of themselves, to suggest the notion of a man in the
interior. A few more imperceptible steps lead
us, finally, to the result. The Automaton plays
with his left arm, because under no other circumstances
could the man within play with his right—a
desideratum of course. Let us, for example,
imagine the Automaton to play with his right arm.
To reach the machinery which moves the arm, and which
we have before explained to lie just beneath the shoulder,
it would be necessary for the man within either to
use his right arm in an exceedingly painful and awkward
position, (viz. brought up close to his body and tightly
compressed between his body and the side of the Automaton,)
or else to use his left arm brought across his breast.
In neither case could he act with the requisite ease
or precision. On the contrary, the Automaton playing,
as it actually does, with the left arm, all difficulties
vanish. The right arm of the man within is brought
across his breast, and his right fingers act, without
any constraint, upon tile machinery in the shoulder
of the figure.
We do not believe that any reasonable objections can
be urged against this solution of the Automaton Chess-Player.
~~~ End of Text ~~~
======
OINOS. Pardon, Agathos, the weakness of a spirit
new-fledged with immortality!
AGATHOS. You have spoken nothing, my Oinos, for
which pardon is to be demanded. Not even here
is knowledge thing of intuition. For wisdom,
ask of the angels freely, that it may be given!
OINOS. But in this existence, I dreamed that
I should be at once cognizant of all things, and thus
at once be happy in being cognizant of all.
AGATHOS. Ah, not in knowledge is happiness, but
in the acquisition of knowledge! In for ever
knowing, we are for ever blessed; but to know all
were the curse of a fiend.
OINOS. But does not The Most High know all?
AGATHOS. That (since he is The Most Happy) must
be still the one thing unknown even to Him.
OINOS. But, since we grow hourly in knowledge,
must not at last all things be known?
AGATHOS. Look down into the abysmal distances!
— attempt to force the gaze down the multitudinous
vistas of the stars, as we sweep slowly through them
thus — and thus — and thus!
Even the spiritual vision, is it not at all points
arrested by the continuous golden walls of the universe?
— the walls of the myriads of the shining
bodies that mere number has appeared to blend into
unity?
OINOS. I clearly perceive that the infinity of
matter is no dream.
AGATHOS. There are no dreams in Aidenn —
but it is here whispered that, of this infinity of
matter, the sole purpose is to afford infinite springs,
at which the soul may allay the thirst to know, which
is for ever unquenchable within it — since
to quench it, would be to extinguish the soul’s
self. Question me then, my Oinos, freely and
without fear. Come! we will leave to the left
the loud harmony of the Pleiades, and swoop outward
from the throne into the starry meadows beyond Orion,
where, for pansies and violets, and heart’s —
ease, are the beds of the triplicate and triple —
tinted suns.
