To understand this fully the reader must know that the greater part of Apocalyptic interpretation has long 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 for ridicule the right thing? Did I discuss Holy Writ? I did not: I concussed profane scribble. Even the Doctor did not _discuss_; he only enunciated and denunciated out of the mass of inferences which a mystical head has found premises for in the Bible]." M 40 O 70 R 100 G 6 N 50 ---- 266 [Hebrew: t]=[chi] 400