Man may make mistakes; in the long run nature never does
so. We have only given an imperfect example, but the intelligent
reader will supply himself with illustrations.
Lucubratio Ebria
[From the Press, 29 July, 1865]
There is a period in the evening, or more generally towards the still
small hours of the morning, in which we so far unbend as to take a
single glass of hot whisky and water. We will neither defend the
practice nor excuse it. We state it as a fact which must be borne in
mind by the readers of this article; for we know not how, whether it
be the inspiration of the drink, or the relief from the harassing
work with which the day has been occupied, or from whatever other
cause, yet we are certainly liable about this time to such a
prophetic influence as we seldom else experience. We are rapt in a
dream such as we ourselves know to be a dream, and which, like other
dreams, we can hardly embody in a distinct utterance. We know that
what we see is but a sort of intellectual Siamese twins, of which one
is substance and the other shadow, but we cannot set either free
without killing both. We are unable to rudely tear away the veil of
phantasy in which the truth is shrouded, so we present the reader
with a draped figure, and his own judgment must discriminate between
the clothes and the body. A truth's prosperity is like a jest's, it
lies in the ear of him that hears it.
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