A dervise was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants
suddenly met him: “You have lost a camel,” said he to the merchants.
“Indeed we have,” they replied. “Was he not blind in his right eye, and
lame in his left leg?” said the dervise. “He was,” replied the
merchants. “Had he lost a front tooth?” said the dervise. “He had,”
rejoined the merchants. “And was he not loaded with honey on one side,
and wheat on the other?” “Most certainly he was,” they replied; “and as
you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in
all probability, conduct us unto him.” “My friends,” said the dervise,
“I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him, but from you.” “A
pretty story, truly!” said the merchants, “but where are the jewels,
which formed a part of his cargo?” “I have neither seen your camel nor
your jewels,” repeated the dervise. On this, they seized his person, and
forthwith hurried him before the Cadi, where, on the strictest search,
nothing could be found upon him, nor could any evidence whatever be
adduced to convict him, either of falsehood or of theft. They were then
about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervise, with great
calmness, thus addressed the Court: “I have been much amused with your
surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions;
but I have lived long, and alone; and I can find ample scope for
observation, even in a desert. I knew that I had crossed the track of a
camel that had strayed from its owner, because I saw no mark of any
human footstep on the same route; I knew that the animal was blind in
one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its
path; and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint
impression which that particular foot had produced upon the sand; I
concluded that the animal had lost one tooth, because wherever it had
grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured in the centre of its
bite. As to that which formed the burden of the beast, the busy ants
informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies
that it was honey on the other.”
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_Science preceding Art._--When the principles of any science are become
common to all the world, these principles lead to inventions, nearly, if
not altogether similar, by different persons having no communication
with each other. A remarkable instance of this is given by Judge Story,
in his address to the Boston Mechanics’ Institute:--
“A beautiful improvement had been made in the double-speeder of the
cotton-spinning machine by one of our ingenious countrymen. The
originality of the invention was established by the most satisfactory
evidence. The defendant, however, called an Englishman as a witness, who
had been but a short time in the country, and who testified most
explicitly to the existence of a like invention in the improved
machinery in England. Against such positive proof there was much
difficulty in proceeding. The testimony, though doubted, could not be
discredited; and the trial was postponed to another term, for the
purpose of procuring evidence to rebut it. An agent was despatched to
England for this and other objects; and, upon his return, the plaintiff
was content to become nonsuited. There was no doubt that the invention
here was without any suspicion of its existence elsewhere; but the
genius of each country, almost at the same moment, accomplished,
independently, the same achievement.”
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