 reason, but that he thought the chesnut not a jot worse for the adventure -
and that he held a good chesnut worth stooping for. - But this incident,
trifling as it was, wrought differently in Phutatorius's head: He considered
this act of Yorick's, in getting off his chair, and picking up the chesnut, as a
plain acknowledgment in him, that the chesnut was originally his, - and in
course, that it must have been the owner of the chesnut, and no one else, who
could have plaid him such a prank with it: What greatly confirmed him in this
opinion, was this, that the table being parallelogramical and very narrow, it
afforded a fair opportunity for Yorick, who sat directly overagainst
Phutatorius, of slipping the chesnut in - and consequently that he did it. The
look of something more than suspicion, which Phutatorius cast full upon Yorick
as these thoughts arose, too evidently spoke his opinion - and as Phutatorius
was naturally supposed to know more of the matter than any person besides, his
opinion at once became the general one; - and for a reason very different from
any which have been yet given - in a little time it was put out of all manner of
dispute.
    When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this sublunary
world - the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of a substance, naturally
takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see what is the cause and first spring of
them - The search was not long in this instance.
    It was well known that Yorick had never a good opinion of the treatise which
Phutatorius had wrote de Concubinis retinendis, as a thing which he feared had
done hurt in the world - and 'twas easily found out, that there was a mystical
meaning in Yorick's prank - and that his chucking the chesnut hot into
Phutatorius's * * * - * * * * *, was a sarcastical fling at his book - the
doctrines of which, they said, had inflamed many an honest man in the same
place.
    This conceit awaken'd Somnolentus - made Agelastes smile - and if you can
recollect the precise look and air of a man's face intent in finding out a
riddle - it threw Gastriphere's into that form - and in short was thought by
many to be a master-stroke of arch-wit.
    This, as the reader has seen from one end to the other, was as groundless as
the dreams of philosophy: Yorick, no doubt, as Shakespear said of his ancestor -
»was a man
