; there will be some steep hills for us to
negotiate; I guess we shall want a good brake."

I said: "We shall want a brake, I agree; what we shall not want is a
mechanical surprise that we don't understand, and that never acts when it
is wanted."

"This thing," he said, "acts automatically."

"You needn't tell me," I said. "I know exactly what it will do, by
instinct. Going uphill it will jamb the wheel so effectively that we
shall have to carry the machine bodily. The air at the top of the hill
will do it good, and it will suddenly come right again. Going downhill
it will start reflecting what a nuisance it has been. This will lead to
remorse, and finally to despair. It will say to itself: 'I'm not fit to
be a brake. I don't help these fellows; I only hinder them. I'm a
curse, that's what I am;' and, without a word of warning, it will 'chuck'
the whole business. That is what that brake will do. Leave it alone.
You are a good fellow," I continued, "but you have one fault."

"What?" he asked, indignantly.

"You have too much faith," I answered. "If you read an advertisement,
you go away and believe it. Every experiment that every fool has thought
of in connection with cycling you have tried. Your guardian angel
appears to be a capable and conscientious spirit, and hitherto she has
seen you through; take my advice and don't try her too far. She must
have had a busy time since you started cycling. Don't go on till you
make her mad."

He said: "If every man talked like that there would be no advancement
made in any department of life. If nobody ever tried a new thing the
world would come to a standstill. It is by--"

"I know all that can be said on that side of the argument," I
interrupted. "I agree in trying new experiments up to thirty-five;
_after_ thirty-five I consider a man is entitled to think of himself. You
and I have done our duty in this direction, you especially. You have
been blown up by a patent gas lamp--"

He said: "I really think, you know, that was my fault; I think I must
have screwed it up too tight."

I said: "I am quite willing to believe that if there was a wrong way of
handling the thing that is the way you handle it. You should take that
tendency of yours into consideration; it bears upon the argument. Myself,
I did not notice what you did; I only know we were riding peacefully and
pleasantly along the Whitby Road, discussing the Thirty Years' War, when
your lamp wen