Mr Cranium fell into a profound reverie: emerging from which, he said, looking Squire Headlong full in the face, "Do you think Mr Escot would give me that skull?" "Skull!" said Squire Headlong. "Yes," said Mr Cranium, "the skull of Cadwallader." "To be sure he will," said the squire. "Ascertain the point," said Mr Cranium. "How can you doubt it?" said the squire. "I simply know," said Mr Cranium, "that if it were once in my possession, I would not part with it for any acquisition on earth, much less for a wife. I have had one: and, as marriage has been compared to a pill, I can very safely assert that _one is a dose_; and my reason for thinking that he will not part with it is, that its extraordinary magnitude tends to support his system, as much as its very marked protuberances tend to support mine; and you know his own system is of all things the dearest to every man of liberal thinking and a philosophical tendency." The Squire flew over to Mr Escot. "I told you," said he, "I would settle him: but there is a very hard condition attached to his compliance." "I submit to it," said Mr Escot, "be it what it may." "Nothing less," said Squire Headlong, "than the absolute and unconditional surrender of the skull of Cadwallader." "I resign it," said Mr Escot. "The skull is yours," said the squire, skipping over to Mr Cranium. "I am perfectly satisfied," said Mr Cranium. "The lady is yours," said the squire, skipping back to Mr Escot. "I am the happiest man alive," said Mr Escot. "Come," said the squire, "then there is an amelioration in the state of the sensitive man." "A slight oscillation of good in the instance of a solitary individual," answered Mr Escot, "by no means affects the solidity of my opinions concerning the general deterioration of the civilised world; which when I can be induced to contemplate with feelings of satisfaction, I doubt not but that I may be persuaded _to be in love with tortures, and to think charitably of the rack_[14.1]." Saying these words, he flew off as nimbly as Squire Headlong himself, to impart the happy intelligence to his beautiful Cephalis. Mr Cranium now walked up to Mr Panscope, to condole with him on the disappointment of their mutual hopes. Mr Panscope begged him not to distress himself on the subject, observing, that the monotonous system of female education brought every individual of the sex to so remarkable an approximation of similarity, that no wise man would suffer himself to be annoyed by a loss so easily repaired; and that there was much truth, though not much elegance, in a remark which he had heard made on a similar occasion by a post-captain of his acquaintance, "that there never was a fish taken out of the sea, but left another as good behind."