90 MAY. 



even swinish and ridiculous, to condemn anything on 

 account of its minuteness. To say nothing of the 

 hackneyed argument, that greatness and littleness 

 exist only by comparison, I will ask, if the automaton 

 chess-player had been made on a scale of one twentieth 

 of an inch to a foot, or even much less, it would, in 

 consequence, become despicable as a work of art ? 



" Suppose some individual, greatly distinguished by 

 his talents in ship-building, in making astronomical 

 instruments, or steam engines, &c., was also to evince a 

 passion for making minute automata and watch-work, 

 such as tarantula spiders, minute singing birds, musi- 

 cal seals, or even such curiosities as a coach drawn by 

 fleas, &c., would it show good breeding or good taste 

 to despise or ridicule his minute labours while we 

 admired his grander and more imposing works ? 



" Now it does appear to me, that the Supreme Being 

 does, in some sense, resemble such an individual ; for 

 His power loves to display itself in every way in which 

 it can be displayed, whether upon the minute or grand 

 scale, in the creation of animacules as well of fixed 

 stars ; and I cannot help thinking myself, that those 

 who spurn and scoff at the minute works of God, be 

 they what they may while they affect an admiration 

 of If is great wonders are guilty of a species of im- 

 piety, and must be either liars, or hypocrites or fools. 



" Men are perpetually wondering, what can be the 

 use of bugs, and fleas, and wasps, and such kind of 

 vermin, and speak of them as absolute blots in the 

 escutcheon of the Almighty. The use of these little 

 insects is surely to teach man a perpetual lesson of 

 humility. He is extremely apt to fancy himself the 



