Though he had little formal education and no background in science, he was a perceptive and dedicated observer and a technical genius. 尽管他几乎没有受过正规教育，也无任何科学背景，但却是一个敏锐的专心致志的观察者和技术天才。

To this day it is not known how he got such magnificent magnifications from simple handheld devices, 直到今天，我们也不知道他是怎样通过简陋的手工装置制造出如此高倍率的显微镜。

which were little more than modest wooden dowels with a tiny bubble of glass embedded in them, 它无非就是将一小块玻璃嵌入木榫而成，他的显微镜更像是放大镜，

far more like magnifying glasses than what most of us think of as microscopes, but really not much like either. 而不像我们大多数人认为的显微镜，但其实二者都不太像。

Leeuwenhoek made a new instrument for every experiment he performed and was extremely secretive about his techniques, 列文虎克每做一个实验都要制作一件新的仪器。可是，对于自己的技术，他却总是守口如瓶，

though he did sometimes offer tips to the British on how they might improve their resolutions. 不过他倒是就怎样提高分辨率而向英国人透露过情况。

Leeuwenhoek was close friends with another Delft notable, the artist Jan Vermeer. 列文虎克是另一个代尔夫特著名画家简·弗美尔的密友。

In the mid-1660s, Vermeer, who previously had been a competent but not outstanding artist, 弗美尔一直是个有些才干，但不怎么出色的画家。17世纪初，

suddenly developed the mastery of light and perspective for which he has been celebrated ever since. 突然之间，他发明了一种色块模糊化的技法，从此声名远扬。

Though it has never been proved, it has long been suspected that he used a camera obscura, 尽管未经证实，但是很长一段时间以来，人们怀疑他使用了一个暗箱，

a device for projecting images onto a flat surface through a lens. 即一种通过透镜将图像投射到平面的装置。

No such device was listed among Vermeer's personal effects after his death, 弗美尔死后，这种装置并没有列入弗美尔的个人财产中，

but it happens that the executor of Vermeer's estate was none other than Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the most secretive lens-maker of his day. 但是巧合的是弗美尔的财产的制指定遗产执行人不是别人，正是安东尼·范·列文虎克，即那个时代最守口如瓶的透镜制作者。

Over a period of fifty years—beginning, remarkably enough, when he was already past forty, 在长达50年的时间里——不可思议的是，从他40多岁后才开始，

Leeuwenhoek made almost two hundred reports to the Royal Society, all written in Low Dutch, the only tongue of which he was master. 他向皇家学会提交了近200份报告，全都用低地荷兰语写成，他只会这种语言。