most curious Carvings appearing no better then those rude _Russian_ Images
we find mention'd in _Purchas_, where three notches at the end of a Stick,
stood for a face. And the most smooth and burnish'd surfaces appear most
rough and unpolisht: So that my first Reason why I shall add but a few
observations of them, is, their mis-shapen form; and the next, is their
uselessness. For why should we trouble our selves in the examination of
that form or shape (which is all we are able to reach with a _Microscope_)
which we know was design'd for no higher a use, then what we were able to
view with our naked eye? Why should we endeavour to discover mysteries in
that which has no such thing in it? And like _Rabbins_ find out
_Caballisms_, and _ænigmâs_ in the Figure, and placing of Letters, where no
such thing lies hid: whereas in _natural_ forms there are some so small,
and so curious, and their design'd business so far remov'd beyond the reach
of our sight, that the more we magnify the object, the more excellencies
and mysteries do appear; And the more we discover the imperfections of our
senses; and the Omnipotency and Infinite perfections of the great Creatour.
I shall therefore onely add one or two Observations more _artificial_
things, and then come to the Treaty concerning such matters as are the
Productions of a more curious Workman. One of these, shall be that of a
piece of water'd Silk, represented in the second Figure of the third
_Scheme_,[6] as it appear'd through the least magnifying Glass. _AB_
signifying the long way of the Stuff, and _CD_ the broad way. This Stuff,
if the right side of it be looked upon, appears to the naked eye, all over
so waved, undulated, or grain'd, with a curious, though irregular variety
of brighter and darker parts, that it adds no small gracefulness to the
Gloss of it. It is so known a propriety, that it needs but little
explication, but it is observable, which perhaps everyone has not
considered, that those parts which appear the darker part of the wave, in
one position to the light, in another appears the lighter, and the
contrary; and by this means the undulations become transient, and in a