152 THE MINUTE. 



I say nothing about the other systems of organs con- 

 tained in this living atom : the arrangements destined to 

 subserve the purposes of digestion, circulation, respiration, 

 reproduction, locomotion, sensation, &c., though these are 

 all more or less clearly distinguishable in the tissues of the 

 animal, which is as translucent as glass, For the moment 

 I ask attention only to the elaborate conformation of 

 organs, which I have briefly described, for the special 

 purpose of building a dwelling. No description that I 

 could draw up, however, could convey any idea approach- 

 ing to that which would be evoked by one good sight of 

 the little creature actually at work ; a most charming 

 spectacle, and one which, from the commonness of the 

 animal, and its ready performance of its functions under 

 the microscope, is very easy to be attained. 



It is impossible to witness the constructive operations 

 of the melicerta without being convinced that it possesses 

 mental faculties, at least if we allow these to any animals 

 below man. If, when the chinpanzee weaves together the 

 branches of a tree to make himself a bed; when the beaver, 

 in concert with his fellows, gnaws down the birch sap- 

 lings, and collects clay to form a dam ; when the martin 

 brings together pellets of mud and arranges them under 

 our eaves into a hollow receptacle for her eggs and young, 

 we do not hesitate to recognise mind call it instinct, 

 or reason, or a combination of both, how can we fail to 

 see that in the operations of the invisible animalcule there 

 are the workings of an immaterial principle ? There must 

 be a power to judge of the condition of its case, of the 



