130 
GALILEO AND SWAMMERDAM. 
living infinite, the world of animated atoms! These great men suc¬ 
ceeded one another. At the epoch of the famous Italians death (1642) 
was born the Hollander, the Galileo of the infinitely little (1637). 
An astounding revolution ! The abyss of life was unfolded in its 
profundity with myriads upon myriads of unknown beings and fan¬ 
tastic organizations of which men had not even dared to dream. But 
the most surprising circumstance is, that the very method of the 
sciences underwent a total change. Hitherto men had relied upon 
their senses. The severest observation invoked their testimony, and 
they thought that no appeal could lie from their judgment. But now 
behold experiment and the senses themselves, rectified by a powerful 
auxiliary, confess that not only have they concealed from us the 
greater part of things, but that, in those they have laid bare, they have 
every moment been mistaken ! 
Nothing is more curious than to observe the very opposite impres¬ 
sions produced by these two revolutions upon their authors. Galileo 
before the infinite of heaven, where all appeared harmonious and mar¬ 
vellously ordered, felt more of joy than of surprise; he announced his 
discoveries to Europe in a style of the greatest enthusiasm. Swammer¬ 
dam, before the infinite of the microscopic world, seemed overcome with 
terror. He recoiled before the spectacle of Nature at war, devouring her 
very self. He grew perturbed; he seemed to fear that all his ideas and 
beliefs would be overthrown: a melancholy and singular condition, 
which, added to his incessant labours, shortened his days. Let us pause 
awhile to dwell upon this creator of science, who was also its martyr. 
The eminent physician Boerhaave, who, a hundred years after Swam¬ 
merdam’s time, published with pious care his “ Bible of Nature,” gave 
utterance to a surprising observation, which sets one a-dreaming:— 
“ He had an ardent imagination of impassioned melancholy, which 
raised him to the sublime.” 
Thus, this surpassing master in all the works of patient inquiry, 
this insatiable observer of the most minute details, who pursued Nature 
so far into the imperceptible, was a poetic soul, a man of imagination, 
one of those mournful spirits who groan after nothing less than the 
infinite, and die because they fail to conquer it. 
