IF (faid he) you can be fo tranfported with those Productions of Nature which are difcovered to you by those artificial Eyes that are the Works of human Invention, how great will your Surprize be, when you shall have it in your Power to model your own Eye as you pleafe, and adapt it to the Bulk of Objects, which, with all these Helps, are by infinite Degrees too minute for your Perception. We who are unbodied Spirits can fharpen our Sight to what Degree we think fit, and make the leaft Work of the Creation diftinct and vifible. This gives us fuch Ideas as cannot poffibly enter into your prefent Conceptions. There is not the leaft Particle of Matter which may not furnish one of us fufficient Employment for a whole Eternity. We can fill divide it, and ftill open it, and ftill difcover new Wonders of Irovidence, as we look into the different Texture of its Parts, and meet with Beds of Vegetables, Minerals and Metallick Mixtures, and feveral Kinds of Animals that lie hid, and as it were loft in fuch an endless Fund of Matter. I find you are furprized at this Difcourfe; but as your Reason tells you there are infinite Parts in the fmallest Portion of Matter, it will likewife convince you, that there is as great a Variety of Secrets, and as much Room for Difcoveries in a Particle no bigger than the Point of a Pin, as in the Globe of the whole Earth. Your Microscopes bring to Sight Shoals of living Creatures in a Spoonful of Vinegar; but we who can diftinguifh them in their different Magnitudes, fee among them feveral huge Leviathans that terrify the little Fry of Animals about them, and take their Paftime as in an Ocean, or the great Deep. I could not but fmile at this Part of his Relation, and told him, I doubted not but he could give me the Hiftory of feveral invifible Giants, accompanied with their respective Dwarfs, in cafe that any of these little Beings are of an human Shape. You may affure yourfelf (faid he) that we fee in thefe little Animals different Natures, Instincts and Modes of Life, which correfpond to what you obferve in Creatures of bigger Dimenfions. We defcry Millions of Species fubfifled on a green Leaf, which your Glaffes reprefent only in Crouds and Swarms. What appears to your Eye but as Hair or Down rifing on the Surface of it, we find to be Woods and and Forefts, inhabited by Beafts of Prey, that are as dreadful in thofe their little Haunts, as Lions and Tigers in the Deferts of Lybia. I was much delighted with his Difcourfe, and could not forbear telling him, That I fhould be wonderfully pleased to fee a natural Hiftory of Imperceptibles, containing a true Account of fuch Vegetables and Animals as grow and live out of Sight. Such Difquifitions (anfwered he) are very fuitable to reasonable Creatures; and you may be fure, there are many curious Spirits among us who employ themselves in fuch Amufements. For as our Hands, and all our Senfes, may be formed to what Degree of Strength and Delicacy we please, in the fame Manner as our Sight, we can make what Experiments we are inclined to, how fmall foever the Matter be in which we make them. I have been prefent at the Diffection of a Mite, and have feen the Skeleton of a Flea. I have been fhewn a Forest of numberless Trees, which has been picked out of an Acorn. Your Microscope can fhew you in it a compleat Oak in Miniature; and could you fuit all your Organs as we do, you might pluck an Acorn from this little Oak, which contains another Tree; and fo proceed from Tree to Tree, as long as you would think fit to continue your Difquifitions. It is almoft impoffible (added he) to talk of Things fo remote from common Life, and the ordinary Notions which Mankind receive from blunt and grofs Organs of Senfe, without appearing extravagant and ridiculous. You have often feen a Dog opened, to obferve the Circulation of the Blood, or make any other ufeful Inquiry; and yet would be tempted to laugh if I fhould tell you, that a Circle of much greater Philofophers than any of the Royal Society, were present at the Cutting up of one of thofe little Animals which we find in the Blue of a Plum: That it was tied down alive before them; and that they obferved the Palpitations of the Heart, the Courfe of the Blood, the Working of the Muscles, and the Convulfions in the feveral Limbs, with great Accuracy and Improvement. I must confefs, faid I, for my own Part, I go along with you in all your Difcoveries with great Pleafure; but it is certain, they are too fine for the Grofs of Mankind, who are more ftruck with the Defcription of every Thing that is great and bulky. bulky. Accordingly we find the beft Judge of human Nature fetting forth his Wifdom, not in the Formation of these minute Animals, (though indeed no less wonderful than the other) but in that of the Leviathan and Behemoth, the Hore and the Crocodile. Your Obfervation (faid he) is very juft; and I muft acknowledge for my own Part, that although