180 FISHING GOSSIP. 



FLY-FISHING BY NIGHTLIGHT. 



" Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem." Horace." 



IF it be sometimes difficult to understand the ways 

 of nature, it is often more difficult to understand the 

 ways of philosophers. Their explanations, indeed, 

 are more perplexing than the problems they propose 

 to solve. In subjecting the operations of matter and 

 mind to theory, some fact, condition, or circumstance 

 is generally omitted, which vitiates the result. New- 

 ton himself, I am told, for I have not myself verified 

 the statement, is only digestible with a sauce of ex- 

 ceptions ; and Locke has notoriously failed to enable 

 us to comprehend the " human understanding." But 

 the greatest defaulters in this respect are undoubtedly 

 Gall and Spurzheim. Those " Davenport Brothers/' 

 professing to untie the "knot metaphysical" of 

 thought, mapped out the brain into little molehills, 

 in which were to be found explanations of all the 

 passions, powers, and subtleties of mind, down to the 

 psychological curiosities of a "sensation novel," or 

 the ministerial reply to an inquisitive member of the 

 " Opposition." But in their craniological chart, the 



