第10章

We must take care not to confound this frequent difficulty of transmission of our ideas with want of ideas.I suppose that a man's mind does in time form a neutral salt with the elements in the universe for which it has special elective affinities.In fact, Ilook upon a library as a kind of mental chemist's shop filled with the crystals of all forms and hues which have come from the union of individual thought with local circumstances or universal principles.

When a man has worked out his special affinities in this way, there is an end of his genius as a real solvent.No more effervescence and hissing tumult--as he pours his sharp thought on the world's biting alkaline unbeliefs! No more corrosion of the old monumental tablets covered with lies! No more taking up of dull earths, and turning them, first into clear solutions, and then into lustrous prisms!

I, the Professor, am very much like other men: I shall not find out when I have used up my affinities.What a blessed thing it is, that Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left! Painful as the task is, they never fail to warn the author, in the most impressive manner, of the probabilities of failure in what he has undertaken.Sad as the necessity is to their delicate sensibilities, they never hesitate to advertise him of the decline of his powers, and to press upon him the propriety of retiring before he sinks into imbecility.Trusting to their kind offices, I shall endeavor to fulfil---Bridget enters and begins clearing the table.

--The following poem is my (The Professor's) only contribution to the great department of Ocean-Cable literature.As all the poets of this country will be engaged for the next six weeks in writing for the premium offered by the Crystal-Palace Company for the Burns Centenary, (so called, according to our Benjamin Franklin, because there will be nary a cent for any of us,) poetry will be very scarce and dear.Consumers may, consequently, be glad to take the present article, which, by the aid of a Latin tutor--and a Professor of Chemistry, will be found intelligible to the educated classes.

DE SAUTY

AN ELECTRO-CHEMICAL ECLOGUE.

Professor.Blue-Nose.

PROFESSOR.

Tell me, O Provincial! speak, Ceruleo-Nasal!

Lives there one De Sauty extant now among yon, Whispering Boanerges, son of silent thunder, Holding talk with nations ?

Is there a De Sauty, ambulant on Tellus, Bifid-cleft like mortals, dormient in night-cap, Having sight, smell, hearing, food-receiving feature Three times daily patent ?

Breathes there such a being, O Ceruleo-Nasal?

Or is he a mythus,--ancient word for "humbug,"--Such as Livy told about the wolf that wet-nursed Romulus and Remus?

Was he born of woman, this alleged De Sauty?

Or a living product of galvanic action, Like the status bred in Crosses flint-solution?

Speak, thou Cyano-Rhinal!

BLUE-NOSE.

Many things thou askest, jackknife-bearing stranger, Much-conjecturing mortal, pork-and-treacle-waster!

Pretermit thy whittling, wheel thine ear-flap toward me, Thou shalt hear them answered.

When the charge galvanic tingled through the cable, At the polar focus of the wire electric Suddenly appeared a white-faced man among us Called himself "DE SAUTY."As the small opossum held in pouch maternal Grasps the nutrient organ whence the term mammalia, So the unknown stranger held the wire electric, Sucking in the current.

When the current strengthened, bloomed the pale-faced stranger, Took no drink nor victual, yet grew fat and rosy, And from time to time, in sharp articulation, Said, "All right! DE SAUTY.">From the lonely station passed the utterance, spreading Through the pines and hemlocks to the groves of steeples Till the land was filled with loud reverberations Of "All right! DE SAUTY."When the current slackened, drooped the mystic stranger, Faded, faded, faded, as the stream grew weaker, Wasted to a shadow, with a hartshorn odor Of disintegration.

Drops of deliquescence glistened on his forehead, Whitened round his feet the dust of efflorescence, Till one Monday morning, when the flow suspended, There was no De Sauty.

Nothing but a cloud of elements organic, C.O.H.N.Ferrum, Chor.Flu.Sil.Potassa, Calc.Sod.Phosph.Mag.Sulphur, Mang.(?) Alumin.(?) Cuprum,(?)Such as man is made of.

Born of stream galvanic, with it be had perished!

There is no De Sauty now there is no current!

Give us a new cable, then again we'll hear him Cry, "All right! DE SAUTY."