Page:Nightmare Abbey (1818).djvu/86

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NIGHTMARE ABBEY.
75

taking for granted some two assertions which cannot be proved, from the union of these two assumed truths produces a third assumption, and so on in infinite series, to the unspeakable benefit of the human intellect. The beauty of this process is, that at every step it strikes out into two branches, in a compound ratio of ramification; so that you are perfectly sure of losing your way, and keeping your mind in perfect health by the perpetual exercise of an interminable quest: and, for these reasons, I have christened my eldest son Emanuel Kant Flosky.

The Reverend Mr. Larynx.

Nothing can be more luminous.

The Honorable Mr. Listless.

And what has all that to do with Dante, and the blue devils?