NATURE'S REALM. gt 
universal diffusion of life throughout space, 
than the prodigious number of organisms which 
we meet everywhere and in all bodies. The 
demonstration of this fact is one of the most 
recent and magnificent conquests achieved by 
science. 
We owe it to the microscope, discovered 
When we read the works ot naturalists, and 
see them penetrating so deeply into the most 
hidden secrets of the anatomy and manners of 
beings, the mere existence of which the eye 
could not lead us to suspect, we are apt to ask 
if the pride of genius has not usurped the place 
due to the simple realities of nature; and 

Tuor, THE NEPTUNE AND CREATOR OF THE SCANDINAVIANS, RECONSTRUCTING THE GLOBE, 
about a century and a half ago. This instru- 
ment at once displayed to men objects so new, 
striking, and unexpected, that it was every- 
where admitted to have opened up a new 
world, by conferring, as it were, upon us an 
additional sense wherewith to investigate the 
invisible. 
hence, for a long time, the statements of mi- 
croscopists were, by some obstructive minds, 
rated as fables. But when we see their instru- 
ments, constructed with such great precision, 
we at once conclude that, however marvellous 
their investigations appear, still they did not 
deceive themselves. 
