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Microscopical Essays, 



merit with the reft of the world, and hand down the name of 

 the inventor to fucceeding ages. Men of great literary abilities 

 are too apt to defpife the firft dawnings of invention, not con- 

 fidering that all real knowledge is progreffive, and that what 

 they deem trifling may be the fir ft and neceffary link to a new 

 branch of fcience. 



The microfcope extends the boundaries of the organs of 

 vifion, enables us to examine the ftruclure of plants and animals ; 

 prefents to the eye myriads of beings, of whofe exiftence we 

 had before formed no idea; opens to the curious an exhauftlefs 

 fource of information and pleafure ; and furnifhes the philofopher 

 with an unlimited field of inveftigation. It leads, to ufe the 

 words of an ingenious writer, to the difcovery of a thoufand 

 wonders in the works of his hand, who created ourfelves, as well 

 as the objects of our admiration ; it improves the faculties, exalts 

 the comprehenfion, and multiplies the inlets to happinefs ; is a 

 new fource of praife to him, to whom all we pay is nothing of 

 what we owe ; and while it pleafes the imagination with the un- 

 bounded treafures it offers to the view, it tends to make the 

 whole life one continued aci of admiration. 



It is not difficult to fix the period when the microfcope firft 

 began to be generally known, and was ufed for the purpofe of 

 examining minute objecls ; for though we are ignorant of the 

 name of the firft inventor, we are acquainted with the names of 

 thofe who introduced it into public view, and engaged their 

 attention to it, by exhibiting fome of it's wonderful effects. 

 Zacharias Janfens and his fon had made microfcopes before the 

 year 1619, for in that year the ingenious Cornelius Drebell 



6 brought 



