ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



or may one indulge in the more joyous con- 

 clusion that they are quite above the last 

 infirmity of noble minds? In the latter case, 

 the fame of their achievement may be made 

 over to the Granite State where this mas- 

 terpiece was written, adding yet another star 

 or stars to the galaxy of the literary firma- 

 ment of New Hampshire. 



All attempts to discover anything about 

 the early life and environment of the authors 

 of this pictograph, in the region where it was 

 found, were futile. None of their neighbors 

 could give any information about the work, 

 or its authors, thus underscoring again those 

 pertinent lines by Aldrich: 



The butcher who served Shakespeare with his meat 

 Doubtless esteemed him lightly as a man 

 Who knew not how the market prices ran. 



Interviewing a member of the same 

 species, the Pityophthorus sparsus Lee, to 

 which the authors of this pictograph belong, 

 one was not surprised to meet a modest, un- 

 assuming beetle, of much repose of manner 

 though the fact that the beetle was dead 



140 



