ng been condensed, in my mind, into the
Turkish street-cry--In the {216} name of the Prophet! figs! I make a few
extracts. The reader will observe that Dr. Thorn grumbles at his _private_
letters being _publicly_ ridiculed. A man was summoned for a glutolactic
assault; he complained of the publication of his proceeding: I kicked etc.
_in confidence_, he said.

"After reading your last, which tries in every way to hold me up to public
ridicule for daring to write you privately ['that you would be d----d,'
omitted by accident] one would say, Why have anything to do with such a
testy person? [Wrong word; no testy person can manage cool and consecutive
ridicule. Quaere, what is this word? Is it anything but a corruption of the
obsolete word _tetchy_ of the same meaning? Some think _touchy_ is our
modern form of _tetchy_, which I greatly doubt]. My answer is, the poor man
is lamentably ignorant; he is not only so, but 'out of the way' [quite
true; my readers know me by this time for an out-of-the-way person. What
other could tackle my squad of paradoxers? What other would undertake the
job?] Can he be brought back and form one of those who in Ezekiel 37 ch.
have the Spirit breathed into them and live.... Have I any other feeling
towards you except that of peace and goodwill? [Not to your distinct
knowledge; but in all those who send people to 'the other place' for
contempt of their interpretations, there is a lurking wish which is father
to the thought; 'you _will_ be d----d' and 'you _be_ d--d' are Siamese
twins]. Of course your sneer at 666 brought plain words; but when men
meddle with what they do not understand (not having the double _Vahu_) they
must be dealt with faithfully by those who do.... [They must; which
justifies the Budget of Paradoxes: but no occasion to send them anywhere;
no preachee and floggee too, as the negro said]. Many will find the text
Prov. i. 26 fully realized. [All this contains distinct assumption of a
right 'of course' to declare accursed those who do not respect the writer's
vagary].... If I could but get the [Hebrew: A], the Ox-head, which in Old
Hebrew was just the Latin Digamma, F, out {217} of your name, and could
then Thau you with the Thau of Ezekiel ix, 4, the [chi], then you would
bear the number of a man! But this is too hard for me, although not so for
the Lord! Jer. xxxii. 17.... And now a word: is ridicule the right thing in
so solemn a matter as the discussion of Holy Writ? [Is food