180 FISHING GOSSIP. 
FLY-FISHING BY NIGHTLIGHT. 
‘¢ Non famum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem.”—Horace." 
Ir 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 
