THE Gleanings from Nature. THE INVISIBLE WORLD. HE invisible! how various are the | imprint any image upon its sensitive emotions which the thought of the screen, so are there tribes of animated unseen calls up in different minds; is it existences so minute, that the eye of to be a ghost story? a charmingly man cannot behold them; the medium, horrible recital of how some village however, is not one that by mysterious maiden was scared, as she passed down rappings, or ingenious dodges, imposes the lane, by the apparition of a large upon the credulous, but has been prefigure, with balls of fire in its head, and pared by men of scientific precision and from whose mouth proceeded smoke; skill, and gradually brought to its which calmer reflection and enquiry present high state of perfection by the proved to be Farmer Tomkins' white- labours of many generations. It is, faced cow, lounging its lazy head over moreover, available to all who are willing the top of the gate. No it is not to be a to accept the help it will afford them. ghost story; nor do we intend now to descant upon tnat vast army of real but unseen agencies, whose business it is to do the will of their Maker, and who are constantly engaged ministering to the heirs of salvation. We have no means of piercing the veil, though it may be but a very slight one, which intervenes between us and those myriad inhabitants of the unseen world, which "walk the earth both when we wake, and when we sleep." The existence of these members of the spirit-world is matter of faith and not of sight, and we would not if we could, indulge in the impious absurdities of the so-called "mediums," who pretend to recall to this material sphere the disembodied spirits of either friend or foe; for we have no sympathy with revelations of a shockingly stupid character from those who, while in the flesh, could at least speak thoughtfully, and with some pretensions to the proprieties of language; yet we are fain to confess that without a medium we cannot make acquaintance with that vast range of invisible life to which we desire to introduce our readers. There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy, but in order that our philosophy may be enlightened, we must obtain aid from without. The human eye is admirably adapted for the various functions it has to fulfil, and the range of its power is wonderful, extending as it does from an extremely small point or line to the wide and varied landscape of plain and mountain: yet as there are limits to the extent of its powers in distance, and thousands of objects too far remote to Will you take the MICROSCOPE, and by its aid see if these things be so ? In this case surely seeing will be believing; the instrument is before you, with an object-glass of low power attached; we take from our little pond, with a camel's hair pencil, a small quantity of water, and placing it on a clean glass, proceed to examine it. With the unaided eye you do not see anything in the water; place it under the object-glass; now you behold a number of bodies moving about with the greatest freedom, to whom the drop is a mimic ocean, through which they swim, now within and then gliding gracefully out of the field of vision. Mark well the shapes of those you see that you may again recognise them, and the magnifying power shall be increased; it will, however, be desirable to make the water more shallow; this we do placing over the drop a film of French glass, about one-fiftieth of an inch in thickness, which being gently let down flattens the water, without injuring its living occupants. again observing it, you find the creatures you first beheld appear vastly increased in apparent size, and with them many others you could not previously detect; and there are others still smaller, whose forms are so ill-defined, that you must still further increase the power of the miscroscope, and press the French glass cover of the drop so that it shall be a mere film, and lo! there are beings so small, that we may conclude human skill has not yet succeeded in enabling us to trace out the most minute forms of living organisms. On How astonishingly lavish of life the "Full nature swarms with life; one wondrous mass descend, Of animals or atoms organized, * * * * -where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible Amid the floating verdure millions stray." So minute are some of these atoms that many thousands of them might be placed side by side on a line an inch long, and Mr. Rymer Jones informs us that in a drop of water no larger than a cube of one-twelfth of an inch, eight hundred millions may be contained. While in a cubic inch of water the astonishing number of thirteen billions, eight hundred and twenty-four millions of these animated organisms might disport themselves. The mind seems to be as inadequate to conceive the extreme minuteness of these works of the Creator, as it is to grasp the dimensions of those mighty orbs which reflect back the light of the central luminary; or the great distances which intervene between them and their primary