104 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
of an inch in diameter, there are often literally 
millions. How active they are, swimming, feed¬ 
ing, multiplying, and dying! Yet a drop of 
water gives abundance of room for the full play 
of all their activities. A million of these tiny 
creatures could be arrayed like a regiment of 
soldiers on a parade, yet the line would not 
more than stretch across the period put at the 
end of a sentence in a quarto Bible. 
“ Call the pond a scene of dead stagnant 
water. Multiply, if you can, the monads in¬ 
habiting it, watch their ceaseless activity and 
endless multiplying, and then contrast the sum- 
total with the races of men and their history; 
and, if we judge by the relation of numbers 
and mutations, do all human chronicles furnish 
a fitting parallel ? 
“ Turn now to another shallow pool. Its water 
has a pale milky tinge. A drop of this is put 
under our lens, and what a sight dazzles the eyes I 
There are thousands on thousands of curiously- 
shaped creatures in a shining, silver-like livery, 
covered with vibrating filaments, darting, whirl¬ 
ing, oscillating, and rolling across the field of 
view. These uniquely-shaped and ornamented 
creatures are -called by the learned Paramecium 
