A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

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a different view of the case. I think I'll sing them, with your
permission."
Melick swallowed a glass of wine and then sang the following:
"'They may rail at this life: from the hour I began it
I found it a life full of kindness and bliss,
And until they can show me some happier planet,
More social and bright, I'll content me with this.
As long as the world has such lips and such eyes
As before me this moment enraptured I see,
They may say what they will of their orbs in the skies,
But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.'
"What a pity it is," continued Melick, "that the writer of this
manuscript had not the philological, theological, sociological,
geological, palaeological, ontological, ornithological, and all the
other logical attainments of yourself and the doctor! He could then
have given us a complete view of the nature of the Kosekin, morally
and physically; he could have treated of the geology of the soil, the
ethnology of the people, and could have unfolded before us a full and
comprehensive view of their philosophy and religion, and could have
crammed his manuscript with statistics. I wonder why he didn't do it
even as it was. It must have been a strong temptation."
"More," said Oxenden, with deep impressiveness, "was a simple-minded
though somewhat emotional sailor, and merely wrote in the hope that
his story might one day meet the eyes of his father. I certainly
should like to find some more accurate statements about the science,
philosophy, and religion of the Kosekin; yet, after all, such things
could not be expected."
"Why not?" said Melick; "it was easy enough for him."
"How?" asked Oxenden.
"Why, he had only to step into the British Museum, and in a couple of
hours he could have crammed up on all those points in science,
philosophy, ethnology, and theology, about which you are so anxious to
know."