THE ANIMAL WORLD OF WELL-WATERS. 251 



tliem, in all its cradeness and nakedness, cleared from the rags 

 with which the cowardice of contemporary agnosticism has ob- 

 scured it ; and they will then have to choose one alternative or the 

 other. What their choice will be I do not venture to prophesy ; 

 but I will venture to cal] them happy if their choice prove to be 

 this : To admit frankly that their present canon of certainty, true 

 so far as it goes, is only the pettiest part of truth, and that the 

 deepest certainties are those which, if tried by this canon, are illu- 

 sions. To make this choice a struggle would be required with 

 pride, and with what has long passed for enlightenment ; and yet, 

 when it is realized what depends on the struggle, there are some 

 at least who will think that it must end successfully. The only 

 way by which, in the face of science, we can ever logically arrive 

 at a faith in life, is by the commission of what many at present 

 will describe as an intellectual suicide. I do not for a moment 

 admit that such an expression is justifiable, but, if I may use it 

 provisionally, and because it points to the temper at present preva- 

 lent, I shall be simply pronouncing the judgment of frigid reason 

 in saying that it is only through the grave and gate of death that 

 the spirit of man can pass to its resurrection. — Fortnightly Be- 

 view. 



♦♦* 



THE ANIMAL WORLD OF WELL-WATERS. 



By Db. OTTO ZACHAEIAS. 



' ' TTTH AT ! can it be that, in the well from which we obtain 

 V V our drinking-water, there are animals ? " This question 

 will undoubtedly suggest itself to one or more of my readers 

 on seeing the heading I have given to these lines. Some of them 

 perhaps may, in view of the existence of a " well-fauna/' take a 

 solemn pledge of total abstinence so far as the drinking of water 

 is concerned, and hereafter quench their thirst in something else. 

 Others may perhaps, seemingly in jest, and yet withal in truth, 

 seriously enough ascribe a catarrh of the stomach, contracted by 

 drinking water that was too cold, not to their own carelessness, 

 but to some little animal which they fancy they have swallowed. 

 Others still will play the part of skeptics, and perchance, hold- 

 ing a glass of water from their well up to the light, peer critically 

 into it and exclaim : " The story, is merely another fable of the 

 scientists ; we shall not believe in the existence of these creatures 

 until we see them." 



Nor can any one be blamed for taking this view of the matter. 

 However, right here, the fact should be mentioned that it is not 

 the clear upper portion of the well-water that contains the ani- 

 mal organisms, but that they occur in the lower strata, close to 



