Fesent an infinite variety, no less captivating to the mind than pleasing to the eye. They appear strengthened and aistended by the finest bones, and covered with the lightest membranes. Some of them are adorned with neat and beautiful feathers, and many of them provided with the finest articulations and foldings for the wings, when they are withdrawn and about to be folded up in their cases. The thin membranes of the wings appear beautifully divaricated with thousands of little points, like silver studs. The wings of some flies are filmy, as the dragon-fly; others have them stuck over with short bristles, as the flesh-fly; some have rows of feathers along their ridges, and borders round their edge, as in gnats; some have hairs and others have hooks placed with the greatest regularity and order. In the wings of moths and butterflies there are millions of small feathers of different shapes, diversified with the greatest variety of bright and vivid colours, each of them so small as to be altogether invisible to the naked eye.

The leaves of all plants and flowers when examined by the microscope, are found to be full of innumerable ramifications that convey the perspirable juices to the pores, and to consist of barenchymous and ligneous fibres, interwoven in a curious and admirable manner. The smallest leaf, even one which is little more than visible to the naked eye, is found to be thus divaricated, and the variegations are different in the leaves of different vegetables.-A transverse section of a plant not more than one-fourth of an inch in diameter, displays such beauties and varieties, through a powerful microscope, as cannot be conceived without ocular inspection. The number of pores, of all sizes, amounting to hundreds of thousands (which appear to be the vessels of the plant cut asunder,) the beautiful curves they assume, and the radial and circular configurations they present, are truly astonishing; and every distinct species of plants exhibits a different configuration. I have counted in a small section of a plant, of the size now stated, 5000 radial lines, each containing about 250 pores, great and small, which amount to one million two hundred and fifty thousand of these variegated apertures.-Even the particles of sand on the sea-shore, and on the banks of rivers, differ in the size, form, and colour of their grains; some being transparent, others opaque, some having rough and others smooth surfaces; some are spherical or oval, and some pyramidal, conical or prismatical. Mr. Hook, happening to view some grains of white sand through his microscope, hit upon one of the grains which was exactly shaped and wreathed like a shell, though it was no larger than the point of a pin. "It resembled the shell of a small water-snail, and had twelve wreathings, all growing proportionably one less than the other towards the middle or centre of the shel!, where there was a very small

round white spot." This gives us an idea of the existence of shell-fish which are invisible m the naked eye, and, consequently, smaller than a mite.

The variety of forms in which animal life appears, in those invisible departments of creation which the microscope has enabled us to explore, is truly wonderful and astonishing. Microscopic animals are so different from those of the larger kinds, that scarcely any analogy seems to exist between them; and one would be almost tempted to suppose that they lived in consequence of laws directly opposite to those which preserve man and the other larger animals in existence. When we endeavour to explore this region of animated nature, we feel as if we were entering on the confines of a new world, and surveying a new race of sentient existence. The number of these creatures exceeds all human calculation. Many hundreds of species, all differing in their forms, habits, and motions, have already been detected and described, but we have reason to believe, that by far the greater part is unexplored, and perhaps for ever hid from the view of man. They are of all shapes and forms: some of them appear like minute atoms, some like globes and spheroids, some like handbells, some like wheels turning on an axis, some like double-headed monsters, some like cylinders, some have a worm-like appearance, some have horns, some resemble eels, some are like long hairs, 150 times as long as they are broad, some like spires and cupolas, some like fishes, and some like animated vegetables. Some of them are almost visible to the naked eye, and some so small that the breadth of a human hair would cover fifty or a hundred of them, and others so minute, that millions of millions of them might be contained within the compass of a square inch. In every pond and ditch, and almost in every puddle, in the infusions of pepper, straw, grass, oats, hay and other vegetables, in paste and vinegar, and in the water found in oysters, on almost every plant and flower, and in the rivers, seas and oceans, these creatures are found in such numbers and variety as almost exceed our conception or belief. A class of these animals, called Muduse, has been found so numerous as to discolour the ocean itself. Captain Scoresby found the number in the olivegreen sea to be immense. A cubic inch contains sixty-four, and consequently a cubic mile would contain 23,888,000,000,000,000; so that, if one person should count a million in seven days, it would have required that 80,000 persons should' have started at the creation of the world to have completed the enumeration at the present time. Yet, all the minute animals to which we now allude are furnished with numerous organs of life as well as the larger kind, some of their internal movements are distinctly visible, their motions are evidently voluntary, and some of

them appear to be possessed of a considerable degree of sagacity, and to be fond of each other's Bociety.*

