After we had finished our repast, various subjects of speculation were again introduced and discussed, greatly to my amusement.  Wigurd displayed his usual ingenuity and ardour, and baffled all his antagonists by his vehemence and fluency.  He had two great principles by which he tested the good or evil of every thing; and there were few questions in which he could not avail himself of one or the other.  These were, general utility and truth.

By a skilful use of these weapons of controversy, he could attack or defend with equal success.  If any custom or institution which he had denounced, was justified by his adversaries, on the ground of its expediency, he immediately retorted on them its repugnancy to sincerity, truth, and unsophisticated nature; and if they, at any time, resorted to a similar justification for our natural feelings and propensities, he triumphantly showed that they were inimical to the public good.  Thus, he condemned gratitude as a sentiment calculated to weaken the sense of justice, and to substitute feeling for reason.  He, on the other hand, proscribed the little forms and courtesies, which are either founded in convenience, or give a grace and sweetness to social intercourse, as a direct violation of honest nature, and therefore odious and mean.  He thus was able to silence every opponent.  I was very desirous of hearing the Brahmin’s opinion; but, while he evidently was not convinced by our host’s language, he declined engaging in any controversy.

After we retired, my friend told me that Wigurd was a good man in the main, though he had been as much hated by some as if his conduct had been immoral, instead of his opinions merely being singular.  “He not long ago,” added the Brahmin “wrote a book against marriage, and soon afterwards wedded, in due form, the lady you saw at his table.  She holds as strange tenets as he, which she supports with as much zeal, and almost as much ability.  But I predict that the popularity of their doctrines will not last; and if ever you visit the moon again, you will find that their glory, now at its height, like the ephemeral fashions of the earth, will have passed away.”

CHAPTER VIII.

A celebrated physician:  his ingenious theories in physics:  his mechanical inventions—­The feather-hunting Glonglim.

On returning to our lodgings, we, acting under the influence of long habit, went to bed, though half the family were up, and engaged in their ordinary employments.  One consequence of the length of the days and nights here is, that every household is commonly divided into two parts, which watch and sleep by turns:  nor have they any uniformity in their meals, except in particular families, which are regulated by clocks and time-pieces.  The vulgar have no means of measuring smaller portions of time than a day or night, (each equal to a fortnight with us,) except by observing the apparent motion