THE MICROSCOPE. (53 



might be compared to a beautiful ivory-turned ball in 

 miniature. It is covered by a series of deep indentations or 

 pits, with regularly projecting spines. The egg of the Jodis 

 vernaria, or small Emerald Volute moth (Fig. 16), is remark- 

 able in form, which is somewhat oval, but flattened on the 

 broad side, of silvery whiteness, covered with minute reticula- 

 tions and dots, peculiarly translucent, so much so that the 

 little yellow-brown worm is seen curled up within, as shown 

 in the egg to the left. Fig. 17 is the egg of the Honey-bee, 

 showing the germinal vesicle. 



THE MICROSCOPE. 







THE invention of the microscope has opened a new world 

 to us. " It has been well observed/' says Professor Whewell, 

 " that about the same time when the invention of the tele- 

 scope showed us that there might be myriads of other worlds 

 claiming the Creator's care, the invention of the microscope 

 proved to us that there were in our own world myriads of 

 creatures, before unknown, which this care was preserving. 

 While one discovery seemed to remove the Divine Providence 

 further from us, the other gave us more striking examples 

 that it was far more active in our neighbourhood than we 

 had supposed ; while the first extended the boundaries of 

 God's known kingdom, the second made its known adminis- 

 tration more minute and careful. 



" It appeared that in the leaf, and in the bud, in solids and 

 fluids, animals existed hitherto unsuspected ; the apparently 

 dead masses and blank spaces of the world were found to 

 swarm with life. And yet, of the animals thus revealed, all, 

 though unknown to us before, had never been forgotten by Pro- 

 vidence. Their structure, their vessels and limbs, their adap- 

 tation to the situation, their food and habitations, were 

 regulated in as beautiful and complete a manner as those of 

 the largest and apparently most favoured animals. The 

 smallest insects are as exactly finished, often as gaily orna- 

 mented, as the most graceful beasts, or birds of the brightest 

 plumage. And when we seem to go out of the domain of the 

 complex animal structure with which we are familiar, and 

 come to animals of apparently more scanty faculties and less 

 developed powers of enjoyment and action, we still find that 

 their faculties and their senses are in exact harmony with 



