the error you nearly gave way to in the arms of yonder girl--nor
ambitious, having lived, till recently, contented to turn the
paternal spit. Therefore I may disclose to you the hidden laws of
the universe.

"It must not be believed that life is limited by narrow rules
wherein it is manifested to the eyes of the profane. When they teach
that creation's object and end was man, your theologians and your
philosophers reason like the multiped of Versailles or the
Tuileries, who believe the humidity of the cellars is made for their
special use and that the remainder of the castle is uninhabitable.
The system of the world, as Canon Copernicus taught in the last
century, following the doctrines of Aristarchus of Samos and
Pythagorean philosophers, is doubtless known to you, as there have
actually been prepared some compendiums of them for the urchins of
village schools and dialogues abstracted from them for the use of
town children. You have seen at my house a kind of machine which
shows it distinctly by means of a kind of clockwork.

"Raise your eyes, my son, and you'll see over your head David's
chariot, drawn by Mizar and her two illustrious companions, circling
round the pole; Arcturus, Vega of the Lyre, the Virgin's Sword, the
Crown of Ariadne and its charming pearls. Those are suns. One single
look on that world will make it clear to you that the whole of
creation is the work of fire and that life, in its finest forms, is
fed on flames.

"And what are the planets? Drops of a mixture of mind, a little mire
and plenty of moisture. Behold the august choir of the stars, the
assembly of the suns; they equal or excel ours in magnitude and