"Venerable venator," he said, mournfully, "this is a most unscientific
bark. There is an inward monitor which bids me distrust its security!"
"Anan?" said the old man, who was pinching the ears of the hound, as a
father would play with the same member in a favourite child.
"I incline not to this irregular mode of experimenting on fluids. The
vessel has neither form, nor proportions."
"It is not as handsomely turned as I have seen a canoe in birchen
bark, but comfort may be taken in a wigwam as well as in a palace."
"It is impossible that any vessel constructed on principles so
repugnant to science can be safe. This tub, venerable hunter, will
never reach the opposite shore in safety."
"You are a witness of what it has done."
"Ay; but it was an anomaly in prosperity. If exceptions were to be
taken as rules, in the government of things, the human race would
speedily be plunged in the abysses of ignorance. Venerable trapper,
this expedient, in which you would repose your safety, is, in the
annals of regular inventions, what a lusus naturae may be termed in
the lists of natural history--a monster!"
How much longer Doctor Battius might have felt disposed to prolong the
discourse, it is difficult to say, for in addition to the powerful
personal considerations, which induced him to procrastinate an
experiment which was certainly not without its dangers, the pride of
reason was beginning to sustain him in the discussion.
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