In short, it may be affirmed without the least hesitation, that the beauties and varieties which exist in those regions of creation which are invisible to the unassisted eye, are far more numerous than all that appears to a common observer in the visible economy of nature. How far this scene of creating Power and Intelligence may extend beyond the range of our microscopic instruments, it is impossible for mortals to determine for the finer our glasses are, and the higher the magnifying powers we apply, the more numerous and varied are the objects which they exhibit to our view. And as the largest telescope is insufficient to convey our views to the boundaries of the great universe, so we may justly conclude, that the most powerful microscope that has been or ever will be constructed, will be altogether insufficient to guide our views to the utmost limits of the descending scale of creation. But what we already know of these unexplored and inexplorable regions, gives us an amazing conception of the intelligence and wisdom of the Creator, of the immensity of his nature, and of the infinity of ideas which, during every portion of past duration, must have been present before his All-Comprehensive Mind. What an immense space in the scale of animal life intervenes between an animalcule which appears only the size of a visible point, when magnified 500,000 times, and a whale, a hundred feet long and twenty broad! The proportion of bulk between the one of these beings and the other is nearly as 34,560,000,000,000,000,000 to 1. Yet all the intermediate space is filled up with animated beings of every form and order! A similar variety obtains in the vegetable kingdom. It has been calculated, that some plants which grow on rose leaves, and other shrubs, are so small that it would require more than a thousand of them to equal in bulk a single plant of moss; and if we compare a stem of moss, which is

• The following extract from Mr. Baker's description of the hair like animalcule will illustrate some of these positions. A small quantity of the matter containing these animalcules having been put into a jar of water, it so happened, that one part went down immediately to the bottom, while the other continued floating on the top. When things had remained for some time in this condition, each of these swarms of animalcules began to grow weary of its situation, and had a mind to change its quarters

Both armies, therefore, set out at the same time. the one proceeding upwards and the other downwards; so that after some time they met in the middle. A desire of knowing how they would behave on this occasion, engaged the observer to watch them carefully; and to his surprise, he saw the army that was marching upwards, open to the right and left, to make room for those that were descending. Thus, without confusion or intermixture, each held on its way; the army that was going up marching in two columns to the top, and the other proceeding in one column to the bottom, as if each had been under the direction of wise leaders.

generally not above 1-60th of an inch, with some of the large trees in Guinea and Brazil of twenty feet diameter, we shall find the bulk of the one will exceed that of the other no less than 2.985,984,000.000 times, which multiplied by 1000 will produce 2,985,984,000,000,000, the number of times, which the large tree exceeds the rose-leaf plant. Yet this immense intervai is filled up with plants and trees of every form and size! With good reason, then, may we adopt the language of the inspired writers,-"How manifold are thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast thou made them all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! Marvellous things doth He which we cannot comprehend."

The figures of microscopical objects contained in the engravings Nos. I. and II., will cenvey a rude idea of some of the objects to which I have now alluded.

No. 1. Fig. 1. represents the scale of a scle-fish as it appears through a good microscope. CDEF, represents that part of the scale which appears on the outside of the fish, and AECD, the part which adheres to the skin, being furrowed, that it may hold the faster. It is terminated by pointed spikes, every alternate one being longer than the interjacent ones. Fig. 2, is the scale of a haddock, which appears divaricated like a piece of net work. Fig. 3, represents a small portion or fibre of the feather of a pea Cock, only 1-30th of an inch in extent, as it appears in the microscope. The small fibres of these feathers appear, through this instrument, no less beautiful than the whole feather does to the naked eye. Each of the sprigs or hairs on each side of the fibre, as CD, DC, appears to consist of a multitude of bright shining parts which are a congeries of small plates, as eee, &c. The under sides of each of these plates are very dark and opaque, reflecting all the rays thrown

