- L e t no'prefuming impious railer tax
»Creative Wifdom, as if aught was form’d
In vain, or not for admirable-ends. .
Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce
.His works unwife, o f which the fmalleft part
Exceeds the narrow vifion o f her mind ?
As if upon a full proportion’d dome,
On Swelling columns heav’d, the pride of a rt!
A critic fly, whofe feeble ray fcarce fpreads
An inch around, with blind prefumption bold,
Should dare to tax the 11 ructure of the whole.
And lives the man, whofe univerfal eye
Has fwept at once th’ unbounded fcheme o f things;
Mark’d their dependance fo, and firm accord,
As with unfaultering accent to conclude
That this availeth nought ? Has any feen
The mighty chain o f beings lelfening down
From infinite perfeftion to the brink
O f dreary nothing, defolate abyfs !
From which aftonifh’d thought, recoiling, turns?
T ill then alone let zealous prsife afcend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power,
Whofe wifdom fhines as. lovely on our minds,
. As-on our finding eyes his fervant fun.
T hompson.
Animal
Animalculum fignifies a little animal, and therefore the term
might be applied to every animal which is eonfiderably inferior in
lize to ourfelves. It has been cuftomary, however, to diflinguil^i
by this name only thofe animals that are o f a fize fo diminutive
that their true figure cannot be difcerned without the affiftance of
glalfes, and is more efpecially applied to fuch as are altogether
kivifible to the naked eye, and cannot be perceived even to .exift
but by the aid of microfcope's.
By thefe we are brought into a new world, and numberlefs animals
are difcovered, which, from their minutenefs, muff other-
wife for ever have efcaped our obfervation : and how many kinds
o f thefe invifibles there may be, is yet unknown ; as they are difcerned
of all fizes, from thofe which are barely invifible to the
naked eye, to fuch as refill the action o f the microfcope, as the
fixed liars do that o f the telefeope, and with the greateft powers
hitherto invented, appear only as fo many moving points.
The fmalleft living creatures our inftruments can fhew, are
thofe that inhabit the waters '; for though animalcula, equally minute,
may fly in the air, or creep upon the earth, it is fcarce
-poflible to get a view o f them ; whereas, water being tranfparent,
and confining the creatures within it, we are enabled, by applying
a drop of it to our glalfes, to difcover with eafe a great part.of
k ’s contents.
It has been long known, that if feeds, herbs, or,other vegetable
fubftances, are infufed in water, the water will foon be filled
with an indefinite number of little animals. We find them, in
general, moving in all direflions with equal eafe and rapidity,
3 K fome