On July 31, the Monday after the publication of my remarks on my 666 correspondent, I found _three_ notes in separate envelopes, addressed to me at "7A, University College." When I saw the three new digits I was taken rhythmopoetic, as follows--
Here's the Doctor again with his figs, and by Heavens! He was always at sixes, and now he's at sevens.
To understand this fully the reader must know that the greater part of Apocalyptic interpretation has long been condensed, in my mind, into the Turkish street-cry--In the { 216} name of the Prophet! figs! I make a few extracts. The reader will observe that Dr. Thorn grumbles at his _private_ letters being _publicly_ ridiculed. A man was summoned for a glutolactic assault; he complained of the publication of his proceeding: I kicked etc. _in confidence_, he said.
"After reading your last, which tries in every way to hold me up to public ridicule for daring to write you privately ['that you would be d----d,' omitted by accident] one would say, Why have anything to do with such a testy person? [Wrong word; no testy person can manage cool and consecutive ridicule. Quære, what is this word? Is it anything but a corruption of the obsolete word _tetchy_ of the same meaning? Some think _touchy_ is our modern form of _tetchy_, which I greatly doubt]. My answer is, the poor man is lamentably ignorant; he is not only so, but 'out of the way' [quite true; my readers know me by this time for an out-of-the-way person. What other could tackle my squad of paradoxers? What other would undertake the job?] Can he be brought back and form one of those who in Ezekiel 37 ch. have the Spirit breathed into them and live.... Have I any other feeling towards you except that of peace and goodwill? [Not to your distinct knowledge; but in all those who send people to 'the other place' for contempt of their interpretations, there is a lurking wish which is father to the thought; 'you _will_ be d----d' and 'you _be_ d--d' are Siamese twins]. Of course your sneer at 666 brought plain words; but when men meddle with what they do not understand (not having the double _Vahu_) they must be dealt with faithfully by those who do.... [They must; which justifies the Budget of Paradoxes: but no occasion to send them anywhere; no preachee and floggee too, as the negro said]. Many will find the text Prov. i. 26 fully realized. [All this contains distinct assumption of a right 'of course' to declare accursed those who do not respect the writer's vagary].... If I could but get the [Hebrew: A], the Ox-head, which in Old Hebrew was just the Latin Digamma, F, out { 217} of your name, and could then Thau you with the Thau of Ezekiel ix, 4, the [chi], then you would bear the number of a man! But this is too hard for me, although not so for the Lord! Jer. xxxii. 17.... And now a word: is ridicule the right thing in so solemn a matter as the discussion of Holy Writ? [Is food for ridicule the right thing? Did I discuss Holy Writ? I did not: I concussed profane scribble. Even the Doctor did not _discuss_; he only enunciated and denunciated out of the mass of inferences which a mystical head has found premises for in the Bible]."
