course to the hollyhock, and burying himself in one of its halfopened chalices, comes out as dusty as a miller. But he will not long remain so. He removes the fragrant burthen carefully from his head and wings, and consumes a portion, which he will secrete shortly in the form of wax, for the purpose of constructing and repairing the cells of his hive: the remainder he puts in his pocket for a future meal. On the ample leaves of this splendid plant, we count in a moment twelve different species of flies; and if we look at the under part of its leaves, we find them, ample as they are, so crowded with eggs, that it would be impossible to press the head of a pin on any portion of the leaf, without destroying one of those depositories of an incipient insect.

A step or two farther brings us to an apple-tree, many of whose leaves are rolled up. We open one of these mansions, and discover within it fifty caterpillars living together in perfect harmony. Fluttering their way from shrub to shrub are as many butterflies, clothed in garments of the most brilliant dyes, no two of them perfectly alike; and all of them apparently as happy as butterfly can be. In the air, above these, is a group of gnats, dancing to the sound of their own wings. It is remarkable that they observe a regular succession in their movements; when one is tired he rests for awhile, and his place is filled up by another. They, moreover, have their places in a kind of quadrille, and following the good customs of the country dances of former days, the partners frequently meet half way, and salute each other in a very affectionate manner; then they separate to renew the dance with fresh merriment. Other flies attempt to imitate the gnats; but it must be admitted, that the latter are the Noblets and the Taglionis of the scene.

As we walk on we meet a golden beetle, carrying homeward something for his children; next a red spider, and then a spider striped like a zebra, and then an earwig running, and a centipede, with all his legs, creeping. We look into the hollows of the bark of an old elm, and find them peopled by ten different species of worms. We pass a green hedge, and count in it the nests of a variety of birds. We walk into the fields. The earth beneath our feet swarms with creatures which we do not see; every blade of grass is in itself a populous kingdom. The bleating of sheep; the lowing of cows; the murmurs made by millions of gossamer wings in the higher regions of the air; the distant bark of the dog; the joyous note of the blackbird; the exulting song of the black cap; the whistle of the thrush; the chatter of the sparrow; the cherub voice of the lark aloft in the summer cloud; fill the atmosphere with a chorus of sounds, which call upon us to praise that benevolent Spirit, who has thus commanded life to glow and breathe happiness every where around us.

What a number of creatures may we not observe even within the compass of a small garden! Some are swift in their movements, some extremely slow; some mount in the air on wings, some descend from the tops of trees, by threads which they spin for the purpose. Some float about in the atmosphere, in balloons of their own construction; some walk backwards, and some urge themselves onward by the process of inflation. One carries his food in his mouth, another puts it into his wallet. Here a robber lies in wait for the industrious insect, and plunders him of the treasure he had been a whole day in collecting. There a regular duel is going on between two creatures, and by and by associates collect on either side, until a general battle begins, which is fought with great fury, and no trifling slaughter. How various their raiment! how beautifully attired are some, while others may be said to be the Quakers of the insect world, in their mode of attire! What nice art is manifest in their operations, what cunning and foresight they display in guarding against their foes! The garden is not only a world, but a universe of insects; every tree, every branch, every leaf, every stem, every inch of bark, every fern, every flower, every blade of grass, being inhabited by a peculiar population of its own!

New universes break upon our view the moment we embark on the river, the lake, and the ocean. If we take up a drop of water on the head of a pin, and magnify it by means of the solar microscope, we shall behold it teeming with different races of beings, the stronger of which feed upon the weaker; and still finding, even in that tiny world, more than they can consume, range about in it with as much facility and freedom as if it were an Atlantic. Upwards of four hundred different species of animalcules have been already distinguished; and it seems to be pretty well established, that the greater number of these possess an internal structure, quite as perfect as that of the larger animals; and "comprising" as Mr. Pritchard informs us, "a muscular, nervous, and in all probability, vascular system, all wonderfully contrived for the performance of their respective offices." Some are provided with rotatory organs, fringed with lashes, by which they are enabled not only to move to and fro, with marvellous rapidity, but also to create a strong current of water, which rushes towards the mouth, and supplies the animal with food. Others which want this machinery, are endowed with "the extraordinary faculty of thrusting out, or elongating, portions of their bodies at

Natural History of Animalcules: containing descriptions of all the known species of Infusoria; with instructions for procuring and valuing them, &c., by Andrew Pritchard, Esq., author of the "Microscopic Cabinet," 8vo., London, 1834:-We have derived a great deal of pleasure, as well as of instruction, from the perusal of this work, which

various points, which assuming the appearance of either legs or fins, enable the creature to walk or swim.

The diversity of form which prevails amongst the multitudes that inhabit a single globule of water is astonishing. One resembles the sun, another the crescent of the moon a few days old, a third the serpent, a fourth the swallow, a fifth a bunch of grapes; among them will be found miniature figures like a tulip on its stem, a cornucopia, a flask, a lyre, a mandolin, the splendid ornament of precious stones which is worn by the Jewish high priest, a ring, a comet, and countless other objects, such as cylinders, pitchers, and fruit of every description. Some move by darting, some leap, some creep or float along, while others not furnished with wheels, get on by rolling round the axis of their own bodies, as the earth rotates in travelling round the sun. Though the majority are of a dull waterish colour, a few are clothed in the hues of the rainbow. They have all manifestly the means of perceiving objects before them, although eyes have been as yet discovered only in certain species. It is not to be supposed that they are generally as soft in substance as they seem; many are protected by a delicate shell.