upon them like the foil of a looking glass; but their upper sides seem to consist of a multitude of exceed ingly thin plated bodies, lying close together, which, by various positions of the light, reflect first one colour and then another, in a most vivid and sur. prising manner. Fig. 4, 5, 6, 7, represent some of

the different kinds of feathers which constitute the dust which adheres to the wings of moths and but terflies, and which, in the microscope, appear tinged with a variety of colours. Each of these feathers is an object so small as to be scarcely perceptible to the naked eye.

Explanation of the figures on No. II.-Fig. 1. represents a mite, which has eight legs, with five or six joints in each, two feelers, a small head in proportion to its body, a sharp snout and mouth like that of a mole, and two little eyes. The body is of an oval form, with a number of hairs like bristles issuing from it, and the legs terminate in two hooked claws. Fig. 2. represents a microscopic animal which was found in an infusion of anemony. The surface of its back is covered with a fine rask in the form of a human face, it has three feet on each side, and a tail which comes out from under the mask. Fig. 3, is an animalcula found in the infusion of eld hay. A, shows the head, with the mouth opened wide, and its lips furnished with numerous hairs; B, is its forked tail, D, its intestines, and C, its heart, which may be seen in regular motion. The circumference of the body appears indented like the teeth of a saw. Fig. 4. shows the Wheel animal or Verticella. It is found in rain water that has stood some days in leaden gutters, or in hollows of lead on the tops of houses. The most remarkable part of this animalcula is its wheel work, which consists of two semicircular instruments, round the edges of which many little fibrille move themselves very briskly sometimes with a kind of rotation, and sometimes

Even the external aspect of nature, as it appears to a superficial observer, presents a scene of variety. The ranges of mountains with summits of different heights and shapes, the hills and plains, the glens and dells, the waving curves which appear on the face of every landscape, the dark hues of the forests, the verdure of the fields, the towering cliffs, the rugged precipices, the rills, the rivers, the cataracts, the lakes and seas; the gulphs, the bays and peninsulas; the numerous islands of every form and size which diversify the surface of the ocean, and the thousands of shades of colouring which appear on every part of sublunary nature, present a scene of diversified beauty and sublimity to the eye of every beholder.-And if we lift our eyes to the regions of the firmament, we likewise behold a scene of sublimity and grandeur mingled with variety. The sun himself appears diversified with spots of various shapes and sizes, some a hundred, some a thousand, and some ten thousand miles in diameter-indicating operations and changes of amazing extent and almost every new revolution on his axis presents us with new and varied clusters. Every planet in the solar system differs from

in a trembling or vibratory manner. Sometimes the wheels seem to be entire circles, with teeth like those of the balance-wheel of a watch: but their figure varies according to the degree of their protrusion, and seems to depend upon the will of the animal itself; a, is the head and heels; b, is the heart, where its systole and diastole are plainly visible, and the alternate motions of contraction and dilatation are performed with great strength and vigour in about the same time as the pulsation of a man's ar tery. This animal assumes various shapes, one of which is represented at fig. 5, and becomes occasionally a case for all the other parts of the body.

Fig. 6, represents an insect with net-like arms. It is found in cascades where the water runs very swift. Its body appears curiously turned as on a lathe, and at the tail are three sharp spines, by which it raises itself and stands upright in the water; but the most curious apparatus is about its head, where it is furnished with two instruments, like fans or nets, which serve to provide its food. These it frequently spreads out and draws in again, and, when drawn up, they are folded together with the utmost nicety and exactness. When this creature does not employ its nets, it thrusts out a pair of sharp horns, and puts on a different appearance, as in fig. 7, where it is shown magnified about 400 times. Fig. 8, is the representation of an animalcula found in the infusion of the bark of an oak. Its body is composed of several ringlets, that enter one into another, as the animal contracts itself. At a b, are two lips furnished with moveable hairs; it pushes out of its mouth a snout composed of several pieces sheathed in each other, as at e. A kind of horn, d, is sometimes protruded from the breast, composed of furbelows, which slide into one another like drawers

