onant with the hum of so many millions
of human voices. I have heard it asserted that when Yellow or (Pundit
will have it) Violet, who is supposed to have been the first aeronaut,
maintained the practicability of traversing the atmosphere in all
directions, by merely ascending or descending until a favorable current
was attained, he was scarcely hearkened to at all by his contemporaries,
who looked upon him as merely an ingenious sort of madman, because the
philosophers (?) of the day declared the thing impossible. Really now it
does seem to me quite unaccountable how any thing so obviously feasible
could have escaped the sagacity of the ancient savans. But in all ages
the great obstacles to advancement in Art have been opposed by the
so-called men of science. To be sure, our men of science are not quite
so bigoted as those of old:--oh, I have something so queer to tell you
on this topic. Do you know that it is not more than a thousand years ago
since the metaphysicians consented to relieve the people of the singular
fancy that there existed but two possible roads for the attainment of
Truth! Believe it if you can! It appears that long, long ago, in the
night of Time, there lived a Turkish philosopher (or Hindoo possibly)
called Aries Tottle. This person introduced, or at all events propagated
what was termed the deductive or a priori mode of investigation. He
started with what he maintained to be axioms or "self-evident truths,"
and thence proceeded "logically" to results. His greatest disciples were
one Neuclid, and one Cant. Well, Aries Tottle flourished supreme until
advent of one Hog, surnamed the "Ettrick Shepherd," who preached
an entirely different system, which he called the a posteriori or
inductive. His plan referred altogether to Sensation. He proceeded by
observing, analyzing, and classifying facts-instantiae naturae, as they
were affectedly called--into general laws. Aries Tottle's mode, in a
word, was based on noumena; Hog's on phenomena. Well, so great was
the admiration excited by this latter system that, at its first
introduction, Aries Tottle fell into disrepute; but finally he recovered
ground and was permitted to divide the realm of Truth with his more
modern rival. The savans now maintained the Aristotelian and Baconian
roads were the sole possible avenues to knowledge. "Baconian," you
must know, was an adjective invented as equivalent to Hog-ian and more
euphonious and dignified.

Now, my dear fri