But perhaps the most striking peculiarity of the animalcule races, is the variety in their modes of propagation. Some produce their young alive, or in the egg, while from others the new races issue like buds from a tree; some propagate by a spontaneous division of their bodies into two or more portions,-these portions become separate beings, and each proceeds in due time to repeat the same process. These divisions are effected sometimes transversely, sometimes longitudinally, sometimes vertically, and, in several instances, the parent is transformed into a mass of young animalcules, and on their birth is itself dissipated, leaving but a slight film behind, the shade of the progenitor.

"If we take some of the largest of these animalcules," (the monads) says Mr. Pritchard, "and suppose them to be arranged in a line of only one inch in length, it will require 9,600 to form it; so, that, a cubic inch would contain 884,736 millions;-an ocular demonstration, it would seem, of the divisibility of animal matter. And if we investigate the thickness of their skins, or of the tissue which incloses the coloured particles, it will be found to be less than any substance we are acquainted with in inorganic matter; and, will afford, at the same time, a better idea of the minuteness of the particles of vegetable colouring

we have no hesitation in recommending to the attention of every person desirous of becoming acquainted with the wonders of the microscopic world-a world that may be said to have lain altogether concealed from our ancestors. Mr. Pritchard's instruments are among the best we have seen; and the mechanical contrivances by which he has enabled the microscopist to display the object of his examination, in every possible point of view, reflect the highest credit on his ingenuity.

• Ib.—p. 13.

matter, than any other method we can desire. Thus, for instance, presuming there are only four particles of colouring matter in each cavity, or stomach, and four such cavities in each animalcule, the said cubic inch of animalcules will contain the immense number of 14,155,776 millions of particles."-Natural History of Animalcules, p. 29.

The little being called the Proteus varies its shape every moment under the eye of the observer-now a ball, now a funnel, next, a mere dash on the water, and then, a three-cornered figure. The grape animalcules are clustered together, and sometimes rove about near the surface of the water, and go through a series of the most amusing gambols. If an infusion of indigo be mixed with the water taken from particular ponds, a single animated globule will be soon seen in motion, which divides into a cluster of smaller ones; these speedily disperse, and become clusters in their turn, ad infinitum. The cluster revolves as it moves, and has the means of attaching itself to any substance by spinning a thread just like the spider's. This filament shoots forth a fresh cluster. Mr. Baker has given a lively description of the hair-like animalcule, so called from its shape, which was first discerned by Mr. Anderson. Diminutive though it be, it is covered with rings, and is incapable of bending. The hair insects are usually found together in groups, and their colour changes occasionally from a bright green, to a sky-blue. The group which Mr. Baker observed, divided itself into two armies, and while one resolved on moving upward in the water that contained them, the other chose to take the contrary direction. Thus they were about to meet, as Mr. Baker expected, in hostile contact; when, to his great surprize, the host that was ascending regularly opened out its column, on the right and left, leaving a convenient space through which the other division descended; and, thus they continued to repeat their evolutions for some time, with a degree of discipline, which must have proceeded from intelligence. If we consider that this animalcule is so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, that millions of millions of the race may be contained within the compass of a square inch, and yet, that they have sagacity which teaches them to associate, and to move, as it were, under the guidance of acknowledged leaders, in such directions as are best calculated to secure the harmony of the whole community, we must perceive that no power short of Omnipotence, could have thus divided not only the principle of life, but the etherial spark of mind into such infinitely small portions. The Greenland sea is indebted for its peculiar colour, which varies between olive green and ultramarine, to the vast number of Medusæ it contains. These animalcules are, individually, about one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter; and so great are their

multitudes, that, according to a curious calculation made by Mr. Scoresby, if eighty thousand persons had begun, at the creation of our planet, to count the numbers of those little beings that exist only within two square miles of that sea, to the depth of two hundred and fifty fathoms, they would scarcely have completed the enumeration at the present time! But the human mind fails to follow the calculation to the extent of the thirty thousand square miles of the sea in question, which may be said to exhibit one entire field of Medusa.

The question often arises, while we are dealing with the lower tribes of the animated world, what is the object of all this vast diffusion of life through so many classes of creatures? It is now a well-established fact that, however numerous and subdivided the races of quadrupeds, birds, insects, fishes, and animalcules, may be, they never intermix with each other. Each particular race uniformly reproduces only its own; there is a boundary between it and every other race, above or below it, in the scale of existence, beyond which it cannot pass. The elephant can no more be the parent of a lamb, than a lamb can be of an elephant. The same law of perpetual distinction, which prevails amongst quadrupeds, is found as constantly in force amongst birds, insects, and all the tenants of the deep, without exception. However various may be the mode of propagation amongst animalcules, still, even upon these tiny races, the same command is imposed. The proteus may assume a thousand different shapes in a minute, but he cannot be the ancestor of a polypus. The monad will continue only to produce a monad, to the end of time; and the grape animalcule will never resemble any other fruit. We therefore arrive at the knowledge of a fact, no longer disputable, that he who created the leviathan, created also the hair-insect; that every thing, which lives and moves, derives its existence from the same Power; and the unity which exists throughout the entire system of life, exhibits the unity and the presence of that Power, in language as majestic as the lightnings of Sinai.

The plan for continuing the created races appears, also, to have proceeded from the same source of incomparable wisdom. The moving globule, which seems to occupy the place nearest to inanimate matter, is appointed to convert the watery element into its own substance; thus fed, it becomes itself the food of animalcules higher on the scale of organization; and these, in their turn, assume a consistency which renders them fit to be the nutriment of the smaller fishes. The smaller fishes serve as food to the larger; the enormous whale, for instance, lives principally on shrimps, minute crabs, cuttle-fishes, and other small marine animals; and, as these are sustained by the Medusa, we may