6s 



tanned, they would not have supplied the leather and polish for the 

 purpose. The theory fell to the ground from sheer inutility, and the 

 great soap-bubble was obliged to be blown from another quarter. But, 

 alas ! I am compelled to add, the grown-up children of science 

 amuse themselves, even now, with theories quite as irrational. They 

 dive so deep, they descend into darkness, or they soar so high that 

 they give us no light. Their puffed nonsense bids fair to blow unpuffed 

 sense out of the field . 



To return. — Mankind, after the explosion of this theory of Fan- 

 ti-ci were unwilling to be led by one teacher ; and, for a time, the 

 world rolled on in its course, the stars poured forth their light, sunshine* 

 and showers, alternated with cold and heat, sent forth- the wine and 

 oil of content. But, on the principle that it is always better to meet 

 danger than to wait for it, the world was dying of inanition, until 

 Bi-go-tri, a learned philosopher beyond the great wall, gave forth 

 another idea, taught that the stars were globes of fire, suspended in 

 the firmament of heaven by a chain, the larger ones by a long, and 

 the smaller ones by a short chain ; and this theory began to be 

 generally adopted, until it was suggested that the earth must also be 

 suspended by a chain ; but as none of our circumnavigators ever dis- 

 covered such a chain, from Dampier to Cook, and I think I might even 

 venture as far as Franklin and Parry, doubt, the devil's vestibule, 

 again suggested, if there had been such a chain it could not possibly 

 answer any good purpose. The curious would climb up to heaven for 

 the mere purpose of saying, as travellers now do, " that they have been 

 there." T\ie frivolous, because they were not wanted, and the dis- 

 contented to complain, like martyrs, of neglect ; little thinking how 

 small a fraction there is in their stunted souls to love, how much to 

 scorn ! so that the chain would be crowded from top to bottom like an 

 onion-rope. Besides some unlucky wight, in an unlucky moment, might 

 take it into his wicked head to cut or file the chain ; and let the earth, 

 with all her screaming inhabitants, fall ! down I down ! down ! ! Ah ! 

 who knows where .' So much for the speculations of what are called 

 the mythic ages. 



Time does not suffice to trace these curious speculations, as they 

 hardened into more probable modes of thought, through the multiform 

 changes in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The speculation of Zoroaster 

 were transplanted by Belus among the Assyrians, age and country 



