30 MICROSCOPIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 



acquaintances at times becomes vapid and dull. A re- 

 creation, to last beyond an hour, must be made to instruct 

 as well as to amuse ; it must, to a certain extent, be 

 commensurate with what a rational and intelligent mind 

 is in quest after, or we shall speedily be thrown upon 

 our resources to find out a new one. A good micro- 

 scope, as I have said, is a never- failing source of amuse- 

 ment. Were we permitted to draw a comparison be- 

 tween it and that grand and noble instrument, the tele- 

 scope, we should be compelled to admit that it possesses 

 very many advantages even over that instrument in this 

 respect. We can use it at all times and seasons, and that 

 with the greatest facility. We can invite our friends to 

 pass an evening with us in being gratified with its per- 

 formance, without any fear of encountering a disappoint- 

 ment. Not so, however, with the telescope. A few nights 

 only throughout the year are what we may term good for 

 astronomic purposes, and over these few we can exercise 

 no control. Our friends may be invited they may assem- 

 ble and the weather may prove so inauspicious as to 

 render the finest instrument in the world of no avail. And 

 even on the clearest night, when all our expectations are 

 raised to the highest pitch, the wind may suddenly shift, 

 so as to occasion the greatest interruption ; so that, per- 

 haps, the very means we have taken to expand and ele- 

 vate our notions of the infinite wisdom and power of the 

 Divine Being, may terminate, through some mishap, in 

 ruffling our minds, and causing an effect the very 

 opposite to that we had designed to produce. 



