CHAPTER XIV 

 THE CAPRICORN 



I 

 THE GRUB'S HOME 



A eighteenth-century philosopher, Condillac, describes 

 an imaginary statue, organised like a man, but 

 with none of a man's senses. He then pictures 

 the effect of endowing it with the five senses, 

 one by one, and the first sense he gives it is that of smell. 

 The statue, having no sense but smell, inhales the scent of a 

 rose, and out of that single impression creates a whole world 

 of ideas. In my youth I owed some happy moments 

 to that statue. I seemed to see it come to life in that 

 action of the nostrils, acquiring memory, concentration, judg- 

 ment, and other mental qualities, even as still waters are 

 aroused and rippled by the impact of a grain of sand. I 

 recovered from my illusion under the teaching of my abler 

 master, the animal. The Capricorn taught me that the 

 problem is more obscure than the Abbe Condillac led me to 

 suppose. 



When my winter supply of firewood is being prepared for 

 me with wedge and mallet, the woodman selects, by my express 

 orders, the oldest and most ravaged trunks in his stack. My 

 tastes bring a smile to his lips ; he wonders by what whimsy 

 I prefer wood that is worm-eaten to sound wood, which burns 

 so much better. I have my views on the subject, and the 

 worthy man submits to them. 



A fine oak-trunk, seamed with scars and gashed with 

 wounds, contains many treasures for my studies. The mallet 



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