THOUGHTS ON ANIMALCULES. 



XV. 



REFLECTIONS. 



ALL the different kinds of animalcules contained in 

 the water placed under the microscope at the commence- 

 ment of our investigations having been examined, we 

 will remove the glass slide between which they are 

 confined, from the field of view; and now, a small 

 twig, and two or three minute leaves, with a few 

 flakes of mucus, and a turbid condition of the water 

 from the presence of earthy particles, are the only 

 objects the eye can discern. All the diversified forms 

 of life that were sporting in the apparently wide waste 

 of water have vanished from our sight, and are as 

 though they were not ; yet what a world of wonders, 

 what a marvellous display of Infinite Wisdom, are there 

 concealed! Within that narrow^ space, the microscope 

 has shewn us the mysterious principle of vitality em- 

 bodied in structures of which we had previously no 

 conception; and under conditions, which, if estimated 

 according to our experience of the visible creation, 

 would appear incompatible with animal existence. 



