BOOK OF THE DAMNED 75 



That, according to M. Daubree, the substance that had fallen in 

 the Argentine Republic, "resembled certain kinds of lignite and 

 boghead coal." In Comptes Rendus, 96-1764, it is said that this 

 mass fell, June 30, 1880, in the province Entre Rios, Argentina: that 

 it is "like" brown coal; that it resembles all the other carbonaceous 

 masses that have fallen from the sky. 



Something that fell at Grazac, France, Aug. 10, 1885: when 

 burned, it gave out a bituminous odor (Comptes Rendus, 104-1771). 



Carbonaceous substance that fell at Rajpunta, India, Jan. 22, 

 1911: very friable: 50 per cent of it soluble in water (Records Geol. 

 Survey of India, 44-pt. 1-41). 



A combustible carbonaceous substance that fell with sand at 

 Naples, March 14, 1818 (Amer. Jour. Set., 1-1-309). 



Sci. Amer. Sup., 29-11798: 



That, June 9, 1889, a very friable substance, of a deep, greenish 

 black, fell at Mighei, Russia. It contained 5 per cent organic mat- 

 ter, which, when powdered and digested in alcohol, yielded, after 

 evaporation, a bright yellow resin. In this mass was 2 per cent of 

 an unknown mineral. 



Cinders and ashes and slag and coke and charcoal and coal. 



And the things that sometimes deep-sea fishes are bumped by. 



Reluctances and the disguises or covered retreats of such words 

 as "like" and "resemble" or that conditions of Intermediateness 

 forbid abrupt transitions but that the spirit animating all Interme- 

 diateness is to achieve abrupt transitions because, if anything could 

 finally break away from its origin and environment, that would be 

 a real thing something not merging away indistinguishably with 

 the surrounding. So all attempt to be original; all attempt to invent 

 something that is more than mere extension or modification of the 

 preceding, is positivism or that if one could conceive of a device to 

 catch flies, positively different from, or unrelated to, all other devices 

 up he'd shoot to heaven, or the Positive Absolute leaving behind 

 such an incandescent train that in one age it would be said that he 

 had gone aloft in a fiery chariot, and in another age that he had 

 been struck by lightning 



I'm collecting notes upon persons supposed to have been struck 

 by lightning. I think that high approximation to positivism has 

 often been achieved instantaneous translation residue of nega- 

 tiveness left behind, looking much like effects of a stroke of lightning. 

 Some day I shall tell the story of the Marie Celeste "properly," 



