"What do you think _now_?" asked James, a weak-minded scintillation of triumph in his eye.
William was evidently seriously offended; facts which contradict carefully-weighed logic, flawless in all other respects, are always irritating to the thoughtful. Men of science will indorse this.
"Hurrm!" he said at last; "your Universe does exist--in a way; and the globe you call 'Terra' does exist--in a way. But the highly objectionable creatures on it don't seem too comfortable; in fact, a more ridiculous, calamitous, disastrous, pitiful, gruesome, repulsive muddle than they make of it I could not possibly conceive!"
"But they have _some_ reasonable qualities?" argued James.
"A few," said William. "Those taught them by the conduct of what you call the lower animals. _I_ know what's principally wrong with them--they _think_, and _do things_, too much."
"Well, they are, perhaps, too much given to thinking and doing things. I admit that they make many mistakes, but I _do_ protest that they _mean well_--that their theories are, as a whole, in the right direction--that they have a solid, genuine admiration for good aims and great deeds, and reward such merits when conspicuously shown by any among them."
"Oh, come," said James; "you _must_ admit that humanity's rewards are, as a rule, conferred on those who do the greatest services to humanity."
"From _my_ point of view, yes!" said William. "Let's have a game!" he said, suddenly.
"A game?" said James, taken aback by such a proposition from the cynical and severe William.
"Yes," said the latter. "Let us put this point of yours to the test. Let you and me select, each, a specimen of humanity from among this herd, each of us choosing the specimen which he deems most likely to obtain the highest praises and rewards of humanity; let us choose our specimens as babies, and watch them through their subsequent careers--eh?"
"Let's have a bet on it, like your humans do with insurance companies about the length of their lives," said William. "I will bet you--let's see--I'll bet you that comet against that little star over there in the constellation like a saucepan. The comet's more showy, and apparently better value; so that will please _you_ best: and you won't notice its flimsiness as compared with the greater solidity of the little star."