around which they revolve; but the figures in each case have been ascertained after investigation by masters in science, and we may take them as illustrative of the wonder-working hand of him to whom nothing is large and nothing small. Great Father seems to be! The many | cause they travel by means of long forms of larger animals, tribes of birds, filaments of their own substance, often and myriads of insects, are all outnum- projected eight or ten times the length bered when we regard those smaller of the body; of which class, we have a members of the animated kingdom; common but striking example frequently they are everywhere, either as living found attached to portions of weed or beings, or as germs waiting only sun- other matter floating in ponds.* We shine and moisture to be developed into have one here which shall be placed being. Well might the poet of the under the microscope for your amuseSeasons," ," writement, it is a tolerably large specimen, being about the seventieth of an inch in diameter, from which these creatures diminish in size down to the twenty-eight hundredth part of an inch. Now it is isolated, and has the appearance of a whitish grey ball, rather shapeless, and without organ of any kind, then it gradually alters its form, and there is a projection, which lengthens, until it looks like a long finger, pressed down to the glass, and by taking firm hold, the body is drawn after it; another projection is thrown out, and again the position of the creature is changed; the filaments thus thrown out, or rather one of them, has come in contact with an organized body, which seems to be paralyzed by the touch, the filament is gradually retracted, but the animal has no mouth. Ah, but it will not lose its dinner for all that; see, the food is pressed against the soft side, which yields to admit it, the surrounding substance closes over, and the luckless prey is safely entombed, and will be digested at the leisure of our little friend, the Proteus; so called from the facility with which its form is changed. Our drop of water is, however, full of life, manifested in the quaintest forms. Here come some animated bladders rolling over and over as they pursue the even tenor of their way. Here are some sausages, or rather we might suppose them to be inflated skins of sausages on which fairies have dined, so transparent are they; yet they go swimming along in quiet dignified ease, utterly regardless of impediments; for in endeavouring to pass between some equally expanded comrades, their sides collapse in a manner it were to be wished could be imitated by the expanded coverings of our fair triends when they desire to pass us in pew or public conveyance. Here is one turning round and round in giddy gyrations upon an unseen axis. Is it a peg top which has just been Minute as are the beings under consideration, they are endowed with locomotive powers, and move with greater or less freedom through the waters. It has been thought that, at least some of them do not move as the result of acts of volition, but in obedience to an impulse similar to that which impels certain leaves of plants and minuter forms of vegetation to almost ceaseless action; be this however, as it may, move they certainly do, and many with great rapidity, considering their diminutive forms. They are chiefly furnished with cilia, hair-like appendages in constant motion, others unfurnished with cilia are termed root footed, Rhizopoda, be * Amabæ, from the Greek, Amoibos, changing. thrown down by an unseen and very small boy, or is it being whipped round by an invisible Puck? neither one nor the other, for now being tired of this revolving state, it has swiftly swum out of the field of vision. Here comes a tiny fluted column with either end rounded off; there is a round disc with a few long hairs projected from its surface, and is whisked across the vision with great rapidity. Now we have some florence oil flasks, or what at least are very like them in form, and, yes, certainly! there are a pair of the large ends of the flasks fastened together! What has happened here? Is this a lusus natura? Oh, no, the little creatures are only practising multiplication by division. We have frequently watched the whole operation; first a little nick appears in the small end, and gradually extends all down the animal until it is finally divided along its length, and two animals exist, where previously there was but one. They do not all thus divide longitudinally, but many of them transversely, and it is not a little amusing to observe each trying to swim in a contrary direction, the stronger at length carrying off his weaker but attached brother who, no doubt, rejoices when the tie is severed. Do you perIceive that round-bodied fellow with a long swan-like neck, which it gracefully moves in every direction? Is it not a very striking, though extremely small representative of those huge fish-like reptiles, the Ichthyosauri, which dwelt in by-gone times, but whose forms are modelled in the grounds of the Crystal Palace. But we must not