a mite, and have seen the
skeleton of a flea. I have been shown a forest of numberless trees,
which has been picked out of an acorn. Your microscope can show you in
it a complete oak in miniature; and could you suit all your organs as we
do, you might pluck an acorn from this little oak, which contains
another tree; and so proceed from tree to tree, as long as you would
think fit to continue your disquisitions. It is almost impossible,"
added he, "to talk of things so remote from common life, and the
ordinary notions which mankind receive from blunt and gross organs of
sense, without appearing extravagant and ridiculous. You have often seen
a dog opened, to observe the circulation of the blood, or make any other
useful inquiry; and yet would be tempted to laugh if I should tell you,
that a circle of much greater philosophers than any of the Royal
Society, were present at the cutting up of one of those little animals
which we find in the blue of a plum: that it was tied down alive before
them; and that they observed the palpitations of the heart, the course
of the blood, the working of the muscles, and the convulsions in the
several limbs, with great accuracy and improvement." "I must confess,"
said I, "for my own part, I go along with you in all your discoveries
with great pleasure; but it is certain, they are too fine for the gross
of mankind, who are more struck with the description of everything that
is great and bulky. Accordingly we find the best judge of human nature
setting forth his wisdom, not in the formation of these minute animals
(though indeed no less wonderful than the other) but in that of the
leviathan and behemoth, the horse and the crocodile."[25] "Your
observation," said he, "is very just; and I must acknowledge for my own
part, that although it is with much delight that I see the traces of
Providence in these instances, I still take greater pleasure in
considering the works of the creation in their immensity, than in their
minuteness. For this reason, I rejoice when I strengthen my sight so as
to make it pierce into the most remote spaces, and take a view of those
heavenly bodies which lie out of the reach of human eyes, though
assisted by telescopes. What you look upon as one confused white in the
Milky Way, appears to me a long tract of heavens, distinguished by stars
that are ranged in proper figures and constellations. While you are
admiring the sky in a starry night, I am entertained with a vari