Manalive

ath; or, the

the ordinary furniture of the place. At one end of the long mahogany table was set the one enormous garden chair, which was surmounted by the old torn tent or umbrella which Smith himself had suggested as a coronation canopy. Inside this erection could be perceived the dumpy form of Mrs. Duke, with cushions and a form of countenance that already threatened slumber. At the other end sat the accused Smith, in a kind of

ocates of the prosecution, Dr. Pym and Mr. Gould; behind a barricade of books and documents, chiefly (in the case of Dr. Pym) solid volumes of criminology. On the other side, Moon and Inglewood, for the defence, were also fortified with books and papers; but as these included several old yellow volumes by Ouida and Wilkie Collins, the hand of Mr. Moon seemed to have been somewhat careless and comprehensive. As for the victim and prosecutor, Dr.

over each ear, rose to open the case. His statement was clear and even restrained, and such flights of imagery as occur

tail, then he screwed up his eyes and said "modified," and let it go-"has profoundly Modified our view of death. In superstitious ages it was regarded as the termination of life, catastrophic, and even tragic, and was often surrounded by solemnity. Brighter days, however, have dawned, and we now see death as universal and inevitable, as part of that great soul-stirring and heart-upholding average which we

old friend Dr. Bulger, who kept ferrets-" (here Moon suddenly ejaculated a loud "hurrah!" but so instantaneously resumed his tragic expression that Mrs. Duke looked everywhere else for the sound); Dr. Pym continued somewhat sternly-"who, in the interests of knowledge, kept ferrets, felt that the creature's ferocity is not utilitarian, but absolutely an end in itself. However this may be with ferrets, it is certainly so with the prisoner. In his other iniquities you may find the cunning of the maniac; but his acts of blood have almost the simplicity of sanity. But it is the awful sanity of the sun and the elements-a cruel, an evil sanity. As soon sta

t the foot of the table, who was fitting a paper figure with a cocked ha

evidence authentic letters from witnesses to these scenes, which the defence is free to examine. Out of several cases of such outrages we have decided to select one- the clearest and most scandalo

ing paper in his hand and a fever of importance on his face. He bega

Warden of Brikespear

d Moon, making a backward moveme

with it by two or three very ancient arches or props, like bridges, across a small strip of water connected with the river. To my grive astonishment I be'eld my eminent friend suspended in mid-air and clinging to one of these pieces of masonry, his appearance and attitude indicatin' that he suffered from the grivest apprehensions. After a short time I heard two very loud shots, and distinctly perceived the unfortunate undergraduate Smith leaning far out of the Warden's windo

in a glow of triumph, "is from the

en the young man was shooting at him, as Mr. Boulter has said in his letter. The young man who was shooting a

of h's and a's, the Sub-Warden's letter was exactly as Gould had rendered it; and both that and the porter's

empted murder is concerned," said Dr. Pym, st

master the known and admitted elements in such controversies. As for science and religion, the known and admitted facts are plain enough. All that the parsons say is unproved. All that the doctors say is disproved. That's the only difference between science and religion there's ever been, or will

ort of perspiration. "We want to give the defence a fair run-like gen

ner, "if Dr. Pym may have an old friend with ferr

th something almost like a shaky authorit

there is a kind of man who has a natural tendency to murder, is it not equally true"-here he lowered his voice and spoke with a crushing quietude and earnestness-"is it not equally true that there is a kind of man who has a natural tendency to get murdered? Is it not at least a hypothesis holding the field that Dr. Warn

down and gesticulating in great excitement. "My principal's go

books to which immediate reference can be made. I have Sonnenschein's `Destructive Type' here on the table, if the defence w

ed the Irishman w

week if you'll pay f

h authority?" aske

on lightly; "that depend

ail," he said. "It deals with a region in which things can be handled and

d Moon mournfully,

ienced such a thi

Pym, and sat down sharply

's onslaught, even if it occurred, was not unique. I have in my hand letters from more than one acquaintance of Dr. Warner whom that remarkable man has affected in

porned, and if your Docter Warner doesn't like having sorsepans thrown at him, don't let him wear his hat in a re

note in Dublin, with whom Dr. Warner was once

omentary and indeed almost automatic action. To say that I `pulled Dr. Warner's nose,' is, however, inaccurate in a respect that strikes me as important. That I punched his nose I must cheerfully admit (I need not say with what regret); but

reat tendency of Dr. Warner to be assassinated by somebody. Place that man in a Quakers' meeting, among the most peaceful of Christians, and he will immediately be beaten to death with sticks of chocolate. Place him among the angels of the New Jerusalem, and he will be stoned to death with precious stones. Circumstances may be beautiful and wonderful, th

