in twenty minutes.'

"The facts would be exact in principle.

"The distance to be covered would be the same; but legs of eighty
years have not the same agility as those of very young people, and in
predicting that he will reach the end of his walk in the same number
of minutes as he did in the past, the old man would deceive himself
most surely.

"If, on the contrary, on reaching the same place he perceived that a new
route had been made, and that instead of a roundabout way of approach, as
in the past, the house was now in a straight line from the point where he
was looking at it, it would be possible to estimate approximately the
number of minutes which he could gain on the time employed in the past,
by calculating the delay imposed upon him by his age and his infirmities.

"Those to whom deduction is familiar, at times astonish thoughtless
persons by the soundness of their judgment.

"A prince drove to his home in the country in a sumptuous equipage.

"He was preceded by a herald and borne in a palanquin by four servants,
who were replaced by others at the first signs of fatigue, in order that
the speed of the journey should never be slackened.

"As they were mounting, with great difficulty, a zigzag road which led up
along the side of a hill, one of these men cried out:

"'Stop,' said he, 'in the name of Buddha, stop!'