rapidity of their movements is remarkable. A
ground so slimy as the back of a slug might be
expected to impede the motions of their eight
feet, but so far is this from being the case that
they are never seen at rest, running about with
a celerity scarcely paralleled among their kind.
It is far from easy to catch them for examination,
for they are as nimble as they are fragile,
and oftener crushed than caught. They may be
squashed by a touch. If the slug is dropped
into plain water, the mites rise to the surface
and run upon it as easily and as actively as they
run upon the back of the slug itself, their usual
haunt for air and exercise. The best way to
capture them is, perhaps, to drop the slug into
weak alcohol, which, without immediately
destroying life, paralyses the limbs of the mites.

A GREAT MAN.

1.

THAT man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf;
Content to know, and be unknown,
Whole in himself:

2.

Strong is that man, he only strong,
To whose well-order'd will belong,
For service and delight,
All powers that, in despite of wrong,
Establish right.

3.

And free he is, and only he,
Who, from his tyrant passions free,
By Fortune undismay'd,
Hath power upon himself to be
By himself obey'd.

4.

If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare.
He cannot fare amiss.
Great Nature hath him in her care,
Her cause is his.

5.

Time cannot take him by surprise;
Fate cannot crush him: he shall rise
Stronger from overthrow.
Whose arms a Heavenly Friend supplies
Against Heaven's Foe.

6.

Who holds by everlasting Law,
Which neither chance nor change can flaw,
Whose stedfast cause is one
With whatsoever forces draw
The ages on:

7.

Who hath not bow'd his honest head
To base occasion, nor in dread
Of Duty shunn'd her eye,
Nor truckled to himself, nor wed
His heart to a lie:

8.

Nor fear'd to follow in th' offence
Of false opinion, his own sense
Of Justice, unsubdued;
Nor shrunk from any consequence
Of doing good:

9.

He looks his Angel in the face
Without a blush; nor heeds disgrace
Whom naught disgraceful done
Disgraces. Who knows nothing base
Dreads nothing known.

10.

Not morsell'd out from day to day
In petty arms, the helpless prey
Of hours that have no plan,
His life is his to give away
To God and man.

11.

The merely great are, all in all,
No more than what the merely small
Esteem them. Man's opinion
Neither conferr'd nor can recal
This man's dominion.

12.

Lord of a lofty life is he,
Loftily living, tho' he be
Of lowly birth; tho' poor,
He lacks not wealth; nor high degree
In state obscure;

13.

Tho' sadden'd soil'd not, broken not
Tho' burthen'd, by his mortal lot
To strive with mortal sin,
And scald away with tears the spot
That sinks not in:

14.

Yet not with downward eye morose,
Bent on himself, nor ear so close
Held to his own heart's call,
But what he sees, and hears, and knows,
And doth love well.

15.

All creatures by the dear God made;
All things that are; the little blade
Of green in grassy field,
The myriad stars that overhead
Stud heaven's blue shield;

16.

Nature's waste wealth of beauty, shed
By desert shore, or wild sea bed,
And the deep-moaning heart,
The mighty human cry for bread,
In crowded mart;

17.

By these his heart is touch'd, and sings
From all its solemn-sounding strings
Which Love alone can thrill,
Hosannah to the King of kings,
To man good-will.

18.

For, tho' he live aloof from ken,
The world's unwitness'd denizen,
The love within him stirs
Abroad, and with the hearts of men
His own confers;

19.

The Judge upon the Justice-seat,
The brown-back'd beggar in the street,
The spinner in the sun,
The reapers reaping in the wheat,
The wan-cheek'd nun.