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twg_000000034800 | ten days at a friend's house, where he had no inducement to expense. When he returned, he found his debts paid off; but knowing he was master of so ready and effectual an expedient, he, the next day, borrowed double the sum at the old rate. Since that time his debts have accumulated so rapidly, that he will probably now | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034801 | be compelled to surrender his whole estate." "Is he also a Glonglim?" I asked. "Assuredly: what man, in his entire senses, could act so irrationally?" "There is nothing on earth that exceeds this," said I. "No," said the Brahmin; "human folly is every where the same." . _Physical peculiarities of the Moon-Celestial phenomena--Further description of the Lunarians--National prejudice--Lightness of bodies--The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034802 | Brahmin carries Atterley to sup with a philosopher--His character and opinions_. After we had been in the moon about forty eight hours, the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the long twilight of the Lunarians had begun. I will here take occasion to notice the physical peculiarities of this country, which, though very familiar to those who are versed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034803 | in astronomy, may not be unacceptable to the less scientific portion of my readers. The sun is above the horizon nearly a fortnight, and below it as long; of course the day here is equal to about twenty-seven of ours. The earth answers the same purpose to half the inhabitants of the moon, that the moon does to the inhabitants | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034804 | of the earth. The face of the latter, however, is more than twelve times as large, and it has not the same silvery appearance as the moon, but is rather of a dingy pink hue, like that of her iron when beginning to lose its red heat. As the same part of the moon is always turned to the earth, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034805 | one half of her surface is perpetually illuminated by a moon ten times as large to the eye as the sun; the other hemisphere is without a moon. The favoured part, therefore, never experiences total darkness, the earth reflecting to the Lunarians as much light as we terrestrials have a little before sunrise, or after sunset. But our planet presents | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034806 | to the Lunarians the same changes as the moon does to us, according to its position in relation to the sun. It always, however, appears to occupy nearly the same part of the heavens, when seen from the same point on the moon's surface; but its altitude above the horizon is greater or less, according to the latitude of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034807 | place from which it is seen: so that there is not a point of the heavens which the earth may not be seen permanently to occupy, according to the part of the moon from which the planet is viewed. From the length of time that the sun is above the horizon, the continued action of his rays, in those climates | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034808 | where they fall vertically, or nearly so, would be intolerable, if it was not for the high mountains, from whose snow-clad summits a perpetual breeze derives a refreshing coolness, and for the deep glens and recesses, in which most animals seek protection from his meridian beams. The transitions from heat to cold are less than one would expect, from the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034809 | length of their days and nights--the coolness of the one, as well as the heat of the other, being tempered by a constant east wind. The climate gradually becomes colder as we approach the Poles; but there is little or no change of seasons in the same latitude. The inhabitants of the moon have not the same regularity in their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034810 | meals, or time for sleep, as we have, but consult their appetites and inclinations like other animals. But they make amends for this irregularity, by a very strict and punctilious observance of festivals, which are regulated by the motions of the sun, at whose rising and setting they have their appropriate ceremonies. Those which are kept at sunrise, are gay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034811 | and cheerful, like the hopes which the approach of that benignant luminary inspires. The others are of a grave and sober character, as if to prepare the mind for serious contemplation in their long-enduring night. When the earth is at the full, which is their midnight, it is also a season of great festivity with them. _Eclipses of the sun_ | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034812 | are as common with the Lunarians as those of the moon are with us--the same relative position of the three bodies producing this phenomenon; but an _eclipse of the earth_ never takes place, as the shadow of the moon passes over the broad disc of our planet, merely as a dark spot. The inhabitants of the moon can always determine | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034813 | both their latitude and longitude, by observing the quarter of the heavens in which the earth is seen: and, as the sun invariably appears of the same altitude at their noon, the inhabitants are denominated and classed according to the length of their shadows; and the terms _long shadow_, or _short shadow_, are common forms of national reproach among them, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034814 | according to the relative position of the parties. I found the climate of those whose shadows are about the length of their own figure, the most agreeably to my own feelings, and most like that of my own country. Such are the most striking natural appearances on one side of this satellite. On the other there is some difference. