say, to us Mardians! Here, take my last
breath; let me give up this beggarly ghost!"

"Nay," said Media; "pause, Babbalanja. Turn it not adrift prematurely.
Let it house till midnight; the proper time for you mortals to
dissolve. But, philosopher, if you harp upon Vee-Vee's mishap, know
that it was owing to nothing but his carelessness."

"And what was that owing to, my lord?"

"To Vee-Vee himself."

"Then, my lord, what brought such a careless being into Mardi?"

"A long course of generations. He's some one's great-great-grandson,
doubtless; who was great-great-grandson to some one else; who also had
grandsires."

"Many thanks then to your highness; for you establish the doctrine of
Philosophical Necessity."

"No. I establish nothing; I but answer your questions."

"All one, my lord: you are a Necessitarian; in other words, you hold
that every thing takes place through absolute necessity."

"Do you take me, then, for a fool, and a Fatalist? Pardie! a bad creed
for a monarch, the distributor of rewards and punishments."

"Right there, my lord. But, for all that, your highness is a
Necessitarian, yet no Fatalist. Confound not the distinct. Fatalism
presumes express and irrevocable edicts of heaven concerning
particular events. Whereas, Necessity holds that all events are
naturally linked, and inevitably follow each other, without
providential interposition, though by the eternal letting of
Providence."

"Well, well, Babbalanja, I grant it all. Go on."

"On high authority, we are told that in times past the fall of certain
nations in Mardi was prophesied of seers."

"Most true, my lord," said Mohi; "it is all down in the chronicles."

"Ha! ha!" cried Media. "Go on, philosopher."

Continued Babbalanja, "Previous to the time assigned to their
fulfillment, those prophecies were bruited through Mardi; hence,
previous to the time assigned to their fulfillment, full knowledge of
them may have come to the nations concerned. Now, my lord, was it
possible for those nations, thus forwarned, so to conduct their
affairs, as at, the prophesied time, to prove false the events
revealed to be in store for them?"

"However that may be," said Mohi, "certain it is, those events did
assuredly come to pass:--Compare the ruins of Babbelona with book
ninth, chapter tenth, of the chronicles. Yea, yea, the owl inhabits
where the seers predicted; the jackals yell in the tombs of the
kings."

"Go on, Babbalanja," said Media.