fa pocket telescope. Fig. 9, is another animalcula, found in the same infusion, called a tortoise, with an umbilical tail. It stretches out and contracts itself very easily, sometimes assuming a round figure, which it retains only for a moment, then opens its mouth to a surprising width, forming nearly the circumference of a circle. Its motion is very surprising and singular. Fig. 10, is an animalcula, called great mouth, which is found in several infusions. Its mouth takes up half the length of its body; its inside is filled with darkish spots, and its hinder part ter minated with a singular tail. Fig. 11, represents the

another in its size, in its spheroidal shape, in its diurnal rotation, in the aspect of its surface, in the constitution of its atmosphere, in the number of moons with which it is surrounded, in the nature of its seasons, in its distance from the sun, in the eccentricity of its orbit, in the period of its annual revolution, and in the proportion it receives of light and heat. Every comet, too, differs from another in its form and magnitude, in the extent of its nucleus and tail, in the period of its revolution, in the swiftness of its motion, and in the figure of the curve it describes around the sun; and "one star differeth from another star in glory." But could we transport ourselves to the surfaces of these distant orbs, and survey every part of their constitution and arrangements, we should, doubtless, behold beauties and varieties of divine workmanship far more numerous, and surpassing every thing that appears in our sublunary system. We have every reason to believe, from the infinite nature of the Divinity, and from what we actually behold, that the mechanism and arrangements of every world in the universe are all different from each other; and we find that this is actually the case, in so far as our observations extend.

The

proteus, so named on account of its assuming a great number of different shapes. Its most common shape bears a resemblance to that of a swan, and it swims to and fro with great vivacity. When it is alarmned, it suddenly draws in its long neck, transforming itself into the shape represented at m, and, at other times it puts forth a new head and neck with a kind of wheel machinery, as at n. Fig. 12, exhibits a species of animalcula shaped like bells with long tails, by which they fasten themselves to the roots of duck weed, in which they were found. They dwell in colonies, from ten to fifteen in num• ber. Fig. 13, is the globe animal, which appears exactly globular, having no appearance of either head, tail or fins. It moves in all directions, forwards or backwards, up or down, either rolling over and over like a bowl, spinning horizontally like a top, or gliding along smoothly without turning itself at all. When it pleases, it can turn round, as it were upon an axis very nimbly without removing out of its place. It is transparent, except where the circular black spots are shown; it sometimes appears as if dotted with points, and beset with short moveable hairs or bristles, which are probably the instruments by which its motions are performed. Fig. 14, shows a species of animalculæ called soles, found in infusions of straw and the ears of wheat; o, is the mouth, which is sometimes extended to a great width, p, is the tail. Fig. 15, represents an anima. found in an infusion of citron flowers. Its head is very short, and adorned with wo horns like those of a deer; its body appers to be covered with scales, and its tail long, and swift in motion. Fig. 16, represents the ects which are found in paste and stale vinegar. The most remarkable property of these animals is, that they are viviparous. If one of them is cut through near the middle, several ova! bodies of different sizes issue forth, which are young anguilla, each coiled up in its proper membrane. An hundred and upwards of the young ones have been seen to issue from the body of one single eel, which accounts for their prodigious increase.

It may not be improper to remark, that no engraving can give an adequate idea of the objects referred to above, and, therefore, whoever wishes to inspect nature in all her minute beauties and varieties, must have recourse to the microscope itself.

