at was the remote cause
of the recent calamity of Captain Poke. The king was no sooner
constitutionally deprived of his memory, than it was an easy matter
to strip him of all his other faculties; after which it was humanely
decreed, as indeed it ought to be in the case of a being so destitute,
that he could do no wrong. By way of following out the idea on a humane
and Christian-like principle, and in order to make one part of the
practice conform to the other, it was shortly after determined that he
should do nothing; his eldest first-cousin of the masculine gender being
legally proclaimed his substitute. In the end, the crimson curtain was
drawn before the throne. As, however, this cousin might begin to wriggle
the stick in his turn, and derange the balance of the tripod, the other
two sets of stick-holders next decided that, though his majesty had
an undeniable constitutional right to say who SHOULD BE his
eldest first-cousin of the masculine gender, they had an undoubted
constitutional right to say who he SHOULD NOT BE. The result of all this
was a compromise; his majesty, who, like other people, found the sweets
of authority more palatable than the bitter, agreeing to get up on top
of the tripod, where he might appear seated on the machine of state, to
receive salutations, and eat and drink in peace, leaving the others to
settle among themselves who should do the work at the bottom, as well
as they could. In brief, such is the history, and such was the polity of
Leaphigh, when I had the honor of visiting that country.

The Leaplowers were resolute to prove that all this was radically wrong.
They determined, in the first place, that there should be but one great
social beam; and, in order that it should stand perfectly steady, they
made it the duty of every citizen to prop its base. They liked the idea
of a tripod well enough, but, instead of setting one up in the Leaphigh
fashion, they just reversed its form, and stuck it on top of their beam,
legs uppermost, placing a separate agent on each leg, to work
their machine of state; taking care, also, to send a new one aloft
periodically. They reasoned thus: If one of the Leaphigh beams slip (and
they will be very apt to slip in wet weather, with the king, nobles and
people wriggling and shoving against each other), down will come the
whole machine of state, or, to say the least, it will get so much awry
as never to work as well as at first; and therefore we will have non