And pray, Sir! I have been asked by more than one--do your orthodox never fall into mistake, nor rise into absurdity? They not only do both, but they admit it of each other very freely; individually, they are convinced of sin, but not of any particular sin. There is not a syndoxer among them all but draws his line in such a way as to include among paradoxers a great many whom I should exclude altogether from this work. My worst specimens are but exaggerations of what may be found, occasionally, in the thoughts of sagacious investigators. At the end of the {364} glorious dream, we learn that there is a way to Hell from the gates of Heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction: and that this is true of other things besides Christian pilgrimage is affirmed at the end of the Budget of Paradoxes. If D'Alembert[665] had produced _enough_ of a quality to match his celebrated mistake on the chance of throwing head in two throws, he would have been in my list. If Newton had produced _enough_ to match his reception of the story that Nausicaa, Homer's Phaeacian princess, invented the celestial sphere, followed by his serious surmise that she got it from the Argonauts,--then Newton himself would have had an appearance entered for him, in spite of the _Principia_. In illustration, I may cite a few words from _Tristram Shandy_: "'A soldier,' cried my uncle Toby, interrupting the Corporal, 'is no more exempt from saying a foolish thing, Trim, than a man of letters.'--'But not so often, an' please your honor,' replied the Corporal. My uncle Toby gave a nod." I now proceed to die out. Some prefatory remarks will follow in time.[666] I shall have occasion to insist that all is not barren: I think I shall find, on casting up, that two out of five of my paradoxers are not to be utterly condemned. Among the better lot will be found all gradations of merit; at the same time, as was remarked on quite a different subject, there may be little to choose between the last of the saved and the first of the lost. The higher and better class is worthy of blame; the lower and worse class is worthy of praise. The higher men are to be reproved for not taking up things in which they could do some good: the lower men are to be commended for taking up things in which they can do no great harm. The circle problem is like Peter Peebles's lawsuit: {365} "'But, Sir, I should really spoil any cause thrust on me so hastily.'--'Ye cannot spoil it, Alan,' said my father, 'that is the very cream of the business, man,--... the case is come to that pass that Stair or Arniston could not mend it, and I don't think even you, Alan, can do it much harm.'"