Previous to the publication of Mr. Adams’s edition, a friend communicated to him drawings and descriptions of several of these minute beings which had fallen under his observation; but they were received too late for insertion. Mr. A. having at that time favoured me with a copy of the drawings and manuscript, they are now added, with the hope that they will not prove unacceptable to the curious reader. Edit.
Having in this and the preceding chapter described an extensive variety of those minute and wonderful productions of nature, the hydræ, vorticellæ, and animalcula infusoria, I shall take my leave of the subject with remarking, that though by the assistance of the microscope myriads of animated beings, roving in the smallest drop of water as if it were a sea, have been exhibited to the astonished eyes of attentive observers, it surely cannot be deemed an unreasonable supposition, that the Adorable Creator, who has filled the immensity of extent with suns and worlds, has also peopled every particle of fluid with beings far more minute than any apparatus of ours can perceive; and however insignificant many of the smaller parts of the creation may appear to the uninformed bulk of mankind, there cannot exist a doubt, but that they were all, collectively and individually, formed for the wisest purposes; and, though in many instances these designations are to us incomprehensible, let us not on that account rashly withhold our admiration. These sentiments are beautifully enforced in the following expressive lines of Thomson:
Gradual from these what num’rous kinds descend,
Evading ev’n the microscopic eye!
Full nature swarms with life; one wond’rous mass
Of animals, or atoms organized,
Waiting the vital breath, when parent heaven
Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen,
In putrid streams, emits the living cloud
Of pestilence. Thro’ subterranean cells,
Where searching sun-beams scarce can find a way,
Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf
Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure,
Within its winding citadel, the stone
Holds multitudes. But chief the forest boughs,
That dance unnumber’d to the playful breeze,
The downy orchard, and the melting pulp
Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed
Of evanescent insects. Where the pool
Stands mantled o’er with green, invisible,
Amid the floating verdure, millions stray.
Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes,
Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste,
With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream
Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air,
Tho’ one transparent vacancy it seems,
Void of their unseen people. These, conceal’d
By the kind art of forming heaven, escape
The grosser eye of man:————
Let no presuming impious railer tax
Creative Wisdom, as if aught was form’d
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?
As if upon a full-proportion’d dome,
On swelling columns heav’d, the pride of art!
A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads
An inch around, with blind presumption bold,
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole.
And lives the man, whose universal eye
Has swept at once th’ unbounded scheme of things;
Mark’d their dependance so, and firm accord,
As with unfaultering accent to conclude
That this availeth nought? Has any seen
The mighty chain of beings lessening down
From infinite perfection to the brink
Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss!
From which astonish’d thought, recoiling, turns?
Till then alone let zealous praise ascend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power,
Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds,
As on our smiling eyes his servant sun.
CHAP. IX.
ON THE ORGANIZATION OR CONSTRUCTION OF TIMBER, AS VIEWED BY THE MICROSCOPE.
The subject of the following chapter opens an extensive field for observation to the naturalist, in which the labour of a life may be well employed: it is a branch where the observer will find the microscope of continual use, and without which he will scarce be able to form any just idea of the organization of trees and plants, or of the variations in the disposition, the number, nature, and offices of their several parts.
Vegetables are beautiful and perfect in their kind, wonderful in their growth, beneficial in their uses. “Herbs and flowers may be regarded by some persons as objects of inferior consideration in philosophy; but every thing must be great which has God for its author. To him all the parts of nature are equally related: the flowers of the earth can raise our thoughts up to the Creator of the world as effectually as the stars of heaven; and, till we make this use of both, we cannot be said to think properly of either. All trees and herbs in their place and seasons speak the same language from the climates of the north to the torrid regions of the south, and from the winter to the spring and the harvest, they join their voices in the universal chorus of all created beings, and to the ear of reason celebrate the wisdom of the Almighty Creator.”
Malpighi, Grew, Duhamel, Hill, Bonnet, and De Saussure, are almost the only writers who have treated on the interior structure of vegetables; and, if we consider the imperfection of the instruments used by some of them in these anatomical researches, and the little attention paid by the rest to the advantages their favourite pursuits might have derived from the use of the microscope, as well as the dissecting knife, we find greater cause to wonder at what has been done, than at what remains to be performed. To the general inattention to the structure of plants, we may, amongst other causes, also ascribe the instability and fluctuation of the different theories on the principles of vegetation. We are, however, so little acquainted with the steps which Providence takes to lead intellectual, but free agents, to the knowledge of truth, and the various difficulties, errors, and prejudices, necessary to be removed, before it can shine in its native colours, that it is our duty to encourage every humble effort towards the advancement of science, that thus we may co-operate with our Creator and Redeemer in promoting that vast plan to which all things are now converging, the bringing all his creatures to a state of truth, goodness, and consequent happiness, an end worthy of the best and wisest of beings.[129]
[129] See the Bishop of Exeter’s Sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
As Dr. Hill is the first writer who has treated this part of natural history in an orderly and scientific manner, I shall use the names he has adopted for characterizing the different parts of trees, &c. which are, 1. the rind; 2. the bark; 3. the blea; 4. the wood; 5. the corona or circle of propagation; 6. the pith. These are placed immediately within or under one another; they are the essential parts upon which the strength of the tree depends: in, among, and between these, the various vessels are placed, which nourish the whole, and maintain and carry on the vegetation of the tree, and from which it obtains its peculiar qualities and virtues. These vessels are of five kinds: