The Philosopher in the Clearing

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...in the September, 1896, number of the Strand, an English magazine, which showed a portrait in every facet of a portion of a beetle's eye, 198 in number. The eye was first of all dissected and placed on the stage of the instrument. The portrait, --on glass, and, of course, exceedingly small--was then interposed, and the photograph taken through the microscope. The illustration gives, as I have said, 198 clear and distinct photographs of a man. Now, assuming a moderate estimate of only 6,000 facets in the eye of my pertinacious friend, he must have seen, and fancied that he was walking over, six thousand noses of six thousand philosophers at one and the same time! What a stupendous notion of his own importance and agility such a vision must have given that fly! Is it any wonder that he laughed to scorn all my efforts to banish him, and was not a bit frightened at seeing six thousand philosophic hands making a united dash at his devoted head? You will observe from this that an exaggerated estimate of the value of other people, does not always tend to give us a lower opinion of ourselves, but just the contrary. And the other people, after all, may not be quite so important as we imagine them to be. It was only one philosopher that the fly had to elude and evade, whereas he must have fancied that he was sporting with six thousand; and if I had hit him, as he richly deserved to have been hit, he would have said, ah! well! it's no great thing to kill a poor little fly, when the odds are six thousand to one against him, and so would have died happy and contented. A great deal depends on the temper we happen to be in at the time when looking at ithers, and this has to be taken into consideration in forming our judgment of them. What...