with regret. Having changed the word emigrant to
that of "immigrunt," however, he put as good a face as possible on the
matter, and wrote the fatal signature. He then left the house, declaring
he didn't so much begrudge his successor the pay, as nothing but nuts
were to be had with the money; and that, as for himself, he felt as
sneaking as he believed was the case with Nebuchadnezzar, when he was
compelled to get down on all-fours, and eat grass.

CHAPTER XXIX. SOME EXPLANATIONS--A HUMAN APPETITE--A DINNER AND A BONNE
BOUCHE.

The brigadier and myself remained behind to discuss the general bearings
of this unexpected event.

"Your rigid demand for motives, my good sir," I remarked, "reduces the
Leaplow political morality very much, after all, to the level of the
social-stake system of our part of the world."

"They both depend on the crutch of personal Interests, it is true;
though there is, between them, the difference of the interests of a part
and of the interests of the whole."

"And could a part act less commendably than the whole appear to have
acted in this instance?"

"You forget that Leaplow, just at this moment, is under a moral eclipse.
I shall not say that these eclipses do not occur often, but they occur
quite as frequently in other parts of the region, as they occur here.
We have three great modes of controlling monikin affairs, viz., the one,
the few, and the many--"

"Precisely the same classification exists among men!" I interrupted.

"Some of our improvements are reflected backward; twilight following
as well as preceding the passage of the sun," quite coolly returned the
brigadier. "We think that the many come nearest to balancing the evil,
although we are far from believing even them to be immaculate. Admitting
that the tendencies to wrong are equal in the three systems (which we do
not, however, for we think our own has the least), it is contended
that the many escape one great source of oppression and injustice, by
escaping the onerous provisions which physical weakness is compelled to
make, in order to protect itself against physical strength."

"This is reversing a very prevalent opinion among men, sir, who
usually maintain that the tyranny of the many is the worst sort of all
tyrannies."

"This opinion has got abroad simply because the lion has not been
permitted to draw his own picture. As cruelty is commonly the
concomitant of cowardice, so is oppression nine times out of