n his God-like, and turn his attention to suthin' else;
he thought of writing his v'y'ges, for he understood that anything from
foreign parts took like wild-fire in Leaplow; and if they didn't take,
he could always project charts for a living.

Perhaps it will be necessary to explain what Noah meant by saying that
he thought of engaging a God-like. The reader has had some insight into
the nature of one set of political leaders in Leaplow, who are known by
the name of the Most Patriotic Patriots. These persons, it is scarcely
necessary to say, are always with the majority, or in a situation to
avail themselves of the evolutions of the little wheel. Their great
rotatory principle keeps them pretty constantly in motion, it is true;
but while there is a centrifugal force to maintain this action, great
care has been had to provide a centripetal counterpoise, in order to
prevent them from bolting out of the political orbit. It is supposed
to be owing to this peculiarity in their party organizations, that
your Leaplow patriot is so very remarkable for going round and round a
subject, without ever touching it.

As an offset to this party arrangement, the Perpendiculars have taken
refuge in the God-likes. A God-like, in Leaplow politics, in some
respects resembles a saint in the Catholic calendar; that is to say, he
is canonized, after passing through a certain amount of temptation and
vice with a whole skin; after having his cause pleaded for a certain
number of years before the high authorities of his party; and, usually,
after having had a pretty good taste of purgatory. Canonization
attained, however, all gets to be plain sailing with him. He is spared,
singular as it may appear, even a large portion of his former "wear and
tear" of brains, as Noah had termed it, for nothing puts one so much at
liberty in this respect, as to have full powers to do all the thinking.
Thinking in company, like travelling in company, requires that we should
have some respect to the movements, wishes, and opinions of others; but
he who gets a carte blanche for his sentiments, resembles the uncaged
bird, and may fly in whatever direction most pleases himself, and feel
confident, as he goes, that his ears will be saluted with the usual
traveller's signal of "all's right." I can best compare the operation of
your God-like and his votaries, to the action of a locomotive with
its railroad train. As that goes, this follows; faster or slower, the
movem