In Considering how the great yellow vulture of Northern Africa, for instance, sits two mile up, “le bec au vent” (L. P. Mouillard, Paris, 1881, “L’Empire de l’Air”), on an invisible column [of Condensation Under] spying the smaller appetites a half, that scan the ground (Matthew, xxiv, 28), AND HOW MANKIND WILL PRESENTLY FLY; how Sound flies under with speed predetermined; I soon found that the Authorities for the first proceeding were nowhere, so that I had no chance to understand them, and, being unable to understand the Authorities for the second, found at last that the Authorities were wrong!

Hearing no responses from I must substitute the better explanation called for, p. 18, myself! A unit at the bottom of a vertical tube is artificially doubled under an imaginary cap. The weight above is always the column. The double unit motor is ^I _II , p. 9 [Hold the book upright]. The double unit moved is (virtually) II and (III, which must be, out of the way of the cap). The effect, Sound, goes up two steps to the new head of condensation ( ^III _IV ) cap. The analysis, dropping two 2 factors, “2 (because this end is stationary) × 2 (the live pressure),” p. 10, halves the arrow-head v; and its V, therefore, on half that computed, pp. 11, 12 = ½ our “two steps” V which remains 1126.4 [clipped a little, “down to 1120 or under,” by my AIR SOUND FRICTION, p. 17] instead of 944 (which Newton proved (?), Laplace, approving, failed how conspicuously to correct! pp. 4, 15, 16, 18) feet a second.

If in d v, p. 10, the parenthesis changed also becomes (2), 1/V = 1/√gH, Newtonian Sound speed, interpretable? (!)

And have not been through these arithmetical and emotional experiences without having suffered almost want, going about with my feet bare in my shoes through great holes in my socks nineteen days without a cent in my pocket, July 12th to July 31st last; bitterly treated by my friends for whom in worse necessity I had denied my own; refused by my sisters whom I love, my sister (ill) Egality having sailed abroad without leaving me her direction or address, and my sister Charity in Egality’s house letting down pears from a high window by a string, which I didn’t want and only took out of politeness, in a brown paper bag which wouldn’t go through the opening of the (chained) door, Non quo more piris vesci Calaber jubet hospes!

My first eighteen pages cost three years labor, and were rewritten between twenty-five and fifty times; one word I waited twenty years for, donned, The Life Romance, 155; another, hunted through the Public Library encyclopædias to the Armenian corner shop above the Common, Hagop Bogigian’s where I found it, broidered, on a prayer rug, p. 36. My designs were instantaneous Suggestions, perfect; opposite my profile count — excuse me! I didn’t see when I had drawn, and put in the number — 64 little areas (!) why not from Heaven, my dear mother’s or little brother’s, too sweet to live, how proud and playful! loving! wise! a born geometer (?) which in Boston Cambridge “the name implies”. And the united charge of my two books wrapped separate, for the big mail box — I have just noticed —, 34 + 30, 64 ounces (!)

If there be ART in anything I have inked the ART will live; if there be Truth it will not perish; if there be Science some day soon it will be Ever Unforgotten; if there be Love, above all ART, and Truth, and Science, Love is the One Redemption of the earth!

The Fault with gold is, that We Haven’t; it has no rival for a party honestly to prefer, its drawback being, it is not invariable. The Perfect Standard must combine (respect) all valuations, of bread, beef, land, labor, literary effort, sun-gold, moon-silver, planet-beauty, as the centre of gravity of every particle (in the system)’s every (changed) position; be Corrected (monthly) by the Board of Statistical Average Computers, each coin with gold grains stamped how many, and all “dollars” redeemable, which would protect from presentation, in the Last Standard, uncoined without charge. Details, expenses, a supreme court, establishment (costless because beyond all computation valuable economically and morally and full of employment to the people), Independence (of political gyroscopy), a slow moving cycle keeping the balance through the centuries A Head, — of course! Given the quantities and sale prices of the commodities, and Reserve Statistics, I could write the complex fractional Corrective.

My best verses are — I know it, and went twice out, spring mornings, at four o’clock, to see (reality) what I had written — four, p. 49, beginning, “Sleep, love, the pride of day.” It is PRIMARY METAPHOR of all times and places, Shakespearian and classic, Dian A Huntress; My Romance is MARY MET ^{AND WOULD} _{HAVE DIED F} OR, equally world-real, unlocal, human-true! If I throb in sympathy with every Living Sin I cannot help it; the trees have it, creaking above (your tent) in sleepy forest, the peaks which glitter, “Do not dare us!”, the avalanches sifting (I have listened, lost) through the night their opposite “beware, be ware, we are but helpless!” — feeling the heartbeats of somehow Delilah (22) without contrition, the care of Samson hinting Departure — Read it! — to the boy.

Unchosen by my University to teach her English and mathematics I yet can measure our pensive mother; pour melted iron into her mould; cajole your figures into either Lying, p. 16, or everyelsewhere (?), Telling Truth. And if, my dear two hundred friends every one who have just taken, from my own hands, three hundred (and — how many?) copies, I’ve said too much, you shouldn’t have so much encouraged! — my main object being still, believe me! to thicken the back and bring the Y in DISCOVERY, full-forked, out, round, upon.

Price of this book sent, postage (or express) paid, to any address,
One dollar.

From the back of: My Soundspeed Discovery, Expanding into a Constructive Medley of Wit and Song; being a Four Years After-Inflorescence of The Life-Romance of an Algebraist, by George Winslow Pierce. Boston: By the Author, 1895 (stated 2nd edition).

A sampling of Stockton’s stories:

• A Tale of Negative Gravity
• Asaph
• “His Wife’s Deceased Sister”
• The Lady, or the Tiger?
• The Remarkable Wreck of the “Thomas Hyke”
• Old Pipes and the Dryad
• The Transferred Ghost
• “The Philosophy of Relative Existences”
• A Piece of Red Calico

It is related in the San Francisco Chronicle that, four miles from Farmington, in California, resides a well-to-do rancher named Morrow. He has a little 4-year-old son, Vernie, who usually has about everything he takes a fancy to. Among the things he fancies an which he has is a large, matronly cat that has been brought up to make due provisions for herself and her progeny. Jet is this cat’s name and jet her color. Jet and Vernie are great friends, and they are frequently seen roaming around the premises together when Jet’s time is not taken up with her own private affairs. Jet has always borne the reputation of being “sure death” to any rats or ground squirrels. A short time ago, in exploring the barns, granaries, and barn yard, Vernie came upon a nest of young rats, which he immediately took up an carried to the house, and placed carefully in a drawer in his mother’s sewing machine. Mrs. Morrow objected to the nest of rats being in the drawer, and took them out to drown them, when Vernie insisted he must keep one, and begged so hard for it that his mother gave it to him. In a short time he laid it down and forgot about it. Then Jet came along and took up the young rat and carried it to her bed as a companion for her one kitten and a solace to her own mind. Strange as it may appear, the young rat made himself at home, derived his sustenance from the same source as the kitten, received the same maternal attention from Jet, who seemed to forget that she was nursing her legitimate prey, to the great delight of Vernie and the surprise of the older heads about the neighborhood. This strange state of affairs continued for two or three weeks, when the baby rat strayed from Jet’s protection, and met his death at the claws of another cat not so merciful as Jet. Strange as this may appear, it is a fact, and can be verified by several persons who witnessed this peculiar and happy family.