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034815 | sun pursues the same path in the corresponding latitudes of both hemispheres; but being without any moon, they have a dull and dreary night, though the light from the stars is much greater than with us. The science of astronomy is much cultivated by the inhabitants of the dark hemisphere, and is indebted to them for its most important discoveries, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034816 | and its present high state of improvement. If there is much rivalship among the natives of the same hemisphere, who differ in the length of their shadows, they all unite in hatred and contempt for the inhabitants of the opposite side. Those who have the benefit of a moon, that is, who are turned towards the earth, are lively, indolent, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034817 | and changeable as the face of the luminary on which they pride themselves; while those on the other side are more grave, sedate, and industrious. The first are called the Hilliboos, and the last the Moriboos--or bright nights, and dark nights. And this mutual animosity is the more remarkable, as they often appeared to me to be the same race, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034818 | and to differ much less from one another than the natives of different climates. It is true, that enlightened and well educated men do not seem to feel this prejudice, or at least they do not show it: but those who travel from one hemisphere to the other, are sure to encounter the prejudices of the vulgar, and are often | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034819 | treated with great contempt and indignity. They are pointed at by the children, who, according as they chance to have been bred on one side or the other say, "There goes a man who never saw Glootin," as they call the earth; or, "There goes a Booblimak," which means a night stroller. All bodies are much lighter on the moon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034820 | than on the earth; by reason of which circumstance, as has been mentioned, the inhabitants are more active, and experience much less fatigue in ascending their precipitous mountains. I was astonished at first at this seeming increase in my muscular powers; when, on passing along a street in Alamatua, soon after my arrival, and meeting a dog, which I thought | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034821 | to be mad, I proposed to run out of his way, and in leaping over a gutter, I fairly bounded across the street. I measured the distance the next day, and found it to be twenty-seven feet five inches; and afterwards frequently saw the school-boys, when engaged in athletic exercises, make running leaps of between thirty and forty feet, backwards | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034822 | and forwards. Another consequence of the diminished gravity here is, that both men and animals carry much greater burdens than on the earth. The carriages are drawn altogether by dogs, which are the largest animals they have, except the zebra, and a small buffalo. This diminution of gravity is, however, of some disadvantage to them. Many of their tools are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034823 | not as efficient as ours, especially their axes, hoes, and hammers. On the other hand, when a person falls to the ground, it is nearly the same thing as if an inhabitant of the earth were to fall on a feather bed. Yet I saw as many instances of fractured limbs, hernia, and other accidents there, as I ever saw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034824 | on the earth; for when they fall from great heights, or miscarry in the feats of activity which they ambitiously attempt, it inflicts the same injury upon them, as a fall nearer the ground does upon us. After we had been here sufficiently long to see what was most remarkable in the city, and I had committed the fruit of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034825 | my observations to paper, the Brahmin proposed to carry me to one of the monthly suppers of a philosopher whom he knew, and who had obtained great celebrity by his writings and opinions. We accordingly went, and found him sitting at a small table, and apparently exhausted with the labour of composition, and the ardour of intense thought. He was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034826 | a small man, of quick, abrupt manners, occasionally very abstracted, but more frequently voluble, earnest, and disputatious. He frankly told us he was sorry to see us, as he was then putting the last finish to a great and useful work he was about to publish: that we had thus unseasonably broken the current of his thoughts, and he might | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034827 | not be able to revive it for some days. Upon my rising to take my leave, he assured me that it would be adding to the injury already done, if we then quitted him. He said he wished to learn the particulars of our voyage; and that he, in turn, should certainly render us service, by disclosing some of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034828 | results of his own reflections. He further remarked, that he expected six or eight friends--that is, (correcting himself,) "enlightened and congenial minds," to supper, on the rising of a constellation he named, which time, he remarked, would soon arrive. Finding his frankness to be thus seasoned with hospitality, we resumed our seats. It soon appeared that he was more