Here are ship-captains, criminals, poets, men of science, peers, peasants, political economists, and representatives of dozens of degrees.

The object of the collection is to illustrate the natural inequality of man, and the failure of our artificial inequality to correspond with it." "It seems to me a sort of infernal collection for the upsetting of people's ideas," said Erskine.

"You ought to label it 'A Portfolio of Paradoxes.'" "In a rational state of society they would be paradoxes; but now the time gives them proof--like Hamlet's paradox.

It is, however, a collection of facts; and I will give no fanciful name to it.

You dislike figures, don't you ?" "Unless they are by Phidias, yes." "Here are a few, not by Phidias.