ther side of the table. Dr. Warner had leaned his large body quite across the little figure of Moses Gould and was talking in excit

y, but not at all adapted to assist his client. He picks holes in science. He picks holes in my client's social popularity. He picks holes in my literary style, which doesn't seem to suit his high-toned European taste. But how does this

ent fairness of this, but Moon still gazed at his opponent in a dream

his side, which the other side found it impossible to answer. "Perhaps,

n, in the same almost sleepy style,

en us that as we could not cross-examine the witnesses, we might vicariously

absently, "that none of the prison

e," cried the complacent

fired from a

bout fo

though they were fired quite

said the wit

"that your Sub-Warden mentioned that Smith was

egan Pym, after an i

" continued Moon, c

her cases of the accuse

not got evide

those cases," he said precisely, "there was no evidence from outsiders,

you get thei

ims," said Pym, "there was some

t none of the actual victims wo

exaggerative,"

aid Moon, so sharply

nce of the Sub-Warden

e of the Warden him

speare lives, a pro

t it was so eccentrically expressed that we suppressed it out of defere

uppose," he said, "that his stateme

n doctor; "but, really, it was difficult to unde

any statement signed by t

N

e I will ask my junior, Mr. Inglewood, to read a statement of the true s

He was, in truth, one of those modest men who cannot speak until they are told to speak; and then can speak well. Moon was entirely the opposite. His own impudences amused him in private, but they slightly embarrassed him in public; he felt a fool while

e of four or five feet, and shot at him four or five times, and never hit him once. That is the first startling circumstance on which we base our argument. The second, as my colleague has urged, is the curious fact that we cannot find a single victim of these alleged outrages to speak for himself. Subordinates speak for him. Porters climb up ladders to him. But he himself

ndersigned, do not see any particular reason why we should refer it to any isolated authorship. The truth is, it has been a composite p

d Emers

kespeare Colle

cent

nt," continued Inglew

e river splits itself into several small streams and canals, so that in one or two corners the place has almost the look of Venice. It was so especially in the case with which w

ines into a scheme of vertical lines. Wherever there is water the height of high buildings is doubled, and a British brick house becomes a Babylonian tower. In that shining unshaken surface the houses hang head downwards exactly to their highest or lowest chimney. The cora

itable right to put their case in their own way, but all this landscape gardening seemed to him (Dr. Cyrus Pym) to be not up to the business. "Will the leader

hy, suppose," he said suddenly, as if an idea had struck him, "suppose we wanted to prove the old Warden colour-blind. Suppose he was shot by a black man with white hair,

Warden committed suicide-that he just got Smith to hold the pistol as Brutus's slave held the sword. Why, it would make all the difference whe

tere irony, "maintain that your client w

ngo," said Moon with sudden severit

s, Mr. Moon resumed his seat and Inglewo

easing to a mystic in

o holds that two world

se, indeed, all th

a lamp-post; man alone is able to see his own thought upside down as one sees a house in a puddle. This duplication of mentality, as in a mirror, is (we repeat) the inmost

Inglewood, beaming round with a broad apology, "but you see

ted Moses Gould, begin

is part was written by the don. I merely warn the Court that the statement, though

id Dr. Pym, leanin

them that two heads

are able to pursue their own peculiar and profitable theme-which is puddles. What (the undersigned persons ask themselves) is a puddle? A puddle repeats infinity, and is full of light; nevertheless, if analyzed objectively, a puddle is a piece of dirty water spread very thin on mud. The

ession on the faces of some present, a

pier than he was. Unfortunately he did not know that his puzzles were puddles. He did not know that the academic mind reflects infinity and is full of light by the simple process of being shallow and standing still. In his case, therefore, there was something solemn, and even evil about the in

e great dome every night, they were an enormous and ugly secret; they uncovered the nakedness of nature; they were a glimpse of the iron wheels and pulleys behind the scenes. For the young men of that sad time thought that the god always com

of the night. Indeed, it was to his rooms that the melancholy Smith was bound. Smith had been at Dr. Eames's lecture for the first half of the morning, and at pistol practice and fencing in a saloon for the second half. He had been sculling madly for the first half of the afternoon and thinking idly (and still more madly) for the second half. He h

nue any of his bad habits long enough to make them a part of the British Constitution. The bad habits of Emerson Eames were to sit up all night and to be a student of Schopenhauer. Personally, he was a lean, loungin

small, `because I am coming to the conclusion that existence is really too rotten. I know all the arguments of the thinkers that think o

