PREFACE 



To OPEN the path to the myriad wonders of creation, 

 which, altogether unseen by the unassisted eye, are made 

 cognizable to sight by the aid of the Microscope, is the 

 aim and scope of this volume. Great and gorgeous as 

 is the display of Divine power and wisdom in the things 

 that are seen of all, it may safely 6e affirmed that a far 

 more extensive prospect of these glories lay unheeded and 

 unknown till the optician's art revealed it. Like the 

 work of some mighty genie of Oriental fable, the brazen 

 tube is the key that unlocks a world of wonder and 

 beauty before invisible, which one who has once gazed 

 upon it can never forget, and never cease to admire. 



This volume contains but a gleaning: the author has 

 swept rapidly across the vast field of marvels, snatching 

 up a gem here and there, and culling one and another 

 of the brilliant blossoms of this flowery region, to weave 

 a specimen chaplet, a sample coronal, which may tell of 



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