hear nor see. Tom-Jim-Jack had got into a princely carriage. The

tavern-keeper had seen him. It appeared so extraordinary that the sailor

should sit by the lady that it made Ursus circumspect. The caprices of

those in high life ought to be sacred to the lower orders. The reptiles

called the poor had best squat in their holes when they see anything out

of the way. Quiescence is a power. Shut your eyes, if you have not the

luck to be blind; stop up your ears, if you have not the good fortune to

be deaf; paralyze your tongue, if you have not the perfection of being

mute. The great do what they like, the little what they can. Let the

unknown pass unnoticed. Do not importune mythology. Do not interrogate

appearances. Have a profound respect for idols. Do not let us direct our

gossiping towards the lessenings or increasings which take place in

superior regions, of the motives of which we are ignorant. Such things

are mostly optical delusions to us inferior creatures. Metamorphoses are

the business of the gods: the transformations and the contingent

disorders of great persons who float above us are clouds impossible to

comprehend and perilous to study. Too much attention irritates the

Olympians engaged in their gyrations of amusement or fancy; and a

thunderbolt may teach you that the bull you are too curiously examining

is Jupiter. Do not lift the folds of the stone-coloured mantles of those

terrible powers. Indifference is intelligence. Do not stir, and you will

be safe. Feign death, and they will not kill you. Therein lies the

wisdom of the insect. Ursus practised it.

The tavern-keeper, who was puzzled as well, questioned Ursus one day.

Do you observe that Tom-Jim-Jack never comes here now!"

The Man Who Laughs