, EFFECT OF NATURE ON THE MIND. 55 



to have valleys and habitations. If the IJiIicroscopc be now 

 placed in our hands, it brings us into the very homes and 

 haunts of Life ; and finally, the high creative combining 

 faculty, moving amid these novel observations, reveals some- 

 thing of the great drama which is incessantly enacted in 

 every drop of water, on every inch of earth. Then, and only 

 then, do we realise the mighty complexity, the infinite 

 splendour of Nature ; then, and only then, do we feel how 

 full of Life, varied, intricate, marvellous, world within world, 

 yet nowhere without space to move, is this single planet, on 

 the crust of W'hich we stand, and look out into shoreless 

 space, peopled by myriads of other planets, larger, if not 

 more wonderful, than ours. And if with this substitution of 

 definite and particular ideas for the vague generalities with 

 which at first we represented Nature — if with increase of 

 knowledge there comes, as necessarily there must come, 

 increase of reverence, it is evident that the study of Life 

 must of all studies best nourish the mind with true philo- 

 sophy. 



The facts are the least of the attractions in this study, 

 although they are the bricks w^ith which you build. If you 

 happen to be of a speculative tui-n, every fresh observation 

 will start new trains of thought. Walk up to my working- 

 table, and take the first phial or trough chance may present. 

 You have chosen a phial in which a quantity of thread-like 

 worms are wriggling like uninspired Pythonesses. You are 

 mistaken in supposing them to be worms, — they are nothing 

 of the kind ; they are not even individuals. In spite of your 

 stare, I repeat the statement : they arc not individuals, they 



