BOOK OF THE DAMNED 57 



Or a whirlwind, with a distribution as wide as that, would not 

 acceptably, I should say, have so specialized in the rare substance 

 called "marsh paper." There'd have been falls of fence rails, roofs 

 of houses, parts of trees. Nothing is said of the occurrence of a 

 tornado in northern Europe, in January, 1686. There is record only 

 of this one substance having fallen in various places. 



Time went on, but the conventional determination to exclude data 

 of all falls to this earth, except of substances of this earth, and of 

 ordinary meteoric matter, strengthened. 



Annals of Philosophy, 16-68: 



The substance that fell in January, 1686, is described as "a mass 

 of black leaves, having the appearance of burnt paper, but harder, 

 and cohering, and brittle." 



"Marsh paper" is not mentioned, and there is nothing said of 

 the "conifervae," which seemed so convincing to the royal Irish- 

 men. Vegetable composition is disregarded, quite as it might be by 

 some one who might find it convenient to identify a crook-necked 

 squash as a big fish hook. 



Meteorites are usually covered with a black crust, more or less 

 scale-like. The substance of 1686 is black and scale-like. If so 

 be convenience, "leaf -likeness" is "scale-likeness." In this attempt 

 to assimilate with the conventional, we are told that the substance is 

 a mineral mass: that it is like the black scales that cover meteorites. 



The scientist who made this "identification" was Von Grotthus. 

 He had appealed to the god Chemical Analysis. Or the power and 

 glory of mankind with which we're not always so impressed but 

 the gods must tell us what we want them to tell us. We see again 

 that, though nothing has identity of its own, anything can be "iden- 

 tified" as anything. Or there's nothing that's not reasonable, if 

 one snoopeth not into its exclusions. But here the conflict did not 

 end. Berzelius examined the substance. He could not find nickel 

 in it. At that time, the presence of nickel was the "positive" test 

 of meteoritic matter. Whereupon, with a supposititious "positive" 

 standard cf judgment against him, Von Grotthus revoked his "iden- 

 tification." (Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 1-3-185.) 



This equalization of eminences, permits us to project with our 

 own expression, which, otherwise, would be subdued into invisi- 

 bility: 



That it's too bad that no one ever looked to see hieroglyphics? 

 something written upon these sheets of paper? 



If we have no very great variety of substances that have fallen 



