The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE EQUINOX The Water Inspector rose jubilant, when from the body of the Court came a still small voice. “Might I respectfully suggest, your Worship, that the water in question be examined through my Microscope?” “What in thunder is a Microscope?” cried the three in chorus. “An instrument, your Worship, that I have constructed on the admitted principles of optics, to demonstrate by experience what these gentlemen are arguing about @ priori and on hearsay.” Then they both rose up against him, and cursed him. “ Unscientific balderdash!” said the Water Man, for the first time speaking respectfully of Science. “‘Blasphemous Nonsense!” said the Inhabitant, for the first time speaking respectfully of Religion. “Wait and see,” said the Judge ; for he was a just Judge. Then the Man with the Microscope explained the uses of this new and strange instrument. And the Judge patiently investigated all sources of error, and concluded in the end that the instrument was a true revealer of the secrets of the water. And he pronounced just judgment. But the others were blinded by passion and self-interest. They only quarrelled more noisily, and were finally turned out of court. But the Judge caused the Man with the Microscope to be appointed Government Analyst at £12,000 a year. Now the Water Man is the Believer, and the Inhabitant the Unbeliever. The Judge is the Agnostic—in Huxley's sense of the word; and the Man with the Microscope is the Scientific Illuminist. Curious as it may seem, all this was most carefully ex- 8