"Have a care, Azzageddi; you are far too courteous, to be civil. But
proceed."

"I obey. In kings, mollusca, and toad-stools, life is one thing and
the same. The Philosopher Dumdi pronounces it a certain febral
vibration of organic parts, operating upon the vis inertia of
unorganized matter. But Bardianna says nay. Hear him. 'Who put
together this marvelous mechanism of mine; and wound it up, to go for
three score years and ten; when it runs out, and strikes Time's hours
no more? And what is it, that daily and hourly renews, and by a
miracle, creates in me my flesh and my blood? What keeps up the
perpetual telegraphic communication between my outpost toes and
digits, and that domed grandee up aloft, my brain?--It is not I; nor
you; nor he; nor it. No; when I place my hand to that king muscle my
heart, I am appalled. I feel the great God himself at work in me. Oro
is life.'"

"And what is death?" demanded Media.

"Death, my lord!--it is the deadest of all things."



CHAPTER LX
Wherein, That Gallant Gentleman And Demi-God, King Media, Scepter In
Hand, Throws Himself Into The Breach


Sailing south from Vivenza, not far from its coast, we passed a
cluster of islets, green as new fledged grass; and like the mouths of