Chapter 31

Babbalanja Discourses In The Dark

Next day came and went; and still we onward sailed. At last, by night,
there fell a calm, becalming the water of the wide lagoon, and
becalming all the clouds in heaven, wailing the constellations. But
though our sails were useless, our paddlers plied their broad stout
blades. Thus sweeping by a rent and hoar old rock, Vee-Vee, impatient
of the calm, sprang to his crow's nest in the shark's mouth, and
seizing his conch, sounded a blast which ran in and out among the
hollows, reverberating with the echoes.

Be sure, it was startling. But more so with respect to one of our
paddlers, upon whose shoulders, elevated Vee-Vee, his balance lost,
all at once came down by the run. But the heedless little bugler
himself was most injured by the fall; his arm nearly being broken.

Some remedies applied, and the company grown composed, Babbalanja
thus:--"My lord Media, was there any human necessity for that
accident?"

"None that I know, or care to tell, Babbalanja."

"Vee-Vee," said Babbalanja, "did you fall on purpose?"

"Not I," sobbed little Vee-Vee, slinging his ailing arm in its mate.

"Woe! woe to us all, then," cried Babbalanja; "for what direful events
may be in store for us which we can not avoid."

"How now, mortal?" cried Media; "what now?"

"My lord, think of it. Minus human inducement from without, and minus
volition from within, Vee-Vee has met with an accident, which has
almost maimed him for life. Is it not terrifying to think of? Are not
all mortals exposed to similar, nay, worse calamities, ineffably
unavoidable? Woe, woe, I say, to us Mardians! Here, take my last
breath; let me give up this beggarly ghost!"

"Nay," said Media; "pause, Babbalanja. Turn it not adrift prematurely.
Let it house till midnight; the proper time for you mortals to
dissolve. But, philosopher, if you harp upon Vee-Vee's mishap, know
that it was owing to nothing but his carelessness."

"And what was that owing to, my lord?"

"To Vee-Vee himself."

"Then, my lord, what brought such a careless being into Mardi?"

"A long course of generations. He's some one's great-great-grandson,
doubtless; who was great-great-grandson to some one else; who also had
grandsires."

"Many thanks then to your highness; for you establish the doctrine of
Philosophical Necessity."

"No. I establish nothing; I but answer your questions."

"All one, my lord: you are a Necessitarian; in other words, you hold
that every thing takes place through absolute