, wandering mind, told by such unerring symptoms; the wild eye,
strange words, and fantastic pleasantness; reason hurled from her own
throne, and that steady light exchanged for the fitful flickering over
decay! They mistake me for one of their melancholy fraternity, poor
lunatics! whereas my lamp of life, and reason, it appears to me, never
shone brighter. I shall yet work out something of which my country will be
proud, and which shall inscribe on an enduring pedestal the name of SHAW.'
The professor (with his hammer) split a rock. 'If those men come back,
what had I better do with them? I will contemplate the remarkable
phenomenon of the mind in ruins. Humanity suggests to me that I ought to
coax them back with sophistry as far as the garden-gate, and then holler
for help.' Shaw was the best hearted of men; he would not hurt a human
being in the world, cruel as he was to bugs, and to centipedes an 'outer
barbarian.' In the course of ten minutes he was at the base of a large
rock, scooping out garnets, and thinking casually of that 'great work
which his country would not willingly let die,' when a rope was let over
his head and shoulders from above, and the professor was noosed. The
countrymen jumped down, and began to drag him from the other end,
squeezing his bowels, and winding him round and round, till coming to
close quarters, they knocked his hat off, wrested his hammer out of his
hand, and seizing him by the collar, almost throttled him with the
knuckles of their immense fists.

SHAW. (Kicking violently.) Murder! murder! murder!

RUSTICS. It won't do no good; we got yer; you may as well come fust as
last. You're crazy as a coot, and wuss now than when we fus see you. Your
eyes shows it.

SHAW. I'll go with you, my friends, but don't kill me; oh! I beseech you
don't kill me!

RUSTICS. No, we wont hurt you; only come along to the house. Come along.

SHAW. Take your knuckles out of my throat, please. _Aside._ Their
hallucination is extreme; the symptoms of their disease have taken a form
the most vindictive. Yes, my friends, conduct me safe. We shall soon reach
the house; then all will be explained.

At this very hour an amusing scene was enacting among the lunatics in the
large hall of the asylum. One who professed magnetism was trying his skill
upon a subject, to the great entertainment of his fellows. He was making
the passes after a singular fashion, upon a docile fellow who sat bolt
upright in a chair w