The Irish standard., 1891-01-31

thoughts.
There! have made you confess, -
said she. $50 you really did think that
was very childish and silly2 But
doubtless Mr.. Brown had prepared you
for that?"
"Indeed he had done nothing of the
sort; and
"And SO it was an independent dis
covery Of, your own. That was the
reason why you would not talk with me
except on frivolity. All, we'll; have
discovered it too"
''Miss Ray" said Russell, solemnly,
'*you are wholly mistaken. My style OF
conversation was due entirely to the
weakness and vacuity of my mind. At
the time, | was under the impression
that if my words could be recorded,
they would make valuable material Tor
advanced text books on variety OF
subjects. I now perceive that they were
the chickering's Of imbecility. Pray for
give me, and will try to do better.
would suggest that we discuss the
geometry of dimensions.
ssIs--.is it nice?" said Alice, with
some hesitancy.
sit is highly interesting. and so large
ly speculative that the mere fact. of my
knowing next to nothing about it will
not interfere with the discussion. You
remember, of course, that in analytical
geometry, equations Of the second
degree involve two dimensions; of the
third degree, three. We know them as
length, breadth and thickness. Now
then, an equation of the fourth degree
should involve four, hence the ques-
tion naturally arises: What is the
fourth di1nension?'
ssI'm sure I don't know" said Alice,
81 can't think of any thing but bigness.
That is a dimension, isn't it:"'
Hardly, in a geometrical sense. We
will suppose three axes intersecting
perpendicularly at a given point or any
other place which they find convenient.
Now, then, in terms of the distance of
any point from these axes we are able to
representation me if J. observe that
you are going to Sleep
ooh! no. said Alice, but couldn't
help wondering what the other girls
would wear"
might I inquire who the other girls
are?''
'sDidn't tell you? I've joined q
society for culture. It's all girls but
you. You're in it. We couldn't think OF
any other man who knew enough to be-
aong to it,
Russell wondered whether there were
any other men who didn't know enough
to keep out Of it. He had an instanta-
neous mental picture of himself in the
act of maintaining an instructive con-
versation with eight or ten girls.
s'The society meets here tonight, -
continued Alice; II thought they would
come early, and it was their delay which
made me wonder whether they would
all appear in party dresses. 1T will be
mean it they do, because the under
standing was that every thing was to be
.studious and simple
sWben was l elected to this post OF
honor and responsibility" asked Rus
sell.
"Yesterday," said Alice, II proposed
your name. Marion Hill is q member.
Her brother Richard knows you. We
IVA
that he would rather be electrocuted,
and asked her to convey his condolences
to you. Of course he didn't think she'd
tell US, but she did. Oh, here are the
girls" she added, as the door-bell rang,
land, Mr.. Russell, if you please, don't
start them on < dimensions tonight
shouldn't want to be the only girl at the
very first meeting who didn't know one
single thing you were talking about"
The room was full of pretty girls and
chatter in a moment. Russell survived
the embarrassment Of his presentation,
and even began to be considerably
amused by his position. He was sur
prised to find that there were only seven
girls, including Miss Ray. He had sup
posed that there were fifty when they
first dawned upon his sight.
Suddenly, by a common impulse, the
adorable half dozen rushed up to Miss
Ray and said with one voice: s'Have
you found good name for the society;
we haven't" Then they all turned up
on Russell and exclaimed: ''Of course
YOU know real nice name for it, Mr..
Russell"
Before the young man could reply
even supposing that he could have re-
piled at all-Miss Hill picked up one OF
the books which Alice had been trying
to read.
"Oh, it's history" said she. "Alice,
for goodness sake, don't let's study histo'
ry. l don't know any thing about it, it
isn't the least use trying to learn now,
I'm too Old"
eff Cato learned Greek at eighty,
said Russell, ''you might begin history
st eighteen"
eyes, you might have begun it 81
eighteen" said one of tho girls. ''That
was when you were at Mr.. Lawson's
school. Poor old mani He's been dead
ever SO long"
'sOh, think history would be nice,'
said Alice, 'sonly don't let's take any
horrid part of it where there's nothing
happening but politics and every event
occurs on some particular date that no
body can ever remember"
Conversation at this point became an
imated and general This is about the
way it ran:
stT,at,s4n1v tra life Of = freat man"