418 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. him of white paper and shreds of coloured silk, pieces of tin with holes in them, spectacles and burning- glasses. When the gentleman at last spied his company, he came down and enter- tained them agreeably enough upon other subjects, and dismissed them. At another t ime Gelotes beheld the sane gentleman blow- ing up large bubbles with a tobacco -pipe out of a bowl of water, well impregnated with soap, which is a common diversion of boys. As ' the bubbles rose, he marked the little changeable colours on the surface of them with great attention, till they broke and vanished into air and water. He seemed to be very grave and solemn in this sort of recreation, and now and then smiled to see the little appearances and disappearances of colours, as the bubble grew thinner toward the top, while the watry par- ticles of it ran down along the side to the bottom, and the sur- face grew too thin and feeble to include the air, then it burst to pieces, and was lost. Well, says Gelotes to his friend, I did not think you would have carried me into the acquaintance of a madman : surely he can never be right in his senses who wastes his hours in such fooleries as these. Whatsoever good opinion I had conceived of a gentleman of your intimacy, I am amazed now that you should keep up any degree of acquaintance with him, when his reason is gone, and he is become a mere child. What are all these lit- tle scenes of sport and amusement, but proofs of the absence of his understanding ? Poor gentleman ! I pity him in his unhappy circumstances ; but I hope he has friends to take care of him under this degree of distraction. Typiger was not a little pleased to see that his project, with regard to his neighbour Gelotes, had succeeded so well ; and when he had suffered him to run on at this rate for some minutes, he interrupted him with a surprising word ; this very gentleman, says he, is the great Sir Isaac Newton, the first of philosophers, the glory of Great Britain, and renowned among the nations. You have beheld him now making these experiments over again by which he first found out the nature of light and colours, and penetrated deeper into the mysteries of them, than all mankind ever knew before him. This is the man, and these his contri- vances, upon which you so freely cast your contempt, and pro- nounce him distracted. You know not the depth of his designs, and therefore you censured them all as fooleries; whereas the learned world has esteemed them the utmost reach of human sagacity. Gelotes Was all confusion and silence. Whereupon Typiger proceeded thus; Go now and - ridicule the lawgiver of Israel, and the ceremonies of the Jewish church, which Moses taught them : Go, repeat your folly and your slanders, and laugh at these
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=