reat in common sense
and the rules of good temper)--reads considerable "Report;" [Is No.
1 of--Maupertuisiana.--] reciting, not in a dishonest, but in a dim
wearisome way, the various steps of the Affair, as readers already know
them; and concludes with this extraordinary practical result: "Things
being so (LES CHOSES ETANT TELLES): the Fragment being of itself suspect
[what could Leibnitz know of Maxima and Minima? They were not developed
till one Euler did it, quite in late years!], [--Maupertuisians,--No.
i. 22.] of itself suspect; and Monsieur Konig having failed to" &c.
&c.,--"it is assuredly manifest that his cause is one of the worst (DES
PLUS MAUVAISES), and that this Fragment has been forged." Singular to
think!"And the Academy, all things duly considered, will not hesitate
to declare it false (SUPPOSE), and thereby deprive it publicly of all
authority which may have been ascribed to it" (HEAR, HEAR! from all
parts).

Curator de Keith then collects the votes,--twenty-three in all; some
sixteen are of working Members; two are from accidental Strangers
("travelling students," say the enemy); the rest from Curators of
Quality:--Vote is unanimous, "Adopt the Report. Fragment evidently
forged, and cannot have the least shadow of authority (AUCUNE OMBRE
D'AUTHORITE). Forged by whom, we do not now ask; nor what the Academy
could, on plain grounds, now do to Monsieur Konig [NOT nail his ears
to the pump, oh no!]; enough, it IS forged, and so remains." Signed,
"Curator de Keith," and Six other Office-bearers; "Formey, Perpetual
Secretary"' closing the list.

At the name Keith, a slight shadow (very slight, for how could
Keith help himself?) crosses the mind: "Is this, by ill luck, the
Feldmarschall Keith?" No, reader; this is Lieutenant-Colonel Keith; he
of Wesel, with "Effigy nailed to the Gallows" long since; whom none of
us cares for. Sulzer, I notice too, is of this long-eared Sanhedrim.
ACH, MEIN LIEBER SULZER, you don't know (do you, then?) DIESE VERDAMMTE
RACE, to what heights and depths of stupid malice, and malignant length
of ear, they are capable of going. "Thursday, 13th April," this is
Forger Konig's doom:--and, what is observable, next morning, with a
crash audible through Nature, the Powder-Magazine flew aloft, killing
several persons! [Supra, p. 203.] Had no hand, he, I hope, in that
latter atrocity?

On authentic sight of this Sentence (for which Konig had at once, on
hearing of it, applied to Forme