Note l — BOOK VIII.

The minute Curiosities, and inimitable Fineries, observable in those lesser Animals, in which our best Microscopes discover no Botch, no rude ill-made Work, (contrary to what is in all artificial Works of Man,) Do they not far more deserve our Admiration, than those celebrated Pieces of humane Art? Such as the Cup made of a Pepper-Corn, by Oswald Nerlinger, that held 1200 ivory Cups, all gilt on the Edges, and having each of them a Foot, and yet affording Room for 400 more, in the Ephem. Germ. T. 1. Addend. ad Obs. 13. Such also was Phaëton in a Ring, which Galen thus reflects upon, when he speaks of the Art and Wisdom of the Maker of Animals, particularly such as are small, Quanto, saith he, ipsum minus fuerit, tanto majorem admirationem tibi excitabit; quod declarant Opifices cùm in corporibus parvis aliquid insculpant: cujus generis est quòd nuper quidam in Annulo Phaëtonta quatuor equis invectum sculpsit. Omnes enim æqui frænum, os, & dentes anteriores habebant, &c. And then having taken Notice, that the Legs were no bigger than those of a Gnat, he shews that their Make did not come up to those of the Gnat; as also, saith he, Major adhuc alia quædam esse videtur artis ejus, qui Pulicem condidit, Vis atque Sapientia, quod, &c. Cùm igitur Ars tanta in tam abjectis animalibus appareat,——quantam ejus Vim ac Sapientiam in præstantioribus inesse putabimus? Galen. de Us. Part. L. 17. c. 1. fin.