PUNNING. "My little dears, who learn to read, pray early learn to shun That very silly thing indeed which people call a pun: Read Entick's rules, and 'twill be found how simple an offence It is, to make the selfsame sound afford a double sense. "For instance, ale may make you ail, your aunt an ant may kill, You in a vale may buy a veil, and Bill may pay the bill; "Thus one might say, when to a treat good friends accept our greeting, 'Tis meet that men who meet to eat should eat their meat when meeting; Brawn on the board's no bore indeed, although from boar prepared ; Nor can the fowl, on which we feed, foul feeding be declared. "Thus one ripe fruit may be a pear, and yet be pared again, And still be one, which seemeth rare, until we do explain. It therefore should be all your aim to speak with ample care, For who, however fond of game, would choose to swallow hair? "A fat man's gait may make us smile, who has no gate to close; The farmer sitting on his stile no stylish person knows; Perfumers men of scents must be; some Scilly men are bright; A brown man oft deep read we see, a black a wicked wight. "Most wealthy men good manors have, however vulgar they; And actors still the harder slave, the oftener they play; So poets can't the baize obtain, unless their tailors chocse; While grooms and coachmen, not in vain, each evening seek the Mews. "The dyer who by dyeing lives, a dire life maintains ; The glazier, it is known, receives-his profits from his panes: By gardeners thyme is tied, 'tis true, when spring is in its prime; But time or tide won't wait for you, if you are tied for time. "Then now you see, my little dears, the way to make a pun; The fault admits of no defence; for wheresoe'er 'tis found, "So let your words, and actions too, one single meaning prove, And, just in all you say or do, you'll gain esteem and love: In mirth and play no harm you'll know, when duty's task is done; But parents ne'er should let you go unpunished for a pun!" THEODORE HOOK. WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. THE invention of the telescope1 has revealed to us the vastness of the universe, and taught us to regard our own world as but an exceedingly small part of creation. The truths revealed by the microscope 2 are, however, not less surprising, for it has made known to us that there is not a single corner or cranny of our earth devoid of life. Whilst the telescope has taught us to consider the world, in comparison with the rest of the universe, as a grain of sand on the seashore, the microscope has opened our eyes to see a world of life in every atom. If we had only the telescope to reveal to us the stupendous works of the Creator in the starry heavens, we should have been tempted to think that we who inhabit this little planet of ours are too small and insignificant for God to take us into account. But the microscope has prevented us from falling into this error, by acquainting us with the existence of myriads of creatures in every part of our world, too minute for the naked eye to see. Thus, whilst the telescope shows us that nothing is too great for God's power, the microscope assures us that nothing is too small for His care. The microscope has opened up new worlds for human observation. In proportion as this instrument has been perfected, the horizon of life has been enlarged, and a microscopic world, teeming with life, has been revealed in every spot to which investigation has been able to reach. The polar ices, the elevated regions of the atmosphere, and the gloomy depths of ocean, are peopled with living organisms; and everywhere we have reason to be astonished at the variety of their forms, as well as their innumerable multitude. These minute creatures are found in abundance where, to the unaided eye, nothing animate is visible. Where the rigour of the climate kills the most robust of the vegetable world, where a few scattered animals pick up a precarious subsistence,5 the tiniest animalcules 6 exist in incredible abundance. These living specks which swarm in the saline waters of the ocean, not only at its surface, but throughout its greatest depth, abound equally in the muddy waters of our rivers and ponds, and without being aware of it, we daily swallow millions of them in the fluids we drink. If with the aid of the microscope we were to scrutinize everything that a single drop of water contains, there would be seen enough to make many thirsty people loth to drink. Not only is the water peopled with these minute animalcules, but the air also has its own peculiar denizens. We see enough with the naked eye in the sunbeam that enters a window in our dwelling-houses to make us almost wonder that we are not choked with the dust we are condemned to swallow. But if we could examine the air we breathe with a microscope, we should find that it contains an immense quantity of animalcules, both dead and alive. Sometimes, it is said, they abound to such an extent in the air as to intercept the light and to suffocate travellers. Water and air are not the only domains of these microscopic creatures. They are met with in the earth in inconceivable numbers. Certain species form in some damp places living beds beneath the soil, which are often several yards in thickness. The creatures themselves are so minute that 10,000 could be ranged side by side along a line one inch in length. These puny animalcules in many places swarm by myriads of myriads, and form deposits of great size. They are found to compose as much as one-third of the mud exposed by the ebb-tide in certain harbours. The microscope has also revealed to us many wonders A LITTLE CHALK POWDER, HIGHLY MAGNIFIED. respecting the past history of our globe. It shows clearly, for instance, that all our chalk cliffs and all our limestone rocks are mainly composed of the shells that, long ages ago, formed the habitations of tiny molluscs.8 If a little chalk be reduced to powder and then examined with a microscope, it will be found to consist of minute and various kinds of shells-most of which are so small that it would take two thousand of them placed end to end in a line to cover an inch. What countless myriads of minute creatures must have filled the seas in the early ages for their shells to form the chalk of which so many of our hills and cliffs are chiefly composed! A traveller exploring an elevated mountain is sometimes struck by a singular phenomenon-viz., the red colour of the snow. This is due to the presence of microscopic animalcules of a red colour. The same creature seems to produce this red appearance in snow everywhere: on the icy summits of the Alps, and on the snows of the farthest polar regions to which man has penetrated,-for red snow is met with even in these remote parts. Water also at times assumes a blood-red tint, which in every age has startled and alarmed the vulgar. But since the invention of the microscope, it has been ascertained that the redness of the water depends upon the presence of extremely small plants and animals. There is another phenomenon of water which is generally due to the presence of animalcules, and that is the beautiful phosphorescent1o appearance observed by every one who has sailed by night upon the sea. Sometimes, when of small extent, it is caused by fish traversing the waves like a flaming arrow; at other times it is owing to the presence of medusæ.11 The phenomenon, however, is most frequently seen in places where the sea is in movement; every wave as it is cut by the prow of the ship rolls off in luminous foam, and the crests of the billows sparkle like the starry sky. Such is the effect of swarms of animalcules, having a phosphorescent coating. water. But microscopic life does not invade only air, earth, and It is met with also, full of power and vitality, in the interior of animals and plants. A man's mouth, for instance, unless kept scrupulously clean, is inhabited by myriads of animalcules; the tartar that collects on our teeth being often nothing else than incrustations formed of the skeletons of these tiny creatures. Innumerable legions of a |