disposed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034829 | to communicate information than to seek it; and I became a patient listener. If the boldness and strangeness of his opinions occasionally startled me, I could not but admire the clearness with which he stated his propositions, the fervour of his elocution, and the plausibility of his arguments. The expected guests at length arrived; and various questions of morals and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034830 | legislation were started, in which the disputants seemed sometimes as if they would have laid aside the character of philosophers, but for the seasonable interposition of the Brahmin. Wigurd, our host, often laboured with his accustomed zeal, to prove that every one who opposed him, was either a fool, or biassed by some petty interest, or the dupe of blind | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034831 | prejudice. After about two hours of warm, and, as it seemed to me, unprofitable discussion, we were summoned to our repast in the adjoining room. But before we rose from our seats, our host requested to know of each of us if we were hungry; and, whether it were from modesty, perverseness, or really because they had no appetite, I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034832 | know not, but a majority of the company, in which I was included, voted that their hour of eating was not yet come: upon which Wigurd remarked that his own vote, as being at home, and the Brahmin's, as being at once a philosopher and a stranger, should each count for two; and by this mode of reckoning there was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034833 | a casting vote in favour of going to supper. We found the table covered with tempting dishes, served up in a costly and tasteful style, and a sprightly, well-looking female prepared to do the honours of the feast. She reproved our host for his delay, and told him the best dish was spoiled, by being cold. I was fearful of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034834 | a discussion; but he sat down without making a reply, and immediately addressing the company, descanted on the various qualities of food, and their several adaptations to different ages, constitutions, and temperaments. He condemned the absurd practice which prevailed, for the master or mistress of the house to lavish entreaties on their guests to eat that which they might be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034835 | better without; and insisted, at the same time, that the guests ought not to consult their own tastes exclusively. He maintained, that the only course worthy of rational and benevolent beings, was for every man to judge for his neighbour as well as for himself; and, should any collision arise between the different claimants, then, if any one were guided | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034836 | by that decision, which an honest and unbiassed judgment would tell him was right, they would all come to the same just and harmonious result. "But," added he, "you have not yet been sufficiently prepared for this disinterested operation. As ye have proved this night that ye are not yet purged of the feelings and prejudices of a vicious education, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034837 | I will perform this office for you all, and set you an example, by which ye may hereafter profit. To begin, then, with you--(addressing himself to a corpulent man, of a florid complexion, at the lower end of the table:)--As you already have a redundancy of flesh and blood, I assign the _soupe magre_ to you; while to our mathematical | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034838 | friend on this side, whose delicate constitution requires nourishment, I recommend the smoking ragot. This cooling dish will suit your temperament," said he to a third; "and this stimulating one, yours," to a fourth. "Those little birds, which cost me five pieces, I shall divide between my terrestrial friend here (looking at the Brahmin) and myself, we being the most | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034839 | meritorious of the company, and it being of the utmost importance to society, that food so wholesome should give nourishment to our bodies, and impart vigour and vivacity to our minds." From this decision there was no appeal, and no other dissent than what was expressed by a look or a low murmur. But I perceived the corpulent gentleman and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034840 | the wan mathematician slily exchange their dishes, by which they both seemed to consider themselves gainers. The dish allotted to me, being of a middling character, I ate of it without repining; though, from the savoury fumes of my right-hand neighbour's plate, I could not help wishing I had been allowed to choose for myself. This supper happening near the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034841 | middle of the night, (at which time it was always pretty cool,) a cheerful fire blazed in one side of the room and I perceived that our host and hostess placed themselves so as to be at the most agreeable distance, the greater part of the guests being either too near or too far from it. After we had finished | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034842 | our repast, various subjects of speculation were again introduced and discussed, greatly to my amusement. Wigurd displayed his usual ingenuity and ardour, and baffled all his antagonists by his vehemence and fluency. He had two great principles by which he tested the good or evil of every thing; and there were few questions in which he could not avail himself | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034843 | of one or the other. These