ing. So much for Number Two.

No. III. was "An ESSAY On the Great EFFECTS of Even Languid and Unheeded
LOCAL MOTION." By the Hon. Robert Boyle. Published in 1685, and, as
appears from other sources, "received with great and general applause."
I confess I was a little startled to find how near this earlier
philosopher had come to the modern doctrines, such as are illustrated in
Tyndall's "Heat considered as a Mode of Motion." He speaks of "Us,
who endeavor to resolve the Phenomena of Nature into Matter and Local
motion." That sounds like the nineteenth century, but what shall we say
to this? "As when a bar of iron or silver, having been well hammered,
is newly taken off of the anvil; though the eye can discern no motion
in it, yet the touch will readily perceive it to be very hot, and if you
spit upon it, the brisk agitation of the insensible parts will become
visible in that which they will produce in the liquor." He takes a bar
of tin, and tries whether by bending it to and fro two or three times he
cannot "procure a considerable internal commotion among the parts "; and
having by this means broken or cracked it in the middle, finds, as he
expected, that the middle parts had considerably heated each other.
There are many other curious and interesting observations in the volume
which I should like to tell you of, but these will serve my purpose.

--Which book furnished you the old cover you wanted?--said I.

--Did he kill the owl?--said the Master, laughing. [I suppose you, the
reader, know the owl story.]--It was Number Two that lent me one of his
covers. Poor wretch! He was one of three, and had lost his two brothers.
From him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. The
Scripture had to be fulfilled in his case. But I couldn't help saying to
myself, What do you keep writing books for, when the stalls are covered
all over with 'em, good books, too, that nobody will give ten cents
apiece for, lying there like so many dead beasts of burden, of no
account except to strip off their hides? What is the use, I say? I have
made a book or two in my time, and I am making another that perhaps
will see the light one of these days. But if I had my life to live over
again, I think I should go in for silence, and get as near to Nirvana as
I could. This language is such a paltry tool! The handle of it cuts and
the blade doesn't. You muddle yourself by not knowing what you mean by a
word, and send out your unanswered rid