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A moth genus unknown by H.
G. Wells. Probably you have heard

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of Haply, not w T.
Happily the Sun, but the celebrated Happily

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the Haply of Periplaneta Haplier Haply the
entomologist. If so, you know at

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least of the great feud between Happily
and Professor Pawkins, though certain of its

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consequences may be new to you for
those of you who have not a word

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of two of explanation is necessary,
which the idle reader may go over with

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a glancing eye, if his indolence
so incline him. It is amazing how

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very widely diffused is the ignorance of
such really important matters as this Haply Pawkins

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feud. Those epoch making controversies again
that have convulsed the geological society are I

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verily believe almost entirely unknown outside the
fellowship of that body. I have heard

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men of fair general education even refer
to the great scenes at these meetings as

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vestry meeting squabbles. Yet the great
hate of the English and Scottish geologists has

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lasted now half a century, and
has left deep and abundant marks upon the

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body of the science and this Haply
Porkins business, though perhaps a more personal

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affair stirred passions as profound, if
not profounder. Your common man has no

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conception of the zeal that animates a
scientific investigator. The fury of contradiction you

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can arouse in him. It is
the odium theologicum in a new form.

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There are men, for instance,
who would gladly burn Professor Ray Lancaster at

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Smithfield for his treatment of the mollusca
in Encyclopedia, that fantastic extension of the

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cephalopods to cover terrapods. But I
wonder from Hapley and Porkins it began years

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and years ago with their revision of
the micro Lepidoptera, whatever these might be

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by Porke, in which he extinguished
a new species created by happily Haply,

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who was always Quarrelsome replied by a
stinging impeachment of the entire classification of Pawkins's

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footnote remarks on a recent revision of
Microlepidoptera Quarterly Journal, Entomological Society, eighteen

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sixty three end footnote Pawkins in his
rejoinder footnote Rejoinder to certain remarks, etc.

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Ibbid eighteen sixty four end footnote suggested
that Haply's microscope was as defective as

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his powers of observation, and called
him an irresponsible meddler. Haply was not

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a professor at that time. Happily, in his retort footnote Further Remarks,

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etc. Ibbod End footnote spoke of
blundering collectors and described as if inadvertently,

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Pawkins's revision as a miracle of ineptitude. It was a war to the knife.

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However, it would scarcely interest the
reader to detail how these two great

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men quarreled, and how the split
between them widened, until from the microlepidoptera

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they were at war upon every open
question in entomology. There were memorable occasions.

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At times the Royal Entomological Society meetings
resembled nothing so much as the Chamber

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of Deputies. On the whole,
I fancy Pawkins was nearer the truth than

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Happily, but Happily was skillful with
his rhetoric, had a turn of ridicule

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rare in a scientific man, was
endowed with vast energy, and had a

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fine sense of injury in the matter
of the extinguished species. While Pawkins was

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a man of dull presence, prosy
of speech, in shape not unlike a

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water barrel, over, conscientious with
testimonials, and suspected of jobbing museum appointments.

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So the young men gathered around happily
and applauded him. It was a

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long struggle, vicious from the beginning, and growing at last to pitiless antagonism.

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The successive turns of fortune, now
an advantage to one side, and

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now to another, now happily tormented
by some success of Pawkins, and now

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Pawkins outshone by haply belong rather to
the history of entomology than to this story.

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But in eighteen ninety one Pawkins,
whose health had been bad for some

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time, published some work upon the
mesoblast of the Death's head Moth. What

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the mesoblast of the Death's head Moth
may be does not matter a rap in

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the story. But the work was
far below his usual standard, and gave

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Happily an opening he had coveted for
years. He must have worked night and

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day to make the most of his
advantage. In an elaborate critique, he

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rent Pawkins to tatters. One can
fancy the man's disordered black hair and his

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queer dark eyes flashing as he went
for his antagonist, and Pawkins made a

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reply, halting, ineffectual, with
painful gasps of silence, and yet malignant.

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There was no mistaking his will to
wound happily, nor his incapacity to

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do so. But few of those
who heard him, I was absent from

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that meeting, realized how ill a
man was. Happily had got his opponent

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down and meant to finish him.
He followed with simply brutal attack upon Pawkins

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in the form of a paper upon
the development of moths in general, a

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paper showing evidence of the most extraordinary
amount of mental labor, and yet couch

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in a violently controversial tone. Violent
as it was an editorial note. Witnesses

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that it was modified. It must
have covered Pawkins with shame and confusion of

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face. It left no loophole.
It was murderous in argument, an utterly

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contemptuous in tone, an awful thing
for the declining years of a man's career.

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The world of entomologists waited breathlessly for
the rejoinder from Pawkins. He would

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try one, for Pawkins had always
been game, But when it came,

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it surprised them for the rejoinder of
Pawkins was to catch influenza, to proceed

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to pneumonia, and to die.
It was perhaps as effectual a reply as

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he could make under the circumstances,
and largely turned the current of feeling against

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Happily. The very people who had
most gleefully cheered on the gladiators became serious

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at the consequence. There could be
no reasonable doubts the fret of the defeat

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had contributed to the death of Pawkins. There was a limit even to scientific

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controversy, said serious people. Another
crushing attack was already in the press,

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and appeared on the day before the
funeral. I don't think Happily exerted himself

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to stop it. People remembered how
Happily had hounded down his rival, and

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forgot that his rival's defects scathe thing
satire reads ill over fresh mold. The

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thing provoked comments in the daily papers. This it was that made me think

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that you had probably heard of Happly
and his controversy. But as I have

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already remarked, scientific workers live very
much in a world of their own.

