116 ON THE LUMINOSITY 



when circumstcvnces required promptitude of resolution and 

 action, now pleads for time and inquiry. 



I have shown above the value of the evidence to which he 

 alludes, when he asserts that one part of the Editor's speech 

 proves that F. later naria is luminous, (as for this being 

 admitted by that speech, 1 heard no such admission) ; but as 

 our friend said, granting this, conceding it to be proved, it does 

 not prove that candelaria is luminous also. Now I am about 

 to prove to the satisfaction, I doubt not, of my learned friend 

 of the seven circles, that the human nose is splendidly 

 luminous. 



Perhaps I may first be allowed to read a few lines from our 

 great dramatist : — 



*' Fed. — Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life : 

 Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop, — 

 but 'tis in the nose of thee : thou art the knight of the burning 

 lamp. 



" Bard. — Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm. 



" Fal. — No, I'll be sworn ; I make as good use of it as 

 many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento moi'i : I 

 never see thy face, but I think upon hell-fire, and Dives that 

 lived in purple ; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. 

 If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy 

 face ; my oath should be. By this fire : but thou art altogether 

 given over : and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the 

 son of utter darkness. When thou ran'st up Gadshill in the 

 night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou had'st been an 

 ignis fatuus, or a ball of wild-fire, there's no purchase in 

 money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bon- 

 fire-light ! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and 

 torches, walking with thee in the night, betwixt tavern and 

 tavern : but the sack that thou hast drunk me, would have 

 bought me lights as good cheap, at the dearest chandlers 

 in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours with 

 fire, any time this two and thirty years ; Heaven reward me for 

 it!" 



Now here we find it asserted by no less an authority than 

 Shakspeare, that a man's nose was once luminous. We have 

 no evidence to prove that all noses are not luminous, no one 

 has ever denied their luminosity ; ergo, they are luminous. I 

 trust our opposition will admit the truth of this reasoning ; or, 



