ings which are impossible. You have
said that Elien had seen an elephant write sentences."

"Nay, very reverend gentleman! I simply said that Oppian had heard a
hippopotamus discuss a philosophical problem."

"You have declared that it is not true that a dish made of beech-wood
will become covered of itself with all the viands that one can desire."

"I said, that if it has this virtue, it must be that you received it
from the devil."

"That I received it!"

"No, most reverend sir. I, nobody, everybody!"

Aside, Ursus thought, "I don't know what I am saying."

But his outward confusion, though extreme, was not distinctly visible.
Ursus struggled with it.

"All this," Minos began again, "implies a certain belief in the devil."

Ursus held his own.

"Very reverend sir, I am not an unbeliever with regard to the devil.
Belief in the devil is the reverse side of faith in God. The one proves
the other. He who does not believe a little in the devil, does not
believe much in God. He who believes in the sun must believe in the
shadow. The devil is the night of God. What is night? The proof of day."

Ursus here extemporized a fathomless combination of philosophy and
religion. Minos remained pensive, and relapsed into silence.

Ursus breathed afresh.

A sharp onslaught now took place. AEacus, the medical delegate, who had
disdainfully protected Ursus against the theologian, now turned suddenly
from auxiliary into assailant. He placed his closed fist on his bundle
of papers, which was large and heavy. Ursus received this apostrophe
full in the breast,--

"It is proved that crystal is sublimated ice, and that the diamond is
sublimated crystal. It is averred that ice becomes crystal in a thousand
years, and crystal diamond in a thousand ages. You have denied this."

"Nay," replied Ursus, with sadness, "I only said that in a thousand
years ice had time to melt, and that a thousand ages were difficult to
count."

The examination went on; questions and answers clashed like swords.

"You have denied that plants can talk."

"Not at all. But to do so they must grow under a gibbet."

"Do you own that the mandragora cries?"

"No; but it sings."

"You have denied that the fourth finger of the left hand has a cordial
virtue."

"I only said that to sneeze to the left was a bad sign."

"You have spoken rashly and disrespectfully of the phoenix."

"Learned judge, I merely said that when he wrote that the brain of the