were, general _utility_ and _truth_. By a skilful use of these weapons of controversy, he could attack or defend with equal success. If any custom or institution which he had denounced, was justified by his adversaries, on the ground of its expediency, he immediately retorted on them its repugnancy to sincerity, truth, and unsophisticated | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034844 | nature; and if they, at any time, resorted to a similar justification for our natural feelings and propensities, he triumphantly showed that they were inimical to the public good. Thus, he condemned gratitude as a sentiment calculated to weaken the sense of justice, and to substitute feeling for reason. He, on the other hand, proscribed the little forms and courtesies, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034845 | which are either founded in convenience, or give a grace and sweetness to social intercourse, as a direct violation of honest nature, and therefore odious and mean. He thus was able to silence every opponent. I was very desirous of hearing the Brahmin's opinion; but, while he evidently was not convinced by our host's language, he declined engaging in any | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034846 | controversy. After we retired, my friend told me that Wigurd was a good man in the main, though he had been as much hated by some as if his conduct had been immoral, instead of his opinions merely being singular. "He not long ago," added the Brahmin "wrote a book against marriage, and soon afterwards wedded, in due form, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034847 | lady you saw at his table. She holds as strange tenets as he, which she supports with as much zeal, and almost as much ability. But I predict that the popularity of their doctrines will not last; and if ever you visit the moon again, you will find that their glory, now at its height, like the ephemeral fashions of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034848 | the earth, will have passed away." . _A celebrated physician: his ingenious theories in physics: his mechanical inventions--The feather-hunting Glonglim._ On returning to our lodgings, we, acting under the influence of long habit, went to bed, though half the family were up, and engaged in their ordinary employments. One consequence of the length of the days and nights here is, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034849 | that every household is commonly divided into two parts, which watch and sleep by turns: nor have they any uniformity in their meals, except in particular families, which are regulated by clocks and time-pieces. The vulgar have no means of measuring smaller portions of time than a day or night, (each equal to a fortnight with us,) except by observing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034850 | the apparent motion of the sun or the stars, in which, considering that it is nearly thirty times as slow as with us, they attain surprising accuracy. They have the same short intervals of labour and rest in their long night as their day--the light reflected from the earth, being commonly sufficient to enable them to perform almost any operation; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034851 | and, ere our planet is in her second quarter, one may read the smallest print by her light. To compensate their want of this natural advantage, the inhabitants of Moriboozia are abundantly supplied with a petroleum, or bituminous liquid, which is found every where about their lakes, or on their mountains, and which they burn in lamps, of various sizes, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034852 | shapes, and constructions. They have also numerous volcanoes, each of which sheds a strong light for many miles around. We slept unusually long; and, owing in part to Wigurd's good cheer, I awoke with a head-ache. I got up to take a long walk, which often relieves me when suffering from that malady; and, on ascending the stairs, I met | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034853 | our landlord's eldest daughter, a tall, graceful girl of twenty. I found she was coming down backwards, which I took to be a mere girlish freak, or perhaps a piece of coquetry, practised on myself: but I afterwards found, that about the time the earth is at the full, the whole family pursued the same course, and were very scrupulous | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034854 | in making their steps in this awkward and inconvenient way, because it was one of the prescribed forms of their church. As my head-ache became rather worse, than better, from my walk, the Brahmin proposed to accompany me to the house of a celebrated physician, called Vindar, who was also a botanist, chemist, and dentist, to consult him on my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034855 | case; and thither we forthwith proceeded. I found him a large, unwieldy figure, of a dull, heavy look, but by no means deficient in science or natural shrewdness. He confirmed my previous impression that I ought to lose blood, and plausibly enough accounted for my present sensation of fulness, from the inferior pressure of the lunar atmosphere to that which | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034856 | I had been accustomed. He proposed, however, to return to my veins a portion of thinner blood in place of what he should take away, and offered me the choice of several animals, which he always kept by him for that purpose. There were two white animals of the hog kind, a male and a female lama, three goats, besides | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034857 | several birds, about the size of a turkey, some tortoises, and other amphibious animals. He professed himself