Page:Carroll - Euclid and His Modern Rivals.djvu/220

182 Nie. The final list, was it? Well, ask your friend whether, since the drawing up of that list, any addition has been made: he will say 'Nobody has been added.'

Min. Quite so.

Nie. You do not understand. Nobody—Niemand—see you not?

Min. What? You mean—

Nie. (solemnly) I do, my friend. I have been added to it!

Min. (bowing) The Committee are highly honoured, I am sure.

Nie. So they ought to be, considering that I am a more distinguished mathematician than Newton himself, and that my Manual is better known than Euclid's! Excuse my self-glorification, but any moralist will tell you that I—I alone among men—ought to praise myself.

Min. (thoughtfully) True, true. But all this is word-juggling—a most misleading analogy. However, as you now appear in a new character, you must at least have a new name!

Nie. (proudly) Call me Nostradamus!

[''Even as he utters the mystic name, the air grows dense around him, and gradually crystallizes into living forms. Enter a phantasmic procession, grouped about a banner, on which is emblazoned in letters of gold the title '.' Foremost in the line marches ', carrying his unfinished 'Scheme for lighting and warming Rome'; while among the crowd which follow him may be noticed—', President of the 'Association for raising the position of Members of ''