aid Eames, `are pe

t the game is not worth the candle. The wasp gets into the jam in hearty and hopeful efforts to get the jam into him. IN the same way the vulgar people want to enjoy life just as they want to enjoy gin-because they are too stupid to see that they are paying too big a price for it. That they never find happi

estroy other things, or (if they are thoughtful) to destroy themselves? The madman is the man behind the scenes, like the man that wanders about th

the sullen Smith, letting his fist

th hydrophobia would probably struggle for life while we killed it; but if we were kind we

ked the undergraduate abstractedly,

the philosopher; `that is

eless, are bribes to bring us into a torture chamber. We all see that for any thinking m

a sort of spike standing up on the top. It fixed him like an iron eye. Through those eternal instants during which the reason is stunned he did not even know what it was. Then he saw

man,' said Smith, with rough tendernes

owards the window. `Do you

on; `but you and I seem to have got so intimate to-night, someh

ng down,' shou

c dentist. And as the Warden made a run for the window and balcony, his

shapelessly shaped into gray beasts and devils, but blinded with mosses and washed out with rains. With an ungainly and most courageous leap, Eames sprang out on this antique bridge, as the only possible mode of escape from the maniac. He sat astride of it, still in his academic gown, dangling his long thin legs, and considering further chances of fli

like being hanged upon nothing? I'm going to be hanged upon something myself. I'm going to swing for you... Dear, tender old phrase,'

Warden of Brakespea

puppy struggles. How fortunate it is that I am wiser and kinder than he,' and h

th a sudden change to a sort of g

gently. `Ah, but madness is only a palliative at best, a drug. The on

individual and significant about them, like crests of famous knights pointed out in a pageant or a battlefield: they each arrested the eye, especially the rolling eye of Emerson Eames as he looked round on the morning and accepted it as his last. Through a narrow chink between a black timber tavern and a big gray college he could see a clock with gilt hands which the sunshine set on fire. He stared at it as though hypnotized; and suddenly the clock began to strike, as if in personal reply. As if at a signal, clock after clock took up the cry: a

uerulous authority, as he might hav

his place,' he crie

or I blow out your brains, or let you back into this room (on which complex points I am undecid

o get back,' replied

mith; `then, blast your i

?' demanded the exasper

be most appropriate,' a

if you'll repeat a

e goodness a

y birth h

me on this c

Englis

y connecting this proceeding with the usual conduct of brigands and bushrangers, Mr. Eames held them up, very stiffl

Smith severely, `and before I have done with you, y

ately expressed his perfect readiness

orgetting anything, please. You shall thank heaven for churches and chapels and villas and v

d the victim in despair; `sticks

th with a rogueish ruthlessness, and wagging the

s,' said Emerso

aph if you broke your impious stiff neck and dashed out all your drivelling devil-worshipping brains. But in strict biographical fact you are a very nice fellow, addicted to talking putrid nonsense, and

the Professor endured with singular firmness,

sked the oth

ion, `for the next man you mee

plectic terror upon the face of the Sub-Warden, and heard the

e Sub-Warden. But as soon as he could do so unobtrusively, he rejoined his companion in the late extraordinary scene. He was astonishe

hose own nerves had by this time twittered

ndulgence,' said Sm

ize that I have just ha

epeated the Professor in not unpardonab

o it, Eames; I had to prove you wrong or die. When a man's young, he nearly always has some one whom

U said there was no comfort. If you really thought there was nothing anywhere, it was because you had been t

esitatingly, `I think

your eyes when you dangled on that bridge was enjoyment of life and not "the Will to Live." What you knew when you sat on that damned gargoyle was that the world, when all is said and done, is a wonderful and beautiful place; I know it, because I knew it

very slowly, `I t

l have a

mated. `I've passed with honours, and now

s of intrigue. `Everything with us comes from the man on top to the people just

w, but he spoke with equal firmness. `I must be sent dow

not' asked

way I want to walk the world like a wonderful surprise- to float as idly as the thistledown, and come as silently as the sunrise; not to be expected any more than the thunderbolt, not to be recalled any more than the dying breeze. I don't want people to anticipate me as a well-known

called a skeleton,' sa

ght a kind of glimpse of the meaning of death and all that-the skull and cross-bones, the ~memento mori~. It isn't only meant to remind us of a future life, but to remind us of a present life too

al actuality, `But I know something now, Eame

?' asked Eames. `W

rst time that murde

door. Before he had vanished through it he had added, `It's very dangerou

brisk if rotatory walk. Several times, however, he stood outside the villa with the spotted blinds, studying them intently with his head slightly

f the two actors is described as he appeared to the other. But the undersigned persons absolutely guarantee the exactitude of the story; and if

ll now adjourn to `The Spot

James Emer

kespeare Colle

cent