22 Transactions of the American Institute. 



of invisible life, a severer shock than is felt even "when he learns 

 through the telescope how paltrj a position the gi'eat earth itself, 

 which he inhabits, occupies in the boundless universe of which it is 

 an insignificant member. From both these widely opposite revelations 

 he learns his own comparative unimportance, and both at the same 

 time almost equally awaken within him the highest emotions of admira- 

 tion and wonder of which he is capable. But, if, in view of the gran- 

 deur of the vast celestial universe, he is oppressed and stupified with a 

 sense of the sublime, which is wanting when he turns his attention 

 to the infinitely minute, there is no doubt that the feeling of simple 

 wonder which these last discoveries awaken exceeds immeasurably 

 anything which is excited by even the grandest of the truths which 

 astronomy discloses. And the reason is sufficiently obvious. If the 

 objects of astronomy are vast, the space they occupy is vaster still. 

 It is difficult to lift our conceptions to a level with their grandeur, 

 but not difiicult to conceive that, however stupendous may be their 

 dimensions, their existence is still possible and that in the region 

 where they exist there is room enough for them and to spare. When, 

 on the other hand, we discover in the infinitely small organizations 

 exhibiting the highest degree of complexity, possessing the largest 

 freedom of motion, exhibiting the most marvelously varied forms, 

 and existing in numbers to defy computation, our astonishment 

 is not so much an astonishment at the minuteness of the objects 

 as at the possibility that objects of such a character can be so minute. 

 I have had an oj^portunity of observing the impressions made upon 

 many minds, on a first introduction to the wonders of the heavens 

 through the telescope, and to the marvels of minute organic life, 

 through the microscope, and in every instance the lively expressions 

 of surprise elicited by the disclosures of this latter instrument have 

 been singularly in contrast with the tranquil admiration excited by 

 those of the former. This susprise is occasionally mingled with some- 

 thing like incredulity. The observer does not hesitate to believe 

 what he sees, but sometimes amusingly doubts whether what he sees 

 is really the object on the stage of the instrument, and is not, by 

 some jugglery, concealed in tlie tube. 



That this doubt is not wholly absurd, or at least unnatural, will be 

 admitted when the actual dimensions of objects are stated, which 

 appear, as seen in the instrument, as large at least as ordinary inseets, 

 as bees for instance, or beetles, or butterflies. Tlie hracMonoea are 

 among the larger forms of loricated animalcules; that is, animals 



