_).

Strange! Now sit down again; wear gloves in the
future when you give him your hand.

JACKPUD.

One must guard against you.

HINZE.

Why did you take such a hold on me? The deuce take your
pretended honesty!

JACKPUD.

Why, you scratch like a cat!

[HINZE _laughs maliciously_.]

KING.

But what's the trouble today, anyhow? Why is there no
intelligent conversation carried on at the table? I do not enjoy a
bite unless my mind has some nourishment too. Court scholar, did you
perhaps fall on your head today?

LEANDER (_eating_).

May it please your majesty--

KING.

How far is the sun from the earth?

LEANDER.

Two million four hundred thousand and seventy-one-miles.

KING.

And the circle in which the planets revolve?

LEANDER.

A hundred thousand million miles.

KING.

A hundred thousand million! There's nothing in the world I like
better to hear than such great numbers--millions, trillions--that
gives you--something to think about. It's a good deal, isn't it, a
thousand million, more or less?

LEANDER.

Human intelligence grows with the numbers.

KING.

But tell me, about how large is the whole world in general,
counting fixed stars, milky ways, hoods of mist, and all that?

LEANDER.

That cannot be expressed at all.

KING.

But you are to express it or (_threatening with his sceptre_)--

LEANDER.

If we consider a million as one, then about ten hundred
thousand trillions of such units which of themselves amount to a
million.

KING.

Just think, children, think! Would you believe this bit of
world could be so great? But how that occupies the mind!

JACKPUD.

Your majesty, this bowl of rice here seems to me sublimer.

KING.

How's that, fool?

JACKPUD.

Such sublimities of numbers give no food for thought; one
cannot think, for of course the highest number always finally becomes
the smallest again. Why, you just have to think of all the numbers
possible. I can never count beyond five here.

KING.

But say, there's some truth in that. Scholar, how many numbers
are there, anyhow?

LEANDER.

An infinite number.

KING.

Just tell me quickly the highest number.

LEANDER.

There is no highest, because you can always add something to
the highest; human intelligence knows no bounds in this respect.

KING.

But in truth it is a remarkable thing, this human mind.

HINZE.

You must get disgusted with being a fool here.