no man capable of original research has the
time to prepare for the uninitiated the attendant
circumstances essential to his more difficult in-
vestigations, or to train their eyes to see what
he sees. So is it also with the microscopic
observer; the deeper insight he has gained by
long training in steadiness of hand and eye, as
well as in the concentration of intellect that
makes the brain work harmoniously with them,
he cannot communicate. He may interest and
amuse his friends and visitors with some easy
exhibition of specimens under the microscope;
he may open the door into the laboratory of
Nature, but he cannot invite them to cross the
threshold or to enter in with him. I think
people are not generally aware of the difficulty
of microscopic observation, or the amount of
painful preparation required merely to fit the
organs of sight and touch for the work. In old
times men prepared themselves with fast and
vigil for entrance into the temple; and Nature
does not open her sanctuary without exacting
due penance from her votaries. It seems an
easy matter for a man to sit down and look at
objects through a glass which enlarges every-
thing to his vision; but there are subjects of
microscopic research so obscure that the student
must observe a special diet before undertaking
his investigation, in order that even the beating

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