Collected Works (Vol. II)

TIME 273 that Halley’s Comet, being the sole measure of time in use on his farm, was 133° S., entering Capricorn, at the very moment of the blow being struck. Myst. Tam glad you join me in ridicule of the scheme ; but do you quite grasp how serious the situation has become? Scept. I confess I do not see whither you would lead me. Your own computation strikes one as fantastic in the extreme. Myst, Who knows? Think, yourself, of certain abnormal and pathological pheno- mena, whose consideration might lay down the bases for a possible argument. Scept. There are several things that spring instantly into the mind. First and foremost is the wonderfully suggestive work, misnamed fiction, of our greatest novelist, H. G. Wells. This man, the John Bunyan of modern scientific thought, has repeatedly attacked the problem, or at least indicated the lines on which a successful research might be prosecuted, in many of his wonderful tales. He has (I say it not to rob you of the honour of your discoveries, but in compliment, and I can imagine none higher) put his finger on the very spot whence all research must begin : the illusionary nature of the time-idea. But I will leave you to study his books at your leisure, and try to give a more direct answer to your question, We have cases ofbrain dis- order, where grave local mischief survives the disappearance of general symptoms. One man may forget a year of his life; another the whole of it; while yet another may have odd patches effaced here and there, while the inain current flows undisturbed. Myst. Weis so much the poorer for such losses? Scept. Certainly. Alfyst. Did the stars efface their tracks to correspond ? Scept. Joshua is dead. Myst. Yama! be praised ! Scept, Amen. Afyst. You have also, I make no doubt, 1 The Hindu Pluto, VOL, II. cases where the brain, from infancy, never develops. Scept. True: sothat a man of thirty thinks and acts like a child: often like a stupid child. Our social system is indeed devised to provide for these cases; so common are they: the Army, the Cabinet, are reserved for stich : in the case of women thus afflicted they are called ‘‘advanced” or “ intellectual”: the advantages of these situations and titles is intended to compensate them for Nature’s neglect. Even sadder is it when young men of great parts and talent, flourishing up to a certain age, have their brains gradually spoiled by the preposterous system of edu- cation in vogue throughout the more miasmal parts of the country, till they are fit for nothing but ‘chairs’? and “ fellowships” at ‘“universities.”” The schools of philosophy are full of these Pliocene anachronisms, as the responsible government departments are of the congenitally afflicted: in both cases thinking men are disposed to deny (arguing from the absence of human reason and wit, though some of the creatures have a curious faculty resembling the former, shorn of all light-quality) to these unfortunates any con- scious life worthy of the name, or the capa- city to increase with years in the wisdom or happiness of their more favoured fellow- creatures. Myst. Yet the stars have a regular rate of progression ? Scepft. I see what you would be at. You would say that of two men born on a day, dying on a day, one may be young, the other old. Alyst. Ay! But I would say this tc vitiate the standard you somewhat incau- tiously set up. Scept, Abrogateit then ! But where are we? jst. Were, that we may determine this most vital point ; how so to act that we may obtain the most from life; or, if existence, the word of which intuitions are the letters, be, as the Buddhists pretend, misery, how to obtain the least from it. Svept. Let us not speak ill of a noble S