an easy running
and firm hand. I transcribe it here below, word for word. It seems to
follow the other half of the sheet, for which I looked vainly all
about the ruins:

"My _micracoustic_ ear trumpet thus has the double advantage of
infinitely multiplying the intensity of sounds, and of introducing
them into the ear without causing the observer the least discomfort.
You would never have imagined, dear master, the charm which one feels
in perceiving these thousands of imperceptible sounds which are
confounded, on a fine summer day, in an immense murmuring. The
bumble-bee has his song as well as the nightingale, the honey-bee is
the warbler of the mosses, the cricket is the lark of the tall grass,
the maggot is the wren--it has only a sigh, but the sigh is melodious!

"This discovery, from the point of view of sentiment, which makes us
live in the universal life, surpasses in its importance all that I
could say on the matter.

"After so much suffering, privations, and weariness, how happy it makes
one to reap the rewards of all his labors! How the soul soars toward
the divine Author of all these microscopic worlds, the magnificence of
which is revealed to us! Where now are the long hours of anguish,
hunger, contempt, which overwhelmed us before? Gone, sir, gone! Tears
of gratitude moisten our eyes. One is proud to have achieved, through
suffering, new joys for humanity and to have contributed to its mental
development. But howsoever vast, howsoever admirable may be the first
fruits of my _micracoustic_ ear trumpet, these do not delimit its
advantages. There are more positive ones, more material, and ones which
may be expressed in figures.

"Just as the telescope brought the discovery of myriads of worlds
performing their harmonious revolutions in infinite space--so also will
my _micracoustic_ ear trumpet extend the sense of the unbearable beyond
all possible bounds. Thus, sir, the circulation of the blood and the
fluids of the body will not give me pause; you shall hear them flow
with the impetuosity of cataracts; you shall perceive them so
distinctly as to startle you; the slightest irregularity of the pulse,
the least obstacle, is striking, and produces the same effect as a rock
against which the waves of a torrent are dashing!

"It is doubtless an immense conquest in the development of our
knowledge of physiology and pathology, but this is not the point on
which I would emphasize. Upon applying your ear to the g