THE STORY OF AUTONOUS. 283 



untouched on a shelf in the cottage. By accident one is broken and 

 Autonous tastes the contents, which prove to be 'a most delicious and 

 heady sort of Wine.' He is delighted, straightway opens the other 

 bottle, and, sad to relate, gets drunk. Having quite by himself dis- 

 covered the nature of God, he now, quite by himself, discovers the 

 nature of intoxication. It is by this time apparent, I think, that 

 Autonous is an unusually wise young fellow. Finding how ill the 

 potations make him, he very properly throws 'the remainder of this 

 beautiful Liquor, Bottle and all, into the Sea.' 



During the feverish affection brought on by his bout, he walks a 

 good deal at night, and is lucky enough (for thus, in the order of 

 Providence, does good grow out of evil) to see the moon in eclipse. 

 This phenomenon fills him with 'exceeding Amazement,' and for a time 

 he does not know 'what to make of it.' But he is not the youth to 

 be long puzzled over a little thing like an eclipse. Presently an eclipse 

 of the sun occurs — seemingly for his personal benefit. Upon this, he 

 sets to work in earnest, and soon clears up all the difficulty. Consider- 

 ing how long it took for the race at large to learn the real nature of an 

 eclipse, we may regard this as one of our philosopher's most remark- 

 able performances. 



His continued study of animals — 'some of which,' as he sagely 

 remarks, 'afforded an excellent Pattern of Prudence and Industry, for 

 the Imitation of Men' — leads to no less important results. Observing 

 the beavers, in particular, he remarks 'with what true Policy every dis- 

 tinct Community' is 'governed under its peculiar Monarch' — the only 

 wonder being that he did not infer from his investigations the principles 

 of the Hanoverian Succession. Their methods of building houses and 

 dams, of laying up supplies for the winter and of gnawing down trees 

 with their teeth, specially delight him; and from their example, and 

 that of the dog, he learns to swim; thus becoming acquainted with 

 'fresh matter for wonder 5 in the shape of fish. He now devotes a good 

 deal of time to the contents of the cottage, and takes note of 'two or 

 three knives and forks,' and a hatchet, the sharpness of which suggests 

 a use similar to that which the beavers made of their teeth in cutting 

 trees. Hammer and a bag of nails, a rusty sword, a bow, a silver 

 tankard and some other utensils are also discovered by him, but these 

 he confesses that he was never 'so ingenious' as to turn to account. 

 But he learns the color and malleability of several metals, and as, 

 by hacking at various articles with the chopper, he deprives them 'of 

 the forms in which he found them,' so he concludes, by one of his 

 rapid processes of reasoning, that 'they must by some like Operation' — 

 by some human power and effort, he presumably means — 'have been 

 first wrought into the same/ 



In this part of his story, Autonous of course depends a good deal 