willing, in case I had any foolish scruples against mixing my blood with that of brutes, to purify my own, and put it back; but I obstinately declined both expedients; whereupon he opened a vein in my arm, and took from it about | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034858 | fourteen ounces of blood. Finding myself, weakened as well as relieved, by the operation, he invited me to rest myself; and while I was recovering my strength, he discoursed with the Brahmin and myself on several of his favourite topics. On returning home, I committed to paper some of the most remarkable of his opinions, which it may be as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034859 | well to notice, that those who have since propounded, or may hereafter propound, the same to the world, may not claim the merit of originality. He maintained that the number of our senses was greater than that commonly assigned to us. That we had, for example, a sense of acids, of alkalies, of weight, and of heat. That acid substances | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034860 | acted upon our bodies by a peculiar set of nerves, or through some medium of their own, was evident from this, that they set the teeth on edge, though these, from their hard and bony nature, are insensible to the touch. That astringents shrivelled up the flesh and puckered the mouth, even when their taste was not perceived. That when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034861 | the skin shrunk on the application of vinegar, could it be said that it had not a peculiar sense of this liquid, or rather of its acidity, since the existence of the senses was known only by effects which external matter produced on them? That the senses, like that of touch, were seated in most parts of the body, but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034862 | were most acute in the mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. He showed some disposition to maintain the popular notions of the Greeks and Romans, that the rivers and streams are endowed with reason and volition; and endeavoured to prove that some of their windings and deviations from a straight line, cannot be explained upon mechanical principles. Vindar is, moreover, a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034863 | projector of a very bold character; and not long ago petitioned the commanding general of an army, suddenly raised to repel an incursion of one of their neighbours, to march his troops into Goolo-Tongtoia, for the purpose of digging a canal from one of their petroleum lakes into Morosofia, and conducting it, by smaller streams, over that country, for the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034864 | purpose of warming it during their long cool nights. He has, too, a large grist and saw mill, which are put in motion by the explosion of gunpowder. This is conveyed, by a sufficiently ingenious machine, in very small portions, to the bottom of an upright cylinder, which is immediately shut perfectly close. A flint and steel are at the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034865 | same time made to strike directly over it, and to ignite the powder. The air that is thus generated, forces up a piston through a cylinder, which piston, striking the arm of a wheel, puts it in motion, and with it the machinery of the mills. A complete revolution of the wheel again prepares the cylinder for a fresh supply | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034866 | of gunpowder, which is set on fire, and produces the same effect as before. He told me he had been fifteen years perfecting this great work, in which time it had been twice blown up by accidents, arising from the carelessness or mismanagement of the workmen; but that he now expected it would repay him for the time and money | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034867 | he had expended. He had once, he said, intended to use the expansive force of congelation for his moving power; but he found, after making a full and accurate calculation, that the labourers required to keep the machine supplied with ice, consumed something more than twice as much corn as the mill would grind in the same time. He then | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034868 | was about to move it to a fine stream of water in the neighbourhood, which, by being dammed up, so as to form a large pond, would afford him a convenient and inexhaustible supply of ice. But the millwright, after the dam was completed, having artfully obtained his permission to use the waste water, and fraudulently erected there a common | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034869 | water-mill, which soon obtained all the neighbouring custom, he had sold out that property, and resorted to the agency of gunpowder, which is quite as philosophical a process as that of congelation, and much less expensive. In answer to an inquiry of the Brahmin's, he admitted, that though he had been able, by the force of congelation, to burst metallic | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034870 | tubes several inches thick, he had never succeeded in making it put the lightest machinery into a continued motion. Having now nearly recovered, and being, I confess, somewhat bewildered by the variety and complexity of these ingenious projects, I felt disposed to take my leave; but Vindar insisted on conducting us into an inner apartment, to see his _poetry box_. