The Portland daily press., 1872-02-03

regulations, and to coin money out of their
discoveries All this is passably melancholy
and distressing, admit, doctor; but at the
bottom nothing is more simple and will ev-
en- say more natural. For an idea to succeed
in this world it must have the support of the
masses. Now the masses, who didn't know
how to raise themselvs to the light of the
pure ideal materialized, that is to say, fact
This is the whole source of the pretended
power of practical men over idealogists.
Those fellows are rich, powerful; they govern
the world, statues 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 garrett. Is that true, yes
or MOP"
'Its positive, Master Schnaps''
'EBut, in the name of heaven, Schnaps," I
replied, transported with enthusiasm, show
did you make this sublime discovery"
SIT is not so marvellous as you believe" he
said, laughing; sit is nothing more nor less
than kaleidoscope, but kaleidoscope of
new kind; instead of allowing flowers and
bits of glass to fall at hazard, it draws them
together in natural order. In other terms,
it is combination of the telescope and the
daguerrotype, two instruments which nature
herself has united in our hands,"
At this moment he took out of his pocket a
small snuff box, and slowly inhaled pinch,
as if to collect himself, and then continued:
'sFor three years I tried to fix the solar
spectrum on copper plate. To this end l
employed chloride of silver, bitumen of Judea
plunged in oil of lavender and petroleum,
iodide of silver, bromide of lime, solid and
fluid in short, all imaginable chemical COM
binations without obtaining any decisive re-
suit One evening, under the influence of a
more sensitive composition, red, orange, and
violet light appeared to fix itself, the plate
took, vaguely, the tints of the iris. 1 was
forming the best opinion of it, when my dear
spouse, according to her immemorial custom,
cried out: "Hans! the soup is getting cold +!
Hans! Hans! the soup is getting cold! The
soup is getting coldp' These cries rasped my
nerves. Whether 1 would or not, 1 was OBJ
liged to interrupt my experiment. 1 placed
the copper plate on the jut Of the wall you see
| over there and which served me to stand a
candle on; that done, l went up stairs and
quietly seated myself at the table.
"Aud what did you say to your wife,"
Nothing"
Gin your place I should have wrung her
neck"
The apothecary smiled, silly.
'That same night" he replied, "after sup
! per- l 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 awakening at one
| " CioSh III bIIC saw tldb buG
had gone out; but the rays of star broke
through the grating, and reflected themselves
on the metallic plate at the far end of the
cellar. While my attention was fixed on this
luminous spot, | was thinking of my wife: I
felt impelied 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 for
| gotten, till happening to cast my eyes ON the
| nlata T hot 81
last night imprinted on it with striking truth
fulness; my wife, the dining-room, the clock
on the chimney, the windows at the back, the
little yard beyond-my household interior to
the smallest details. Only fancy PLAYED in
the scene, to a certain extent; was about to
administer correction to Madame Schnaps
! Imagine my enthusiasm. speedily con-
ceived my spy-glass. 1 comprehended that
the brain of man is like the eye of the fly, an
optical instrument with thousand faucets
that whatever is reflected in it may come
from it by refraction, and imprint itself upon
chemical substance, the secret of which I
| had discovered"
"Thus, dear doctor, all your passions, all
| your desires, all your thoughts, form them
selves in this spy-glass. You improvise bet
ter by look than by speech, you materalize
instantaneously the intellectual world moving
within your mind"
\ iiAo uAoSONOiy oCCluCu W Ilc ul1TdCulOuS.
Master Schnaps-extraordinary manp' I
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 phi
losophy, or of any other science?" .-
"Well," continued the apothecary, with an
lronlcal smile, my spy-glass. will suppress the
nrartjpal and 10 AZ
superiority which is their due; it will materi-
alize ideas, and put them in direct communi-
cation with the masses! Let us suppose. for
example, that wish to take lavement in
metaphysics; l apply my eye to the lens. You
read Kant to me, and in the proportion and
to the extent which 1 hear you, and his rea-
| soning enters my head, will it pass forth from
my eyes, and print itself upon the prepared
plate; it will materialize itself, take bodily
form; see it, it is real, positive; 1 have no
doubts of its existence, since it is recognized
by my senses; and this result is obtained by
my lavement''
While Schnaps was explaining to me this
great mystery, furious desire to possess the
spy-glass seized on me.
''My dear FRIEND" said to him, 81 hope
you will make several of these spy-glasses.
Such discovery belongs to entire human
ity."
''To humanityp' he cried; 81 should like
to know what humanity has done for me! 1t
has treated me as mailman, it has compell-
ed me to live with an unsupportable wife, it
would have left me to die of starvation, like
so many other inventors, if had not had the
resource of selling it Drugs
but if you will obtain public consideration
-universalSestee and admiration
"What do care for the admiration of a
heap of idiots ?" cried the apothecary.
bHt'aka from thor, of
Guttenburg, Calico, Newton, and Volta, and
there would be nothing left but troop of
asses on their knees before a SABRE The ad-
miration ofsuch people! No, no! Let hu-
manity make spy-glasses for ITSELF shall
keep mine and use it for my own satisfac-
ton"
was indignant at such selfishness.
master Schnhps," replied, REFRESHING
my anger, permit me to tell you that your
reasoning is absurd. You make sublime spy
glasses-very good; but others cultivate the
land, SOW reap, grind the grain for us, and
bring bread to our houses other make medi-
cines, others clothes and shoes, others pro-
cure for us wine, beer, tobacco, none ofwhich
things you disdain We are all bound one to
the other, Master Schnaps; therefore,"-
while was developing this thesis, the
apothecary looked at me through his spy
glass;"
"Ahav' he cried, interrupting me, 81 see
what ayou want. You care very little for
humanity. What you want is my spy-glass:
but you can't have it. Ha! ha hap
On this he shut it up like a spring hat,
placed it in box, which he carefully locked,
then turning to me with bantering air,
said:
You'll not put that up to your nose any
more. That will be lesson to you, and
teach you for the future, mot to play the hypo-
critic, and preach the gospel for your own
profit YOU'RE sly dog, DR.. Benedum-a
philanthropist! don't like people of that
kind. Oblige me by departing the way you
came.
The blood mounted to my face. 1 felt
terrible strong desire to chastise Hans
Schnaps, who watched me with cunning
expression in his eyes, and insolently pointed
TO the door; but all at once recollected that
the two boys in the shop above were pair of
thick set fellows, and prudentIy retired.
Since then l removed from Mayence to
come and live in Nuremburg, and for nearly
two years have not seen Hans Schnaps. I
think he still goes about the streets in his
rusty coat, with his spy-glass under his arm;
at least, SO Burgomaster Zacharias recently
told me in letter, and I have no doubt of
the fact.
What pity that such magnificent secret
should be in the hands of such a fooli
A thing strange and worthy of remark is.
that men of good sense have never invented
anything; it is the fools who, up to the pres
ent time, have made all the great discoveries.
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