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_Poss._ Gentlemen, I affirm I have a greater curiosity than all of them.
I have an entire leaf of Noah's journal aboard the ark, that was hewen out of a porphyry pillar in Palmyra.
[_Fossile opens the case of the mummy._
_Naut._ By the formation of the muscular parts of the visage, I conjecture that this mummy is male.
_Pos._ Male, brother! I am sorry to observe your ignorance of the symetry of a human body. Do but observe the projection of the hip; besides, the bloom upon the face; 'tis a female beyond all contradiction.
_Fos._ Let us have no rash dispute, brothers; but proceed methodically----Behold the vanity of mankind! [_pointing to the mummy._]
Some Ptolemy perhaps!----
_Naut._ Who by his pyramid and pickle thought to secure to himself death immortal.
_Fos._ His pyramid, alas! is now but a wainscot case.
_Pos._ And his pickle can scarce raise him to the dignity of a collar of brawn.
_Fos._ Pardon me, Dr. Possum: The musaeum of the curious is a lasting monument. And I think it no degradation to a dead person of quality, to bear the rank of an anatomy in the learned world.
_Naut._ By your favour, Dr. Possum, a collar of brawn! I affirm, he is better to be taken inwardly than a collar of brawn.
_Fos._ An excellent medicine! he is hot in the first-degree, and exceeding powerful in some diseases of women.
_Naut._ Right, Dr. Fossile; for your Asphaltion.
_Pos._ Pice-Asphaltus, by your leave.
_Naut._ By your leave, doctor Possum, I say, Asphaltion.
_Pos._ And I positively say, Pice-Asphaltus.
_Naut._ If you had read Dioscorides or Pliny--
_Poss._ I have read Dioscorides. And I do affirm Pice-Asphaltus.
_Foss._ Be calm, Gentlemen. Both of you handle this argument with great learning, judgment, and perspicuity. For the present, I beseech you to concord, and turn your speculations on my alligator.
_Poss._ The skin is impenetrable even to a sword.
_Naut._ Dr. Possum I will show you the contrary.
[_Draws his sword._
_Poss._ In the mean time I will try the mummy with this knife, on the point of which you shall smell the pitch, and be convinc'd that it is the Pice-Asphaltus.
[_Takes up a rusty knife._
_Foss._ Hold, Sir: You will not only deface my mummy, but spoil my Roman sacrificing-knife.
Enter TOWNLEY.
_Town._ I must lure them from this experiment, or we are discover'd.
[_Aside._
[_She looks through a telescope._
What do I see! most prodigious! a star as broad as the moon in the day-time!
[_The doctors go to her._
_Poss._ Only a halo about the sun, I suppose.
_Naut._ Your suppositions, doctor, seem to be groundless. Let me make my observation.
[_Nautilus and Possum struggle to look first._
_Town._ Now for your escape:
[_To Plotwell and Underplot._
[_They run to the door, but find it lock'd._
_Underp._ What an unlucky dog I am!
_Town._ Quick. Back to your posts. Don't move, and rely upon me. I have still another artifice.
[_They run back to their places._
[_Exit Townley._
_Naut._ I can espy no celestial body but the sun.
_Poss._ Brother Nautilus, your eyes are somewhat dim; your sight is not fit for astronomical observations.
_Foss._ Is the focus of the gla.s.s right? hold gentlemen, I see it; about the bigness of Jupiter.
_Naut._ No phenomenon offers itself to my speculation.
_Poss._ Point over yonder chimney. Directly south.
_Naut._ Thitherward, begging your pardon, Dr. Possum, I affirm to be the north.
_Foss._ East.
_Poss._ South.