linger over the shapes here presented of trumpets, serpents, boats, cups, funnels, globes, cylinders, spindles, and many others: some with mouths, and apparently very hungry ones too, while many are not provided with, what would seem to be, this very necessary appendage, and who therefore take their nutriment by imbibition through their delicate tissues. Those who have not the opportunity of observing the curious shapes of these tiny beings, should at least gratify their eyes with a view of their portraits as depicted in the magnificent work of Ehrenberg, Dr. Pritchard's "Infusoral Animalcules," or in the plates attached to the "Micrographic Dictionary." It is not surprising that vast numbers of Animalcules should swarm in almost all waters when their processes of division are considered, and the rapidity with which the operation is carried on; they however, multiply, not only by spontaneous division, but by gemmation, that is, the development of buds upon the surface of the parent animal which give rise to similar creatures or germs which are developed into them; or by the encysting process, in which the parent becomes as it were the egg from which proceeds not one, but many similar forms of life. They are moreover tenacious of life, or perhaps it were better said, that they are capable of resisting what might be considered as unfavourable conditions; thus, if the water containing them be frozen hard and subjected to cold equal to twenty degrees below freezing point, when the ice has melted, the little fellows will be found swimming about as if nothing particular had happened to them; on the other hand, they have not only been found floating in hot springs, but the water in which they have dwelt has been gradually raised from a temperate condition to the boiling point, and many have survived this rather severe test. The life of an individual, according to some observers who have kept them in confinement under conditions as near as possible similar to those in which they naturally exist, is between four and five weeks; in the encysted state, of course the germ of vitality is of much longer duration, and as the animal divides and divides again, the life of the individual may be continued through so many generations, or rather literally split into so many portions, that it is extremely difficult to detect the original parent among a host of precisely similar offshoots. The rapidity with which animals of this simple type make their appearance in water containing decaying vegetable matter is well known. They may usually be found in water in which cut flowers have been kept for a time; this facility of development has given them the name, Infusoria, by which as a class they are popularly known. The old observers amuse themselves and their friends by preparing infusions of various kinds in order to obtain the living atoms developed under these influences; and it is amusing to read their directions | lition for some time in a closed vessel, how to prepare infusions of pepper, hay, into the cork of which two bent tubes wheat, celery, and numerous other plants, are inserted, and after the air has been all of which were to yield specific kinds completely displaced by the vapour, of animalcules; but we fear that the ex-fresh air be admitted previously passed perimenter was often disappointed by through red hot tubes, animalcules cease finding several creatures in one infusion, to be met with"; and they add "that the and that in different infusions were to liquid has not been rendered incapable be seen similar animals. The readiness of supporting the life of the animal forms with which they are developed, and the is shown by subsequently admitting air difficulty of tracing their first appear- which has not been heated to redness, ance, has given rise to the curiously when the animalcules appear as rapidly absurd notion of so-called spontaneous as before." generation, by which we suppose is meant that either these animals create themselves, or that they are created as the result of the vegetation becoming decomposed; either notion being altogether beyond the limited capacity of one who believes that all things were made by God, and without him was not, nor is, anything made. For while we can conceive that like may produce like, and are ready to admit that it is difficult, nay in many cases impossible, to trace the presence of vital germs, yet we are far too opaque to see how like can produce unlike, or how the destruction of a vegetable organism can be the creation of an organized animal; but as the subject has long agitated men's minds, and shallow reasoners have been led away by first appearances, it may be gratifying to some who have perhaps feared to know the truth, to be informed that a committee of savans appointed by the French academy to investigate some most interesting experiments carried out by Messrs. Pasteur, Pouchet and others, with a view to elucidate the question, have reported that no life is manifested, if due care be taken to destroy the existing germs which may be in the air or water. It