1874-1875-] "THEY DON'T CARE. 



325 



Apostles made in the first planting, which have borne their 

 bitter fruit ever since. " From his note-book, in which he made 

 an analysis of Harris's i Arcana/ it seems that much of it was 

 based on the Apocalypse. When criticizing Philip's "Words in 

 the War" (p. 139), I reminded him that he must qualify some of 

 his statements, if he bore in mind that in Revelation he would 

 find sanguinary and vengeful passages. He then replied that it 

 was " a very Jewish book : the writer must have been very little 

 of a Christian." Now he seemed inclined to take a mystical in- 

 terpretation of it, as of the curses in the Psalms. He wrote of 

 Harris, whom he set far above Swedenborg, with great respect. 



However disposed he may have been to mysticism in his 

 religious opinions, he did not lose his directness of judgment 

 as regards Christian duties and physical evils. He wasted no 

 time in dreaming. When advised to get more help and take 

 more rest, he replied, " Helpers just simply can't be got, of the 

 kind that help. . . . It's no great burden to be always working ; 

 not to work would be a huge burden :" and then, referring to 

 sanitary matters, he said, " Last move : — typhoid and small- 

 pox being virulent, they have cleaned out a stuffed sewer, and 

 spread the stuff uncovered, to grade a low-level street. One of 

 its neighbours they graded with the cemetery earth. Another was 

 graded with middens, etc. They don't care for anything." 



In the " Somerville " course, Philip had delivered his 

 Lectures on the Oyster (see p. 303), and, for a subsequent 

 evening, announced " Man's Life in Montreal from an Oyster's 

 Standpoint : " — " Let our Baltimorean (oyster) die the horrible 

 death of being swallowed alive at a Montreal supper, and 

 let him come to life with the senses and powers of a man ; 

 but (at first, for even men cannot be expected to become angels 

 all at once through the mere fact of dying) with the desires 

 and feelings of an oyster." As in his former lectures he had 

 stated that the oyster was extremely particular as regards 

 breathing and cleanliness, it will be readily imagined that he 

 was able with such a theme to make a strong appeal against the 

 fatal apathy which seemed to prevail in the city. In April, 1875, 

 his Somerville Lecture was on " The Nose : its Uses and Duties." 



