THOUGHTS ON ANIMALCULES. 



" THE majesty of GOD appears no less in small things than in great ; 

 and, as it exceedeth human sense in the immensity of the Universe, so 

 also doth it in the smallness of the parts thereof." HOBBES. 



I. 



INTRODUCTORY. THE IDEAL INVISIBLE WORLD. 



IN every country and in every age, a belief in the 

 existence of beings invisible to mortal eye has more 

 or less generally prevailed; and the air, the earth, and 

 the waters have been peopled by ideal forms, invested 

 with natures and attributes partaking of the charac- 

 ters of the minds from which they emanated. Hence 

 sprang the Gnome of the mine and the cavern; the 

 Goule of the charnel-house and the tomb ; the beauti- 