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034871 | This was a large piece of furniture, profusely decorated with metals of various colours, curiously and fantastically inlaid. It contained a prodigious number of drawers, which were labelled after the manner of those in an apothecary's shop, (from whence he denied, however, that he first took the hint,) and the labels were arranged in alphabetical order. "Now," says he, "as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034872 | the excellence of poetry consists in bringing before the mind's eye what can be brought before the corporeal eye, I have here collected every object that is either beautiful or pleasing in nature, whether by its form, colour, fragrance, sweetness, or other quality, as well as those that are strikingly disagreeable. When I wish to exhibit those pictures which constitute | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034873 | poetry, I consult the appropriate cabinet, and I take my choice of those various substances which can best call up the image I wish to present to my reader. For example: suppose I wish to speak of any object that is white, or analogous to white, I open the drawer that is thus labelled, and I see silver, lime, chalk, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034874 | and white enamel, ivory, paper, snow-drops, and alabaster, and select whichever of these substances will best suit the measure and the rhyme, and has the most soft-sounding name. If the colour be yellow, then there are substances of all shades of this hue, from saffron and pickled salmon to brimstone and straw. I have sixty-two red substances, twenty-seven green ones, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034875 | and others in the same proportion. It is astonishing what labour this box has saved me, and how much it has added to the beauty and melody of my verse. "You perceive," he added, "the drawer missing. That contained substances offensive to the sight or smell, which my maid, conducted to it by her nose, conceived to be some animal | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034876 | curiosities I had been collecting, in a state of putrefaction and decay, and did not hesitate to throw them into the fire. I afterwards found myself very much at a loss, whenever my subject led me to the mention of objects of this character, and I therefore spoke of them as seldom as possible." After bestowing that tribute of admiration | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034877 | and praise which every great author or inventor expects, in his own house, and not omitting his customary medical fee, we took our leave. We had not long left Vindar's house, before we saw a short fat man in the suburbs, preparing to climb to the top of a plane tree, on which there was one of the tail feathers | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034878 | of a sort of flamingo. He was surrounded by attendants and servants, to whom he issued his commands with great rapidity and decision, occasionally intermingling with his orders the most threatening language and furious gesticulations. Some offered to get a ladder, and ascend, and others to cut down the tree; all of which he obstinately rejected. He swore he would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034879 | get the feather--he would get it by climbing--and he would climb but one way, which way was on the shoulders of his men. His plan was to make a number of them form a solid square, and interlock their arms; then a smaller number to mount upon their shoulders, on whom others were in like manner placed, and so on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034880 | till the pyramid was sufficiently high, when he himself was to mount, and from the shoulders of the highest pluck the darling object of his wishes. He had in this way, I afterwards learnt, gathered some of the richest flowers of the bignonia scarlatina, as well as such fruits as had tempted him by their luscious appearance, and at the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034881 | same time frightening all the birds from their nests, which he commonly destroyed: and although some of his attendants were occasionally much hurt and bruised in this singular amusement, he still persevered in it. He had continued it for several years, with no intermission, except a short one, when he was engaged in breaking a young llana in the place | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034882 | of an old one, which had been many years a favourite, but was now in disgrace, because, as he said, he did not think it so safe for going down hill, but in reality, because he liked the figure and movements of the young one better. I could not see this rash Glonglim attempt to climb that dangerous ladder, without | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034883 | feeling alarm for his safety. At first all seemed to go on very well; but just as he was about to lay hold of the gaudy prize, there arose a sudden squall, which threw both him and his supporters into confusion, and the whole living pyramid came to the ground together. Many were killed--some were wounded and bruised. Polenap himself, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034884 | by lighting on his men, who served him as cushions, barely escaped with life. But he received a fracture in the upper part of his head, and a dislocation of the hip, which will not only prevent him from ever climbing again, but probably make him a cripple for life. The Brahmin and I endeavoured to give the sufferers some | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034885 | assistance; but this was rendered unnecessary, by the crowd which their cries and lamentations brought to their relief. I thought that the author of so much mischief would have been stoned on the spot; but, to my surprise, his servants seemed to feel as much for his honour as their own safety, and warmly interfered in his behalf, until they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034886 | had somewhat appeased the rage of the