n Burgundy, perhaps
is, as a vulgar proverb. Spinoza[16] says it was a jenny ass, and that a
man would not have been so foolish; but whether the compliment is paid to
human or to masculine character does not appear--perhaps to both in one.
The story _told_ about the famous paradox is very curious. The Queen of
France, Joanna or Jeanne, was in the habit of sewing her lovers up in
sacks, and throwing them into the Seine; not for blabbing, but that they
might not blab--certainly the safer plan. Buridan was exempted, and, in
gratitude, invented the sophism. What it has to do with the matter {38} has
never been explained. Assuredly _qui facit per alium facit per se_ will
convict Buridan of prating. The argument is as follows, and is seldom told
in full. Buridan was for free-will--that is, will which determines conduct,
let motives be ever so evenly balanced. An ass is _equally_ pressed by
hunger and by thirst; a bundle of hay is on one side, a pail of water on
the other. Surely, you will say, he will not be ass enough to die for want
of food or drink; he will then make a choice--that is, will choose between
alternatives of equal force. The problem became famous in the schools; some
allowed the poor donkey to die of indecision; some denied the possibility
of the balance, which was no answer at all.

MICHAEL SCOTT'S DEVILS.

The following question is more difficult, and involves free-will to all who
answer--"Which you please." If the northern hemisphere were land, and all
the southern hemisphere water, ought we to call the northern hemisphere an
island, or the southern hemisphere a lake? Both the questions would be good
exercises for paradoxers who must be kept employed, like Michael
Scott's[17] devils. The wizard {39} knew nothing about squaring the circle,
etc., so he set them to make ropes out of sea sand, which puzzled them.
Stupid devils; much of our glass is sea sand, and it makes beautiful
thread. Had Michael set them to square the circle or to find a perpetual
motion, he would have done his work much better. But all this is
conjecture: who knows that I have not hit on the very plan he adopted?
Perhaps the whole race of paradoxers on hopeless subjects are Michael's
subordinates, condemned to transmigration after transmigration, until their
task is done.

The above was not a bad guess. A little after the time when the famous
Pascal papers[18] were produced, I came into possession of a correspondence
which, but for