The curator of sound was too much abashed for an apologetic reply; and the Dosch requested Mr. Welson to say, that for their evening’s entertainment he would relate the circumstances that placed the “dulcetina” in the hands of Captain Greenwood for disposal.
After the evening song of salutation, on the day following the members of the corps’ visit to the school of the “ninyetas” they accepted the prætor’s invitation to join with his family in listening to the recital of the Dosch, which we transcribe.
During the ravages of the “coast” and yellow fever in Rio Janeiro in the year 18—, it made sad havoc among our provincial offshoots of Brazilian parentage, owing to a lack of means for provisionary precautions, so that I felt it a special duty and privilege devolving upon me to give my personal supervision for its arrest. The joint efforts of our Manatitlan corps of censors and nurses soon succeeded in rescuing our adherents from the deadly influence of the pestilence, affording us leisure to render succoring advice to the good of the Giga race. Among the foreigners, one had attracted my particular attention from the fact that he studiously avoided companionship with others, beyond the enforced necessities required for business relations. This, together with other singularities pertaining to his deportment, attracted a desire for an auramental investigation of the cause of his non-alliance with the herd. My first discovery after entering into auricular communication with his thoughts was, that his preference for communion with himself arose from a natural repugnance for association with men in form, whose instincts were degraded below the bestial capacity of the lower orders of animality. This, I soon learned, had its origin from the sympathetic impression of the animus of goodness revealed in desire. While studying his characteristics, as a key for after-thought substitution, I found that the intrusion of an indelicate impression from his own instinctive propensities, or in word reflection from others, gave him acute pain. Or when from natural promptings, induced from a genial disposition, he had been influenced to listen to or relate a humorous story, strongly tinctured with the passionate rulings of instinctive induction, for days afterwards he would subject himself to remorseful reproof. These sensitive traits, indicating a desire for the attainment of instinctive purity, although rare in the associations of Giga men, are by no means singular or unrealistic with the conceptions of the thoughtful. But a lack of discrimination in society association, subject to the arbitrary rule of money, blunts the perceptions of intelligent refinement, under the impress of the selfish policy it imposes for the successful enlistment of patronage. Vulgarity impairs the powers of inclination for refined perception, in like manner and degree with the action of foul odors upon the sense of smell, which renders it obtuse for the delicate appreciation of a well selected bouquet.