it is with much Delight that I fee the Traces of Providence in thefe Inftances, I still take greater leafure in confidering the Works of the Creation in their Immensity, than in their Minutenefs. For this Reafon, I rejoice when I ftrengthen my Sight fo aş to make it pierce into the moft remote Spaces, and take a View of thofe heavenly Bodies which lie out of the Reach of human Eyes, though affifted by Telescopes. What you look upon as one confused White in the MilkyWay, appears to me a long Track of Heavens, diftinguished by Stars that are ranged in proper Figures and Conftellations. While you are admiring the Sky in a Starry Night, I am entertained with a Variety of Worlds and Suns placed one above another, and rifing up to fuch an immense Distance, that no created Eye can fee an End of them. THE latter Part of his Difcourfe flung me into fuch an Astonishment, that he had been filent for fome Time before I took Notice of it; when on a fudden I started up and drew my Curtains, to look if any one was near me, but faw no Body, and cannot tell to this Moment whether it was my good Genius or a Dream that left me. -Velut TURS -Velut Silvis, ubi paffim Palantes error certo de Tramite pellit; Her. As when fome Travellers are bewilder'd in a Wood, and lofe their Way, one goes to the Right, the other to the Left. Νο 120. Saturday, January 14, 1709. Sheer-Lane, January 13. NSTEAD of confidering any particular Paffion or Character in any one Set of Men, my Thoughts were laft Night employed on the Contemplation of human Life in general; and truly it appears to me, that the whole Species are hurried on by the fame Defires,' and engaged in the fame Purfuits, according to the different Stages and Divifions of Life. Youth is devoted to Luft, · middle Age to Ambition, old Age to Avarice. Thefe are the three general Motives and Principles of Action both in good and bad Men; though it must be acknowledged, that they change their Names, and refine their Natures, according to the Temper of the Perfon whom they direct and animate. For with the Good, Luft becomes virtuous Love; Ambition, true Honour; and Avarice, the Care of Pofterity. This Scheme of Thought amufed me very agreeably till I retired to reft, and afterwards formed itself into a pleafing and regular Vifion, which I fhall defcribe in all its Circumftances, as the Objects prefented themfelves, whether in a ferious or ridiculous Manner. I DREAMED that I was in a Wood, of fo prodigious an Extent, and cut into fuch a Variety of Walks and Alleys, that all Mankind were loft and bewildered in it. After having wandered up and down fome Time, I came into the Centre of it, which opened into a wide No 120. Plain, filled with Multitudes of both Sexes. I here difcovered three great Roads, very wide and long, that led into three different Parts of the Foreft. On a fudden the whole Multitude broke into three Parts, according to their different Ages, and marched in their respective Bodies into the three great Roaes that lay before them. As I had a Mind to know how each of these Roads terminated, and whither it would lead those who passed through them, I joined my felf with the Affembly that were in the Flower and Vigour of their Age, and called themselves, The Band of Lovers. I found, to my great Surprize, that feveral old Men befides myfelf had intruded into this agreeable Company; as I had before obferved, there were fome young Men who had united themselves to the Band of Mifers, and were walking up the Path of Avarice; though both made a very ridiculous Figure, and were as much laughed at by those they joined, as by thofe they forfook. The Walk which we marched up, for Thicknefs of Shades, Embroidery of Flowers, and Melody of Birds, with the diftant Purling of Streams, and Falls of Waters, was fo wonderfully delightful, that it charmed our Senfes, and intoxicated our Minds with Pleasure. We had not been long here, before every Man fingled out fome Woman to whom he offered his Addreffes, and profeffed himself a Lover; when on a fudden we perceived this delicious Walk to grow more narrow as we advanced in it, till it ended in many intricate Thickets, Mazes and Labyrinths, that were fo mixed with Rofes and Brambles, Brakes of Thorns, and Beds of Flowers, rocky Paths and pleafing Grotto's, that it was hard to fay, whether it gave greater Delight or Perplexity to thofe who travelled in it. IT was here that the Lovers began to be eager in their Purfuits. Some of their Miftreffes, who only feemed to retire for the Sake of Form and Decency, led them into Flantations that were difpofed into regular Walks ; where, after they had wheeled about in fome Turnings and Windings, they fuffered themselves to be overtaken, and gave their Hands to thofe who pursued them. Others withdrew from their Followers into little Wilderneffes, where there were fo many Paths interwoven with each other in fo much Confufion and Irregularity, that |