y coincided,
though they both ran down the theory as highly detrimental to the best
interests of man.

The discussion raged for some time on the question whether man was a
carnivorous or frugivorous animal.

"I am no anatomist," said Mr. Jenkison, "and cannot decide where doctors
disagree; in the meantime, I conclude that man is omnivorous, and on
that conclusion I act."

"Your conclusion is truly orthodox," said the Reverend Doctor Gaster;
"indeed, the loaves and fishes are typical of a mixed diet; and the
practise of the church in all ages shows----"

"That it never loses sight of the loaves and fishes," said Mr. Escot.

"It never loses sight of any point of sound doctrine," said the reverend
doctor.

The coachman now informed them their time was elapsed.

"You will allow," said Mr. Foster, as soon as they were again in motion,
"that the wild man of the woods could not transport himself over two
hundred miles of forest with as much facility as one of these vehicles
transports you and me."

"I am certain," said Mr. Escot, "that a wild man can travel an immense
distance without fatigue; but what is the advantage of locomotion? The
wild man is happy in one spot, and there he remains; the civilised man
is wretched in every place he happens to be in, and then congratulates
himself on being accommodated with a machine that will whirl him to
another, where he will be just as miserable as ever."

_II.--The Squire and his Guests_

Squire Headlong, in the meanwhile, was superintending operations in four
scenes of action at the Hall--the cellar, the library, the
picture-gallery, and the dining-room-preparing for the reception of his
philosophical visitors. His myrmidon on this occasion was a little,
red-nosed butler, who waddled about the house after his master, while
the latter bounced from room to room like a cracker. Multitudes of
packages had arrived by land and water, from London, and Liverpool, and
Chester, and Manchester, and various parts of the mountains; books,
wine, cheese, mathematical instruments, turkeys, figs, soda-water,
fiddles, flutes, tea, sugar, eggs, French horns, sofas, chairs, tables,
carpets, beds, fruits, looking-glasses, nuts, drawing-books, bottled
ale, pickles, and fish sauce, patent lamps, barrels of oysters, lemons,
and jars of Portugal grapes. These, arriving in succession, and with
infinite rapidity, had been deposited at random--as the convenience of
the moment dictated--sofas in