USES TO WHICH [Chap. 



ters abroad, is, " in every tiling equally wise,'' 

 Then, like the proboscis oi that wonderful animal, 

 the elephant, while it has strength perfectly ter- 

 rific to think of, its touch is so delicate as to 

 enable it to analyse particles the most minute ; 

 while it can, this minute, vote away millions of the 

 nation's money, command palaces and churches 

 to rise up, a quarter of a continent to be forti- 

 fied, or the jails and dungeons to fly open to re- 

 ceive such Englishmen as the Secretary of State 

 may, or shall, suspect of evil designs ; it can, the 

 very next minute, skip, as nimbly as the bee does 

 from the magnolia to the pimpernelle, to objects 

 the most diminutive, and can point out to those 

 who have the happiness to live under its con- 

 trol, the exact depth proper for a shop-window; 

 the exact number of passengers proper for a 

 coach to carry, lest those who wished to be car- 

 ried might not know, or care, whether their per- 

 sons were in danger or not ; the exact degree of 

 coercion proper to be employed for the purpose 

 of inducing horses, asses, oxen, cows, sheep, and 

 pigs, to proceed on the roads and in the streets; 

 the exact place and manner in which to unbut- 

 ton so as to avoid an " exposure of the person ;' 

 the exact number of beatings of a pendulum, in 

 a heat of sixty degrees by Fahrenheit's thermo- 

 meter, necessary to determine the length of the 

 " Imperial yard,'' and the capacity of the '^ hn- 



