358 THE WATCH-TOWER OF KOA T-VEN. 



enquiries, the want of a stimulant to a tardy and difficult digestion. 

 Coffee, it is true, would have succeeded perfectly in effecting this 

 end; but the astronomer, aware of the unhappy effects that might 

 result from the habitual use of this stimulant, feared to encounter it. 

 To make up, however, for this means of excitation, he endeavoured 

 by irritating his brother to arouse him to a spirited contradiction. 

 This, he hoped, might give rise to a violent and impassioned discus- 

 sion, so that forcing the physical system by moral elevation he might 

 succeed in producing a salutary action upon his organs of digestion, 

 and reap all the advantageous results of the strongest and hottest 

 Mocha without any of its inconveniences. 



Here he had to contend with the natural mildness and good 

 temper of Sulpice, which often raised terrible obstacles to the easy 

 digestion of the astronomer, and, after twenty fruitless attempts 

 to induce a dispute, Rumphius, in despair, would abuse his brother 

 for the objection which he pretended to have to discussion, an objec- 

 tion which he declared arose only from obstinacy and a pure dispo- 

 sition to contrariety. In good truth, it may well be imagined that 

 for a man of his character nothing could be more disagreeable than 

 to dispute alone. There is nothing so well fitted to kindle the blaze 

 of discussion as a severe answer or an impertinent remark. 



Unhappily, poor Sulpice did not understand his brother's strange 

 disposition, and the more he was abused as a quarrelsome opponent 

 the more he sought to anticipate the most trivial wishes and slightest 

 objections of Rumphius, inde irae, for never in his life had the kind 

 creature been able to answer no. 



Rumphius looked down upon his brother as from a great height. 

 He saw him engaged in details of natural existence which he con- 

 sidered so ignoble and vulgar that, without positive ingratitude, he 

 conceived his conduct as merely natural ; a kind of instinct whispered 

 him that, placed himself so high in the scale of intelligence, it was 

 very reasonable to expect that a creature of an inferior sphere should 

 devote himself to his supply of food, drink, and sleep, and occasionally 

 also serve him as stimulant to his digestion. Not that he was not, 

 on the whole, sincerely attached to his brother, but he could not con- 

 ceive a pleasure or inconvenience that had not its source in mathe- 

 matical knowledge. Alas 1 Sulpice had never an equation or dif- 

 ferential calculus to be solved, or he would then have acknowledged 

 the value of such a brother. 



It was on the evening of the day on which the bowl had been so 

 cruelly smashed that Sulpice, after having watched carefully the 

 cooking of the dinner, and prepared their frugal repast with the most 

 attentive nicety, awaited his brother, the accustomed hour being 

 some time past. To moderate his impatience he busied himself in 

 readjusting the saltcellars, arranging the table-mats with additional 

 symmetry, wiped the already clean glasses, turned his brother's 

 lounging chair so that the setting sun might not dazzle his eyes ; then 

 went to the kitchen, took his place at the window, and all without the 

 slighest complaint, repressing even the sighs which the fate of two 

 beautiful fishes, drying up before the fire, naturally excited in his 

 breast. 



