24 HIDDEN MAKVELS OF NATUKE. 



and behold the mysteries of creation which his in- 

 strume at unfolds. ' Look/ he says, pointing to the 

 verdant leaf, ' at the myriads of beings that inhabit 

 this simple object. Every atom/ he exultingly ex- 

 claims, ' is a standing miracle, and adorned with 

 such qualities, as could not be impressed upon it by 

 a power less than infinite I' Agreed. But has not 

 the zoologist equal reason to be proud of his science 

 and its hidden marvels ( Can he not exhibit equal 

 miracles of divine power ? 



Take, as an example, one of the monsters of the 

 deep, the whale ; and we shall find, according to 

 several learned writers, that this animal carries on 

 its back and in its tissues a mass of creatures so 

 minute, that their number equals that of the entire 

 population of the globe. A single frond of marine 

 algae, in size 



4 No bigger than an agate stone 

 On the forefinger of an alderman,' 



may contain a combination of living zoophytic beings 

 so infinitely small, that in comparison the ' fairies' 

 midwife ' and her ' team of little atomies ' appear 

 monsters as gigantic, even as the whale or behemoth, 

 opposed to the gnat that flutters in the brightest 

 sunbeam. 



Again : in a simple drop of sea- water, no larger 

 than the head of a pin, the microscope will discover 

 a million of animals. Nay, more ; there are some 

 delicate sea-shells (foraminifera) so minute that the 



