well as if
his whole body was naked; that he did not complain of the monkeys going
in their skins, and that they ought, in reason, not to meddle with
his clothes; that he should be scratching himself the whole time, and
thinking what a miserable figure he cut; that he would have no place to
keep his tobacco; that he was apt to be deaf when he was cold; that he
would be d----d if he did any such thing; that human natur' and monkey
natur' were not the same, and it was not to be expected that men and
monkeys should follow exactly the same fashions; that the meeting
would have the appearance of a boxing match, instead of a philosophical
lecture; that he never heard of such a thing at Stunin'tun; that he
should feel sneaking at seeing his own shins in the presence of ladies;
that a ship always made better weather under some canvas than under bare
poles; that he might possibly be brought to his shirt and pantaloons,
but as for giving up these, he would as soon think of cutting the
sheet-anchor off his bows, with the vessel driving on a lee-shore; that
flesh and blood were flesh and blood, and they liked their comfort; that
he should think the whole time he was about to go in a-swimming, and
should be looking about for a good place to dive"; together with a great
many more similar objections, that have escaped me in the multitude of
things of greater interest which have since occupied my time. I have
frequently had occasion to observe, that, when a man has one good, solid
reason for his decision, it is no easy matter to shake it; but, that
he who has a great many, usually finds them of far less account in the
struggle of opinions. Such proved to be the fact with Captain Poke on
the present occasion. I succeeded in stripping him of his garments, one
by one, until I got him reduced to the shirt, where, like a stout ship
that is easily brought to her bearings by the breeze, he "stuck and
hung" in a manner to manifest it would require a heavy strain to bring
him down any lower. A lucky thought relieved us all from the dilemma.
There were a couple of good large bison-skins among my effects, and on
suggesting to Dr. Reasono the expediency of encasing Captain Poke in
the folds of one of them, the philosopher cheerfully assented, observing
that any object of a natural and simple formation was agreeable to the
monikin senses; their objections were merely to the deformities of art,
which they deemed to be so many offences against Provide