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 ¬continued ever since?" — " Not exactly," an- swered Morven, "but, if possible, worse; just as a dropsical patient fills in the proportion of what he drinks. — The subject is most interest- ing and important. — The English, from my father's account, must be the wisest of mankind, and, though the inhabitants of another world, their wisdom, through you, may direct us." ¬" Wisdom," I answered, " in the pure abstract, can hardly be brought to bear upon human con- duct. — There must be some direct experience, or at least some analogy, to give it effect. — Upon this subject there is neither. — You might as well set yourself to consider what the inha- bitants of the moon, which belongs alike to both of us, would probably think of your condition ; or those of Jupiter, or Saturn, or. of the seven stars that form the Pleiades, if they are inha- bited, and if not, you must be handed on for an opinion to the planets which probably sur- round them, for England cannot possibly assist you in a case which has no reference to her own ¬govern- ¬