had yet undergone.

At last the eventful moment came; the lens was completed. I stood
trembling on the thresh? old of new worlds. I had the realization of
Alexander's famous wish before me. The lens lay on the table, ready to
be placed upon its platform. My hand fairly shook as I enveloped a drop
of water with a thin coating of oil of turpentine, preparatory to
its examination, a process necessary in order to prevent the rapid
evaporation of the water. I now placed the drop on a thin slip of glass
Under the lens, and throwing upon it, by the combined aid of a prism and
a mirror, a powerful stream of light, I approached my eye to the minute
hole drilled through the axis of the lens. For an instant I saw nothing
save what seemed to be an illuminated chaos, a vast, luminous abyss. A
pure white light, cloudless and serene, and seemingly limitless as space
itself, was my first impression. Gently, and with the greatest care, I
depressed the lens a few hairbreadths. The wondrous illumination
still continued, but as the lens approached the object a scene of
indescribable beauty was unfolded to my view.

I seemed to gaze upon a vast space, the limits of which extended far
beyond my vision. An atmosphere of magical luminousness permeated the
entire field of view. I was amazed to see no trace of animalculous
life. Not a living thing, apparently, inhabited that dazzling expanse.
I comprehended instantly that, by the wondrous power of my lens, I had
penetrated beyond the grosser particles of aqueous matter, beyond the
realms of infusoria and protozoa, down to the original gaseous globule,
into whose luminous interior I was gazing as into an almost boundless
dome filled with a supernatural radiance.

It was, however, no brilliant void into which I looked. On every side I
beheld beautiful inorganic forms, of unknown texture, and colored with
the most enchanting hues. These forms presented the appearance of what
might be called, for want of a more specific definition, foliated clouds
of the highest rarity--that is, they undulated and broke into vegetable
formations, and were tinged with splendors compared with which the
gilding of our autumn woodlands is as dross compared with gold. Far away
into the illimitable distance stretched long avenues of these gaseous
forests, dimly transparent, and painted with prismatic hues of
unimaginable brilliancy. The pendent branches waved along the fluid
glades until every vista seemed to break thr