number of animated creatures is prodigious 

 indeed! The whole creation teems as it were with 

 existence! The dry-land sends forth its multitudes; 

 the air hath its swarms; the sea its numerous shoals: 

 and the very depositories of corruption produce their 

 myriads ! Indeed in the class of Insects alone there 

 are a greater number of species than there are kinds 

 of Plants on the surface of the earth. In a little rain 

 water, after standing some days, Mr. Lewenhoeck 

 discovered innumerable animalcules, many thou- 

 sands of times less than a grain of sand, and in 

 proportion to a mite as a bee is to a horse! Having 

 examined the melt of a cod, he concluded that it 

 contained more living animalcules than there were 

 people living in the world; and by a method he 

 made use of in order to ascertain the comparative 

 size with the thickness or breadth of a hair of his 

 head, it was found that 216,000 of these minute 

 creatures are but epual to a globe whose diameter is 

 the breath of a hair. How amazing the wonders of 

 Omnipotence! 



Yet notwithstanding these immense numbers, this 

 amazing diversity of form and bulk, of taste and 

 habit, all are conveniently and comfortably lodged ; 

 all are fed to their hearts' content, at the same 

 common table, and in such a manner as qpt a frag- 

 ment can be lost. How wonderful is it to observe 

 how well adapted are the various appetites of his 

 Creatures, to fulfil the will of the Great Creator, that 

 not a fragment may be lost. Some animals ol the 

 carniverous kind have an unquenchable thirst for 



