186 BIQ AND LITTLE. 



ninety-three times as bij^. As lliere are a tliou- 

 8Jiii(l million distinct stjirs within tlie range of 

 tlie best telesc«>j)es, and as among all these our 

 own sun is but an insignificant tliird-rate unit, it 

 may well be believed how inconceivably vast are 

 the abysses of space with which the astronomer 

 has to deal. 



On the otlier hand, when we come to consider 

 the infinitely little, we are met by almost equally 

 inconceivable gradations of successive minuteness. 

 An elephant usually passes for a big animal, 

 though, considered si<le b}- side with the gigantic 

 realities we have just been examining, he may be 

 regarded of course as a tiny speck in a lost corner 

 of the universe. On the other hand, a gnat is 

 ordinarily looked upon as a very small and insig- 

 nificant creature; and yet there are myriads of 

 creatures tinier still, compared to which the gnat 

 himself is as big, we do not say as the ele])hant, 

 but as a whole broad English county. If one 

 takes a little hay, and soaks it in water for a few 

 hours, a drop of the infusion placed under a 

 microscope will swarm with tiny creatures of 

 jelly-like aj)pearance, darting about with incon- 

 ceivable rapitlity, and every one of them quite as 

 alive to all outer show as the elejjhant himself. 

 Yet twenty thousand of them put in a circle 

 would not more than fill up the letter o in the 

 type with which this essay is printed. Between 



