The invisible world revealed by the microscope ; or, thoughts on animalcules / By Gideon Algernon Mantell.

  • Gideon Mantell
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The invisible world revealed by the microscope ; or, thoughts on animalcules / By Gideon Algernon Mantell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pe THE IDEAL INVISIBLE WORLD. o hence, that in all the visible and corporeal world we perceive no interruptions, no chasms. Down to the lowest and most inorganic parts of matter, we find everywhere that the several species are linked together, and differ but in insensible degrees. And we have, therefore, reason to think that it is in accordance with the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the de- sign and infinite goodness of its great Author, that the species of creatures should also by gentle degrees ascend upwards from us towards Infinite Perfection, as we see they gradually do from us downwards. We have, therefore, reason to conclude that there are far more species of creatures above us than there are beneath us; man being so much more remote from the Infinite Per- fection of Gop, than from the very lowest state of being, or that which approaches nearest to nothing*.” That our planet may at the present moment be the abode of numberless invisible intelligences of a higher nature than man—as it was, in the ages antecedent to the creation of the human race, of thousands of beings now extinct—neither religion nor philosophy requires us to disbelievet. However this be, all attempts to * Locke’s Essays. + ‘* The Scriptures assure us, that beings raised as far above the limited powers of man, as man is raised above the insect tribes, actually exist.’’—~ Dr. Dick’s ‘‘ Philosophy of a Future State,’’ 2nd edition, p. 291.
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