Perhaps if such a portion of my limbs were released as might leave me
master of the remainder, and this favourable opportunity were suitably
improved, by making a forced march towards the settlements, all hopes
of preserving the treasures of knowledge, of which I am the unworthy
receptacle, would not be lost. The importance of the results is surely
worth the hazard of the experiment."
"I know not, I know not," returned the deliberate old man; "the vermin
and reptiles, which you bear about you, were intended by the Lord for
the prairies, and I see no good in sending them into regions that may
not suit their natur's. And, moreover, you may be of great and
particular use as you now sit on the ass, though it creates no wonder
in my mind to perceive that you are ignorant of it, seeing that
usefulness is altogether a new calling to so bookish a man."
"Of what service can I be in this painful thraldom, in which the
animal functions are in a manner suspended, and the spiritual, or
intellectual, blinded by the secret sympathy that unites mind to
matter? There is likely to be blood spilt between yonder adverse hosts
of heathens; and, though but little desiring the office, it would be
better that I should employ myself in surgical experiments, than in
thus wasting the precious moments, mortifying both soul and body.
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