you have my epitaph read thus:--'Here lies the emptiest
of mortals, who was full of himself?' At best, your words are
exceedingly ambiguous, Mohi."

"Now have I the philosopher," cried Yoomy, with glee. "What did some
one say to me, not long since, Babbalanja, when in the matter of that
sleepy song of mine, Braid-Beard bestowed upon me an equivocal
compliment? Was I not told to wrest commendation from it, though I
tortured it to the quick?"

"Take thy own pills, philosopher," said Mohi.

"Then would he be a great original," said Media.

"Tell me, Yoomy," said Babbalanja, "are you not in fault? Because I
sometimes speak wisely, you must not imagine that I should always act
so."

"I never imagined that," said Yoomy, "and, if I did, the truth would
belie me. It is you who are in fault, Babbalanja; not I, craving your
pardon."

"The minstrel's sides are all edges to-day," said Media.

"This, then, thrice gentle Yoomy, is what I would say;" resumed
Babbalanja, "that since we philosophers bestow so much wisdom upon
others, it is not to be wondered at, if now and then we find what is
left in us too small for our necessities. It is from our very
abundance that we want."

"And from the fool's poverty," said Media, "that he is opulent; for
his very simplicity, is sometimes of more account than the wisdom of
the sage. But we were discoursing of the Tapparians. Babbalanja:
sententiously you have acquitted yourself to admiration; now amplify,
and tell us more of the people of Pimminee."

"My lord, I might amplify forever."

"Then, my worshipful lord, let him not begin," interposed Braid-Beard.

"I mean," said Babbalanja, "that all subjects are inexhaustible,
however trivial; as the mathematical point, put in motion, is capable
of being produced into an infinite line."

"But forever extending into nothing," said Media. "A very bad example
to follow. Do you, Babbalanja, come to the point, and not travel off
with it, which is too much your wont."

"Since my lord insists upon it then, thus much for the Tapparians,
though but a thought or two of many in reserve. They ignore the rest
of Mardi, while they themselves are but a rumor in the isles of the
East; where the business of living and dying goes on with the same
uniformity, as if there were no Tapparians in existence. They think
themselves Mardi in full; whereas, by the mass, they are stared at as
prodigies; exceptions to the law, ordaining that no Mardian shall
und