moon is the principal orb on whose surface parfruar observations can be made; and we find that its arrangements are materially different from those of the earth. It has no large rivers, seas, or oceans, nor clouds such as ours to diversify its atmosphere. It has mountains and plains, hills and vales, insulated rocks and caverns of every size and shape; but the form and arrangement of all these objects are altogether different from what obtains in our terrestrial sphere.-While, on our globe, the ranges of mountains run nearly in a line from east to west, or from north to south,-on the surface of the inoon they are formed for the most part into circular ridges, enclosing, like ramparts, plains of all dimensions, from half a mile to forty miles in diameter. While on earth, the large plains are nearly level, and diversified merely with gentle wavings.-in the moon, there are hundreds of plains of various dimensions sunk, as it were, nearly two miles below the general level of its surface. On this orb we behold insulated mountains, more than two miles in elevation, standing alone, like monuments, in the midst of plains, circular basins or caverns, both in the valleys, and on the summits and declivities of mountains, and these caverns, again, indented with smaller ones of a similar form, at the same time, there are plains far more level and extensive than on the earth. On the whole, the mountain-scenery on the lunar surface is far more diversified and magnificent than on our globe, and differs as much from terrestrial landscapes as the wastes and wilds of America from the cultivated plains of Europe. In short, while on the earth, the highest mountains are little more than four miles in heig, on some of the planets mountains have been discovered, which astronomers have reckoned to be twenty-two miles in elevation.

If then, it is reasonable to believe, that all the worlds in the universe are different in their construction and arrangements, and peopled with beings of diversified ranks and orderscould we survey only a small portion of the universal system-what an amazing scene would it display of the conceptions of the Divine Mind and of "the manifold wisdom of God!" Such views, therefore, of the variety of nature are evidently calculated to expand our conceptions of the divine character, to excite us to admiration and reverence, to extend or views of the riches of divine beneficence, and to enlarge our hopes of the glories and felicities of that future inheritance which is incorruptible andwhich fadeth not away.'

5. The contemplation of nature, through the medium of science, is calculated to expand our conceptions of the power of the Deity, and of the magnificence of his empire. The power of God is manifested by its effects; and in proportion as our knowledge of these effects is enlarged, will our conceptions of this attribute of the Divinity be expanded. To create a single object

implies an exertion of power which surpasses finite comprehension;--how much more the crea tion and arrangement of such a vast multiplicity of objects as those to which we have just now adverted! For, all that immense variety of beings which exists in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and in the invisible regions which the microscope has explored, evinces the omnipotence of the Deity, no less than his wisdom and intelligence. But the magnitude, as well as the number and variety of the objects of creation, displays the almighty power of the Creator. In this point of view, the discoveries of modern astronomy tend to aid our conceptions of the grandeur of this perfection, and to extend our views of the range of its operations far beyond what former ages could have imagined. When we take a leisurely survey of the globe on which we dwell, and consider the enormous masses of its continents and islands, the quantity of water in its seas and oceans, the lofty ranges of mountains which rise from its surface, the hundreds of majestic rivers which roll their waters into the ocean, the numerous orders of animated beings with which it is peopled, and the vast quantity of matter enclosed in its bowels from every part of its circumference to its centre, amounting to more than two hundred and sixty thousand millions of cubical miles -we cannot but be astonished at the greatness of that Being who first launched it into existence, who "measures its waters in the hollow of his hand, who weighs its mountains in scales, and its hills in a balance;" and who has supported it in its rapid movements, from age to age. But, how must our conceptions of divine power be enlarged when we consider, that this earth, which appears so great to the frail beings which inhabit it, is only like a small speck in creation, or like an atom in the immensity of space, when compared with the myriads of worlds of superior magnitude which exist within the boundaries of creation! When we direct our views to the planetary system, we behold three or four globes, which appear only like small studs on the vault of heaven, yet contain a quantity of matter more than two thousand four hundred times greater than that of the earth, besides more than twenty lesser globes, most of them larger than our world,* and several hundreds of cemets, of various magnitudes, moving in every direction through the depths of space. The Sun is a body of such magnitude as overpowers our feeble conceptions, and fills us with astonishment. Within the wide circumference of this luminary more than a million of worlds as large as ours could be contained. His body fills a cubica! space equal to 681,472,000,000,000,000 miles, and his surface more than 40,000,000,000, or forty thousand millions of square miles. At the

The satelites of Jupiter, Saturn and Herschel are all reckoned to be larger than the Earth.

