)
The fact is, we are all, and always, asleep, through our lives;
and it is only by pinching ourselves very hard that we ever come
to see, or understand, anything. At least, it is not always we who
pinch ourselves; sometimes other people pinch us; which I suppose
is very good of them,--or other things, which I suppose is very
proper of them. But it is a sad life; made up chiefly of naps and
pinches.
(Some of the audience, on this, appearing to think that the others
require pinching, the LECTURER changes the subject.)
Now, however, for once, look at a piece of marble carefully, and
think about it. You see this is one side of the fault; the other
side is down or up, nobody knows where; but, on this side, you can
trace the evidence of the dragging and tearing action. All along
the edge of this marble, the ends of the fibers of the rock are
torn, here an inch, and there half an inch, away from each other;
and you see the exact places where they fitted, before they were
torn separate: and you see the rents are now all filled up with
the sanguine paste, full of the broken pieces of the rock; the
paste itself seems to have been half melted, and partly to have
also melted the edge of the fragments it contains, and then to
have crystallized with them, and round them.
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