The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE EQUINOX IX “ For being furnished with every kind of armour, and armed, he is similar to the goddess.” —-ZOROASTER. My dear Professor, how can you expect me to believe this nonsense about bacteria? Come, saith he, to the microscope ; and behold them ! I don’t see anything. Just shift the fine adjustment—that screw there—to and fro very slowly ! I can’t see—— Keep the left eye open ; you'll see better! Ah !—But how do I know?... Oh, there are a thousand questions to ask! Is it fair observation to use lenses, which admittedly refract light and distort vision ? How do I know those specks are not dust? Couldn’t those things be in the air? And so on. The Professor can convince me, of course, and the more sceptical I am the more thoroughly I shall be convinced in the end; but not until I have learned to use a microscope. And when I have learned—a matter of some months, maybe years—how can I convince the next sceptic? Only in the same way, by teaching him to use the instrument. And suppose he retorts, “You have deliberately trained yourself to hallucination!” What answer have I? None that I know of. Save that microscopy has revolutionised 52