As we have just observed, he abused himself at times; but there were times also when he rendered himself justice.
One day, in one of these allocutions addressed to himself, he was heard to cry out, "I have studied vegetation in all its mysteries--in the stalk, in the bud, in the sepal, in the stamen, in the carpel, in the ovule, in the spore, in the theca, and in the apothecium.

I have thoroughly sifted chromatics, osmosy, and chymosy--that is to say, the formation of colours, of smell, and of taste." There was something fatuous, doubtless, in this certificate which Ursus gave to Ursus; but let those who have not thoroughly sifted chromatics, osmosy, and chymosy cast the first stone at him.
Fortunately Ursus had never gone into the Low Countries; there they would certainly have weighed him, to ascertain whether he was of the normal weight, above or below which a man is a sorcerer.

In Holland this weight was sagely fixed by law.

Nothing was simpler or more ingenious.
It was a clear test.

They put you in a scale, and the evidence was conclusive if you broke the equilibrium.