Cobwebs from an Empty Skull

An old gentleman sat down, one day, upon an acorn, and finding it a verycomfortable seat, went soundly to sleep. The warmth of his body caused the acornto germinate, and it grew so rapidly, that when the sleeper awoke he found himselfsitting in the fork of an oak, sixty feet from the ground."Ah!" said he, "I am fond of having an extended view of any landscape whichhappens to please my fancy; but this one does not seem to possess that merit. Ithink I will go home."It is easier to say go home than to go."Well, well!" he resumed, "if I cannot compel circumstances to my will, I can at leastadapt my will to circumstances. I decide to remain. 'Life'-as a certain eminentphilosopher in England wilt say, whenever there shall be an England to say it in-'isthe definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous andsuccessive, in correspondence with external co-existences and sequences.' I have,