MAY. y 



si derate, many of whom have been pleased to assert 

 that microscopes have, of late, received a degree of 

 patronage from the most illustrious and distinguished 

 savans to which they are not legitimately entitled. 

 Were they applicable to no other purpose than the 

 dissection of blackguard vermin, the observation of 

 stinking ditch water, or the amorous passions of ants 

 and worms, I should perhaps, for argument's sake, 

 admit that they were but the tools of a puny pitiful 

 pedant, whose passions and amusements were of a 

 trifling if not of a degrading complexion. But I would 

 ask whether, in the hands of men like Bauer, they are 

 not applied to the developement of the most curious, 

 important and interesting details of anatomy and phy- 

 siology, which without their assistance could never 

 have beeu known ? and whether the finest and most 

 delicate parts of the structure of animals in their ex- 

 treme penetralia are not rendered equally intelligible 

 with the coarsest and most evident parts of their fabric 

 by means of these instruments. 



" Your life will not suffice to study sufficiently the 

 wonders of the minutiae of natural history. 



" The supreme Author of Nature has been pleased 

 to bestow so exquisite a degree of finishing upon many 

 of His works that they can be only appreciated by man 

 with the assistance of the microscope. Surely he who 

 is but a rvork of God may be allowed to admire the 

 works of his Creator without incurring derision or 

 ridicule, even though they are minutiae. Trifles are 

 said to take only with frivolous minds ; but minutiae 

 are not necessarily trifles, as it will be easy to prove. 

 It is not only, in my own opinion, unscientific, but 