is much to be lamented that the disposition should be frequently so strong to eliminate God from his works, and to give to a blind unerring law the glory which belongs to him alone. The waters teem with myriads of germs, numbers of which are taken up in the air and carried hither and thither; many being deposited where they fall, but many others where, finding suitable conditions, they burst into life. Messrs. Griffith and Henfrey writing in the "Micrographic Dictionary on this point state; "If the liquid containing the decomposing matter be heated to ebul To members of this group of microscopic beings is due the beautiful phenomena of phosphorescence which has charmed every one who has spent a little time at the sea-shore: myriads of tiny creatures, each emitting its minute spark of light, irradiate with their splendours the crest of the wave as it breaks upon the shore, or falls in flashes of brilliant light from the oar as the boatmen lifts it from the water. The spark of light in each though truly small is not hid, but being freely given forth, it scatters beauty and radiance far and wide. May not all who have received a beam of Divine light, though it be ever so small, emulate the tiny animalcule, and light up by its reflection some dark spot? Even around our coasts this phenomenon is seen with great beauty, but in tropical seas, its effects are extraordinarily beautiful, where sometimes the whole surface far as the eye can stretch seems one vast sheet of sheen, the wake of the vessel displaying the most vivid and varied scintillations, and the spray breaking upon the prow, falls like a shower of brilliantly illuminated sparks. Every one must be familiar with Coleridge's description in the "Ancient Mariner," of the singular beauty of the scene :— "Beyond the shadow of the ship watched the water-snakes: "Within the shadow of the ship Thus in mercy vast as his own infinitude does the Creator condescend to fill the world with beauty, and much of it of a character to stimulate the exertions of his creature man; literally, these are works that have to be sought out by them that take pleasure therein; but how great is the reward in return for the pains and labour bestowed upon the search! Did they serve no other object in creation than this, it would seem to be enough, but doubtless they fulfil a higher purpose. Let us, in conclusion, hear Professor Owen on this point. "Consider," he says, "their incredible numbers, their universal distribution, their insatiable voracity; and that it is the particles of decaying vegetable and animal bodies which they are appointed to devour and assimilate. Surely we must, in some degree, be indebted to these ever-active invisible scavengers for the salubrity of the atmosphere, and the purity of water. Nor is this all; they perform a still more important office in preventing the gradual diminution of the present amount of organized matter upon the earth. For when this matter is dissolved or suspended in water in that state of comminution and decay which immediately precedes its final decomposition into the elementary gases and its consequent return to the inorganic world, these wakeful members of Nature's invisible police are everywhere ready to arrest the fugitive organized particles, and turn them back into the ascending stream of animal life. Having converted the dead and decomposing particles into their own living tissues, they themselves become the food of larger Infusoria, and of numerous other small animals, which in their turn are devoured by larger animals; and thus a food fit for the nourishment of the highest organized beings is brought back, by a short route, from the extremity of the realms of organized matter.” Notices. W. R. SELWAY. Oth, the foundation-stone of the to give a short account of money re 66 Mr. the afternoon of Friday, August | He then called upon Mr. William Olney new Chapel, Drummond-road, Ber- ceived and promised towards this object. mondsey, was laid by Mr. Spurgeon. The rapidly-increasing population in this neighbourhood could not but suggest to the visitors on that occasion, the sound wisdom and genuine philanthropy which suggested the erection of a comfortable place of worship in this spiritually destitute locality. Happily the weather, which for some days previously had been wet and stormy, quite cleared up, and was fine during the whole of the proceedings. A hymn having been sung, Mr. Spurgeon offered fervent prayer that abundant success might crown this undertaking. He then addressed the assembled friends in an animated speech, telling them how for a long time it had been in his heart to erect a place of worship in that vicinity, and how real was the pleasure he felt at seeing his hopes about to be realized under such favourable circumstances. He told the friends already associated in Christian fellowship at Mill Lane, Blue Anchor Road, that having given them a start, they must now endeavour to run alone, of which they had given good promise in the efforts they had already made. The favourable statement made by Mr. |