man worth
talkin' to.'"

Chandrapal had listened with the utmost gravity, seeming to catch
Snarley's drift. The diction must have puzzled him, but I doubt if the
subtlest skill in exposition would have availed Snarley half so well in
restoring the mutual comprehension which had been temporarily broken.
Chandrapal was evidently relieved. For half a minute there was silence,
during which he walked to and fro, deep in thought. Then he said, "Great
is the power of words when the speaker is wise. But the Truth cannot be
_spoken_."

"Not _all_ on it," said Snarley, "only bits here and there. That's what
the bigness o' things teaches you. It's my opinion as there are two
sorts o' words--shutters-in and openers-out. Them words o' yours was
openers-out; but most as you hears are shutters-in. It's like puttin' a
thing in a box. You shuts the lid, and then all you sees is the box. But
when things gets beyond a certain bigness you can't shut 'em in--not
unless you first chops 'em up, and that spoils 'em.

"Now, there's Shoemaker Hankin--a man as could talk the hind-leg off a
'oss. He goes at it like a hammer, and thinks as he's openin' things
out; but all the time he's shuttin' on 'em in and nailin' on 'em up in
their coffins. One day he begins talkin' about 'Life,' and sez as how he
can explain it in half a shake. 'You'll have to kill it first, Tom,' I
sez, 'or it'll kick the bottom out o' _your_ little box.' 'I'm going to
_hannilize_ it,' he sez. 'That means you're goin' to chop it up,' I sez,
'so that it's bound to be dead before we gets hold on it. All right,
Tom, fire away! Tell us all about dead Life.'

"Well, that's allus the way wi' these talkin' chaps. There was that
Professor as comes tellin' me what space were--I told that gentleman"
(pointing to me) "all about _him_. Why, you might as well try to cut
runnin' water wi' a knife. Talkin' people like him are never satisfied
till they've trampled everything into a _muck_--same as the sheep
tramples the ground when you puts 'em in a pen. They seems to think as
that's what things are _for_! They all wants to do the talkin'
themselves. But doesn't it stand to sense that as long as you're talkin'
about things you can't hear what things are sayin' to you?

"When did I learn all that? Why, you don't _learn_ them things. You just
finds 'em when you're alone among the hills and the bigness o' things
comes over you. Do you know anything about the stars? Well, then, you'll
under