surrounding multitude. . _The fortune-telling philosopher, who inspected the finger nails: his visiters--Another philosopher, who judged of the character by the hair--The fortune-teller duped--Predatory warfare._ As we returned to our lodgings, we saw a number of persons, some of whom were entering and some leaving a neat small dwelling; and on joining the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034887 | throng, we learnt that a famous fortune-teller lived there, who, at stated periods, opened his house to all that were willing to pay for being instructed in the events of futurity, or for having the secrets of the present or past revealed to them. On entering the house, and descending a flight of steps, we found, at the farther end | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034888 | of a dark room, lighted with a chandelier suspended from the ceiling, an elderly man, with a long gray beard, and a thin, pale countenance, deeply furrowed with thought rather than care. He received us politely, and then resumed the duties of his vocation. His course of proceeding was to examine the finger nails, and, according to their form, colour, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034889 | thickness, surface, and grain, to determine the character and destinies of those who consulted him. I was at once pleased and surprised at the minuteness of his observation, and the infinite variety of his distinctions. Besides the qualities of the nails that I have mentioned, he noticed some which altogether eluded my senses, such as their milkiness, flintiness, friability, elasticity, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034890 | tenacity, and sensibility; whether they were aqueous, unctious, or mealy; with many more, which have escaped my recollection. A modest, pensive looking girl, apparently about seventeen, was timidly holding forth her hand for examination, at the time we entered. Avarabet, (for that was the name of this philosopher,) uttered two or three words, with a significant shake of his head, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034891 | upon which I saw the rising tear in her eyes. She withdrew her hand, and had not courage to let him take another look. A fat woman, of a sanguine temperament, holding a little girl by the hand, then stepped up and showed her fingers. He pronounced her amorous, inconstant, prone to anger, and extravagant; that she had made one | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034892 | man miserable, and would probably make another. She also abruptly withdrew, giving manifest signs of one of the qualities ascribed to her. An elderly matron then approached, holding forth one trembling, palsied hand, with a small volume in the other. Avarabet hesitated for some time; examined the edges as well as the surface of the nails; drew his finger slowly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034893 | over them, and then said,--"You have a susceptible heart; you are in sorrow, but your affliction will soon have an end." It was easy to see, in the look of the applicant, signs of pious resignation, and a lively hope of another and a better state of existence. I thought I perceived in the scene that was passing before us, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034894 | an exhibition that is not uncommon on our earth, of cunning knavery imposing on ignorance and credulity; and I expressed my opinion to the Brahmin; but he assured me that the class of persons in the moon, who were resorted to on account of their supposed powers of divination, was very different from the similar class in Asia or Europe, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034895 | and that oracular art was here regularly studied and professed as a branch of philosophy. "You would be surprised," said he, "to find how successful they have been in investing their craft with the forms and trappings of science, the parade of classification, and the mystery imparted by technical terms. By these means they have given plausibility enough to their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034896 | theories, to leave many a one in doubt, whether it is really a new triumph of human discovery, or merely a later form of empiricism. Its professors are commonly converts to their own theories, at least in a great degree; for, strange as it may seem, there can mingle with the disposition to deceive others, the power of deceiving one's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034897 | self; and while they exercise much acuteness and penetration in discovering, by the air, look, dress, and manner of those who consult them, the leading points in the history or character of persons of whom they have no previous knowledge, they at the same time persuade themselves that they see something indicative of their circumstances in their finger nails. Such | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034898 | is the equivocal character of the greater part of their sect: but there are some who are mere honest dupes to the pretensions of the science; and others again, who have not one tittle of credulity to extenuate their impudent pretensions. "When I was here before, I remember a physician, who acquired great celebrity by affecting to cure diseases by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034899 | examining a lock of the patient's hair; and, not content with merely pronouncing on the nature of the disease, and suggesting the remedy, he would enter into an elaborate, and often plausible course of reasoning, in defence of his system. That system was briefly this: that the hair derived its length, strength, hue, and other properties, from the brain; which | 60 | gutenberg |
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