ste of sixty miles a-day, it would require more that a hundred millions of years to pass over every square mile on his surface. His attractive energy extends to several thousands of millions of miles from his surface, retaining in their orbits the most distant planets and comets, and dispensing light and heat, and fructifying influence to more than a hundred worlds.* What an astonishing idea, then, does it give us of the power of Omnipotence, when we consider, that the universe is replenished with innumerable globes of a similar size and splendour! For every star which the naked eye perceives twinking on the vault of heaven, and those more distant orbs which the telescope brings to view throughout the depths of immensity, are, doubt less, suns, no less in magnitude than that which enlightens our day," and surrounded by a retinae of revolving worlds. Some of them have been reckoned by astronomers to be even much larger than our sun. The star Lyra, for example, is supposed, by Sir W. Herschel, to be $3,275,000 miles in diameter, or thirty-eight times the diameter of the sun; and, if so, its cubical contents will be 36,842,932,671,875, 000,000,000 miles, that is, more than fifty-four thousand times larger than the sun. The number of such bodies exceeds all calculation. Sir W. Herschel perceived in that portion of the milky way which lies near the constellation Orion, no less than 50,000 stars large enough to be distinctly numbered, pass before his tele. scope in an hour's time; besides twice as many more which could be seen only now and then by faint glimpses. It has been reckoned that nearly a hundred millions of stars lie within the range of our telescopes. And, if we suppose as we justly may, that each of these suns has a hundred worlds connected with it, there will be found ten thousand millions of worlds in that portion of the universe which comes within the range of human observation, besides those which lic concealed from mortal eyes in the unexplored regions of space, which may as far exceed all that are visible, as the waters in the caverns of the ocean exceed in magnitude a single particle of vapour!

Of such numbers and magnitudes we can form no adequate conception. The mind is bewil dered, confounded, and utterly overwhelmed when it attempts to grasp the magnitude of the universe, or to form an idea of the omnipotent energy which brought it into existence. The amplitude of the scale on which the systems of the universe are constructed tends likewise to elevate our conceptions of the grandeur of the Deity. Between every one of the planetary bodies there intervenes a space of many millions of miles in extent. Between the sun and

The planetary system, including the comets Ortain more than a hundred bodies dependant on the sun.

the nearest star, there is an interval, extending in every direction, of more than twenty billions of miles; and, it is highly probable, that a similar space surrounds every other system. And, if we take into consideration the immense forces that are in operation throughout the universethat one globe, a thousand times larger than the earth, is flying through the regions of immensity at the rate of thirty thousand miles an hour, another at the rate of seventy thousand, and another at a hundred thousand miles an hour, and that millions of mighty worlds are thus traversing the illimitable spaces of the firmament-can we refrain from exclaiming in the language of inspiration, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Who can by searching find out God?

Who can find out the Almighty to perfection? Who can utter the mighty operations of Jehovah? Who can show forth all his praise?"

Such a scene displays, beyond any other view we can take of creation, the magnificence and extent of the divine empire. Those countless worlds to which we have now adverted, are not to be considered as scenes of sterility and desolation, or as merely diffusing an uscless splendour over the wilds of immensity, nor are they to be viewed as so many splendid toys to amuse a few astronomers in our diminutive world. Such an idea would be altogether inconsistent with every notion we ought to form of the wisdom and intelligence of the Deity, and with every arrangement we perceive in the scenes of nature immediately around us, where we behold every portion of matter teeming with inhabitants. These luminous and opaque globes dispersed throughout the regions of infinite space, must, therefore, be considered as the abodes of sensitive and intellectual existence, where intelligences of various ranks and orders contemplate the glory, and enjoy the bounty of their Creator. And what scenes of diversified grandeur must we suppose those innumerable worlds to display! What numerous orders and gradations of intellectual natures must the universe contain, since so much variety is displayed in every department of our sublunary system! What boundless intelligence is unplied in the superintendence of such vast dominions! On such subjects the human mind can form no definite conceptions. The most vigorous imagination, in its loftiest flights, drops its wing and sinks into inanity before the splendours of the "King eternal, immortal, and invisible, who dwells in the light unapproachable," when it attempts to form a picture of the magnificence of the universe which he has created. But of this we are certain, that over all this boundless scene of creation, and over all the ranks of beings with which it is replenished, his moral government extends. Every motion of the material system, every movement among the rational