The Arch-preposterous

“ ‘For my proposed demonstrating I must obtain, as I always do, the necessary materials from outside, which my pupils will give me by means of appliances which I have prearranged.’

“It is interesting to remark that while he was speaking, he was at the same time tapping with his left foot on a certain ‘something,’ very much like what your favorites call the famous Morse transmission apparatus—famous be it said, of course, only on the planet Earth.

“And a little later there slowly ascended from the lower part of the Hrhaharhtzaha a small something like a box, also with transparent walls, within which, as it proved later, were certain minerals, metalloids, metals, and various gases in liquid and solid states.

“Then with the aid of various appliances which were at one side of the table, he first of all, with complicated manipulation, took out from the box some what is called ‘red copper’ and placed it on the mentioned plate, and then said:

“ ‘This metal is a definite planetary crystallization and is one of the densities required for the said stability in the process called the Common-system-harmonious-movement. It is a formation from preceding processes of the action of the parts of the Omnipresent-Okidanokh; and at the present moment I wish to allow the subsequent transformation of this metal to proceed artificially and acceleratedly by means of the peculiarities of the same factors.

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