Microscopical Essays. 



nature and wonderful ceconomy has been cultivated with unre- 

 mitting ardour. Some authors have confined themfelves to 

 divide and feparate them into various claffes, and defcribe their 

 characteriftic differences : others have been employed in tracing 

 their habits of life, or in exploring the wonderous mechanifm of 

 their frame and ftructure ; fo that the nature, habits, and many 

 peculiarities of their ffate of life, are now well known. 



In number, Angularity of appearance, and variety of form, 

 infects exceed every other part of animated nature. Earth, air, 

 and water, are filled with hods thereof; a far greater part of which 

 are invifible to the naked eye ; but amongft all this variety, we 

 perceive the fame regularity, and can trace the footfteps of that 

 love and wifdom which fo ftrongly marks every work of God. 

 In contemplating the works of the Ge tor, we (hall always find 

 his wifdom and his love in pages written by his own eternal hand, 

 in characters legible to every eye, 



After an attentive examination of the nature and fabric of both 

 the leafl and largeft animals, I cannot (fays the truly great and 

 moft excellent Swammerdam) but allow the lefs an equal, per- 

 haps a fuperior, degree of dignity. Whoever duly confiders the 

 conduct and inftinct of the one, with the manners and actions of 

 the other, muff acknowledge all are under the direction and con- 

 troul of a fupreme and particular intelligence ; which, as in the 

 largeft it extends beyond the limits of our comprehenfion, efcapes 

 our refearches in the fmalleft. If, while we difTect with care the 

 larger animals, we are filled with wonder at the elegant dif- 

 pofition of their limbs, the inimitable order of their mufcles, 

 and the regular direction of their veins, arteries, and nerves ; to 



what 



