Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1871-12-16

bitumen of Judea plunged in oil of Law
ender and petroleum, iodide of silver,
bromide of lime, solid and fluid; in
short, all imaginable chemical combina.
tions without obtaining any decisive re.
suit. One evening, under the influence
OF more sensitive composition, red,
orange, and violet light appeared to fix
itself; the plate took vaguely the tints
of the iris, | was forming the best
opinion of it, when my dear spouse, ac-
cording to her immemorial custom,
cried out: Hans the soup is getting
cold Hans! Hans the soup is get
ting cold Hans! Hans! Hans the
soup is getting cold The soup is get
ting cold = These cries rasped my
nerves. Whether | would or not, was
obliged to interrupt my experiment.
placed the copper-plate on the jut of
served me to stand a candle on that
done, | went up stairs and quietly seat
ed myself at table"
And what did you say to your
wife7n
Nothing
ain your place, | should have wrung
her neck"
The apothecary smiled silly.
THAT same night" he replied, " af-
ter supper, went down again into the
laboratory. Fatigue and WEAKNESS of
mind forbade my continuing my labor ::
| sat down in that arm chair and fell
asleep. On awaking at one o'clock
in the morning, | saw that the candle
I,,+ ! Io &c
broke through the grating, and reflect
ed the metallic plate at the far end of
the cellar. While my attention was
fixed on this luminous spot, | was
thinking of my wife; | felt impelled
to correct her; thousand little home
discomforts passed through my head )
but at length, tired of these reflections,
| fell off to sleep again. The next day
all was forgotten, till, happening to cast
my eyes on the plate, | saw there
what ?-my dream of the past night inn
printed on it with striking truthful
ness; my wife, the dining-room, the
clock on the chimney, the windows at
the back, the little yard beyond-my
househould interior to the smallest de-
tails. Only fancy played in the scene
to certain extent | was about to ad
minister correction to Madame
Schnaps !
Imagine my enthusiasm. speedily
conceived my spy-glass. | compre-
hended that the brain of man is like
the eye of the fly, an optical inst,u-
ment with thousand faucets; that
whatever is reflected in it may come
y lu !
self upon chemical substance, the Sc
cret of which had discovered.
" Thus, dear Doctor, all your pas
sions, all your desires, all your
thoughts, form themselves in this spy
glass. You improvise better by look
than by speech, you materialize instan-
taneously the intellectual world moving
within your mind.'
This discovery seemed to me miracu-
lous.
Master Schnaps - extraordinary
man y cried, " suffer me to embrace
you. Greater than the pyramid of
Cheops, your memory will descend
through the coming ages, and shine in
the future like star of the first mag
nitude. But beg of you to enlighten
me on one point. How can you inject
doses of philosophy, or of any other
science ?"
" In this manner" replied Schnaps,
highly tlattered by my compliments !;
" but first allow me to place before you
some general considerations of the
highest interest. You may have re-
marked, Benedum, that great philoso-
pliers, great mathematicians, great
poets, and generally all great ideologists,
end miserably. Scotted at during their
lives, dishonored, despised, and some
times even hunted like wild beasts,
they become, after their death, the prey
of certain class of individuals known
under the name of practical men. A
great deal of beautiful sentiment has
been written, during the last three
thousand years, against this use of
genius by mediocrity; but that does
not prevent things going on, at the
present time, exactly as they went on
in the days of Homer, Pythagoras, So.
crates, and many other celebrated
ideologists; they persecute. they kill
them,' safe to make for themselves
and to coin money out of
their discoveries! All this is passably
and distressing, | admit,
Doctor but at bottom nothing is more
simple and | will even say more natural
For an idea to succeed in this world, it
must have the support of the masses.
Now the masses, who don't know how
to raise themselves to the light of the
pure ideal, admirably understand the
ideal materialized, that is to say, fact
This is the sole source of the pretended
power of practical men over over ideo-
logues. Those fellows are rich, power
full they govern the world, statutes are
erected to them. Why ?-because they
set it down to imbecility that any poor
devil of great man should ever die of
hunger in garret. Is that true, yes or
no?"
"It's positive, Master Schnaps."
"Well," continued the apothecary,
with an ironical smile, my spy-glass
will suppress the practical men and re.
store to the ideologues the superiority
ideas, and put them in direct commu-
nication with the masses Let us sup
pose, for example, that wish to take a
lavement in metaphysics; | apply my
eye to the lens. You read Kant to me,
and in the proportion and to the extent
to which l hear you, and his reasoning
enters my head, will it pass forth from
my eyes, and print itself upon the pre-
pared plate; it will materialize itself,
take bodily form; see it, it is real,
positive; can have no doubt of its ex-
istence, since it is recognized by my
senses; and this result is obtained by
INV 1ayamapt -