This time they did not come out of the little grooved lines into which they were put, and I hastened to take out the brass plate and set them in parallel lines.

I gave up then for the day, but, as they looked well and were certainly in firmly, I did not consider that I had made an entire failure.

I thought it nice ladylike work to manage such slight threads and turn such delicate screws; but fine as are the hairs of one's head, I shall seek something finer, for I can see how clumsy they will appear when I get on the eyepiece and magnify their imperfections.

They look parallel now to the eye, but with a magnifying power a very little crook will seem a billowy wave, and a faint star will hide itself in one of the yawning abysses.
"January 15.

Finding the hairs which I had put into my instrument not only too coarse, but variable and disposed to curl themselves up at a change of weather, I wrote to George Bond to ask him how I should procure spider lines.