430 Microscope Teachings. 



Mrs. Ward's explanations, and the freshness imparted to her 

 pages by their recounting genuine personal experiences — instead 

 of the matter being, as is too often the case, borrowed at 

 second-hand — will commend her work to every one into whose 

 hands it may fall. The coloured plates, sixteen in number, are 

 very artistic productions, and Mrs. Ward's labours, both with 

 pencil and pen, will serve to encourage other ladies to a 

 similar exercise of skill. Even where there is no idea of pub- 

 lication, a diary or journal should be kept of microscopic stu- 

 dies, and there are few families in which one or more of the 

 number could not soon leam to draw well enough to illustrate 

 it with effect. Work of various kinds necessarily occupies a 

 large portion of the time of most members of society ; but there 

 is a great want of intelligent occupations, carried on with 

 sufficient perseverance to become sources of permanent pleasure, 

 and to have a wholesome influence on the mind. Microscopic 

 pursuits can be so indefinitely varied as to suit a great variet}* 

 of tastes ; and, when a suitable instrument has been obtained, 

 they involve little further cost. They should, therefore, be 

 strongly encouraged, and it will not be found that, by so doing, 

 anything like one-sidedness is created. On the contrary, 

 different persons will take different fields, and all will find that 

 a wide range of reading will be stimulated by the desire that 

 must arise to gain information concerning the objects that are 

 surveyed. Mrs. Ward's work will make its way into 

 numberless homes, and all the more readily from its being an 

 elegant present, for a sensible mother, or a convenient uncle, to 

 give, and it may be read with the agreeable conviction that, 

 though it is simple in form, it is strictly scientific in thought ; 

 and, by the fascination of its lucid style, it will induce many to 

 become diligent students who would have been scared from the 

 path of knowledge by a less accomplished and genial guide. 