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Half the people there, I say, who go along Piccadilly to the Academy

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ever, year could not tell you
where the learned societies abide. Many even

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think that research is a kind of
happy family cage, in which all kinds

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of men lie down together in peace. In his private thoughts, Happily could

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not forgive Porkins for dying. In
the first place, it was a mean

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dodge to escape the absolute pulverization Happily
had in mind for him, And in

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the second it left Haply's mind with
a queer gap in it. For twenty

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years he had worked hard, sometimes
far into the night, and seven days

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a week with microscope, scalpel,
collecting net and pen, and almost entirely

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with reference to Pawkins. The European
reputation he had won had come as an

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incident in that great antipathy he had
gradually worked up to a climax In's last

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controversy. It had killed Pawkins,
but it had also thrown Happily out of

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gear, so to speak, and
his doctor advised him to give up work

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for a time and rest. So
Happily went down into a quiet village in

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Kent and thought day and night of
Pawkins and good things. It was now

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impossible to say about him. At
last, happily began to realize in what

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direction the preoccupation tended. He determined
to make a fight for it, and

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started by trying to read novels,
but he could not get his mind of

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Pawkins white in the face and making
his last speech every sentence a beautiful opening.

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For Haply, he turned to fiction
and found it had no grip on

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him. He read The Iron Knight's
Entertainments until his sense of causation was shocked

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beyond endurance by the bottle imp Then
he went to Kipling and found he proved

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nothing besides being irrelevant and vulgar.
These scientific people have their limitations. Then,

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unhappily, he tried Bissants in a
House, and the opening chapter set

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his mind upon learner societies and Pawkins
at once. So happily turned to chess

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and found it a little more soothing. He soon mastered the moves and the

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chief gambits and the commoner closing positions, and began to beat the vicar.

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But then the cylindrical contours of the
opposite king began to resemble Pawkins standing up

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and gasping ineffectually against checkmates, and
happily decided to give up chess. Perhaps

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the study of some new branch of
science would, after all be better diversion.

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The best rest is change of occupation. Happily determined to plunge into dire

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Tom's and had one of his smaller
microscopes and Halibert's monograph sent down from London.

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He thought that perhaps if he could
get up a vigorous quarrel with Halibit,

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he might be able to begin life
afresh and forget pawkins. And very

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soon he was hard at work in
his habitual strenuous fashion at these very microscopic

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denizens of the wayside pool. It
was on the third day of the diet

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Toms that Happily became aware of a
novel addition to the local fauna. He

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was working late at the microscope,
and the only light in the room was

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a brilliant little lamp with a special
form of green lampshade. Like all experienced

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microscopists, he kept both eyes open. It is the only way to avoid

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excessive fatigue. One eye was over
the instrument and bright and distinct. Before

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that was the circular field of the
microscope, a cross which a brown diet

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Tom was slowly moving. But the
other eye happily saw as it were without

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seeing footnote. The reader unaccustomed to
microscopes may easily understand this by rolling a

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newspaper in the form of a tube
and looking through it at a book,

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keeping the other eye open end footnote. He was only dimly conscious of the

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brass side of the instrument, the
illuminated part of the tablecloth, a sheet

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of notepaper, the foot of the
lamp, and the darkened room beyond.

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Suddenly his attention drifted from one eye
to the other. The tablecloth was of

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the material called tapestry by shopmen,
and rather brightly colored. The pattern was

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in gold, with a small amount
of crimson and pale blue upon a grayish

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background. At one point the pattern
seemed displaced, and there was a vibrating

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movement of colors. At this point, Happily suddenly moved his head back and

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looked with both eyes. His mouth
fell open with astonishment. It was a

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large moth or butterfly, its wings
spread in butterfly fashion. It was strange

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it should be in the room at
all, for the windows were closed.

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Strange that it should not have attracted
his attention when it fluttered into its present

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position. Strange that it should match
the tablecloth stranger far to him, Happily,

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the great entomologist, it was altogether
unknown. There was no delusion.

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It was crawling slowly towards the foot
of the lamp. Genus unknown by heavens

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and in England, said happily,
staring. Then suddenly he thought of Pawkins.

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Nothing would have maddened Pawkins more,
and Pawkins was dead. Something about

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the head and body of the insect
became singularly suggestive of Pawkins, just as

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the chess king had confound Pawkins said
happily, but I must catch this,

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And looking around him for some means
of capturing the moth, he rose slowly

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out of his chair. Suddenly the
insect rose struck the edge of the lamp

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shade. Happily heard the ping,
and vanished into the shadow. In a

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moment, Happily had whipped off the
shade so that the whole room was illuminated.

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The thing had disappeared, but soon
his practiced eye detected it upon the

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wallpaper near the door. He went
towards it, poising the lamp shade for

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capture. Before he was within striking
distance, however, it had risen and

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was fluttering round the room. After
the fashion of its kind. It flew

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with sudden starts and turns, seeming
to vanish here and reappear there, once

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happily struck and missed. Then again
the third time he hit his microscope.

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The instrument swayed, struck and overturned
the lamp and fell noisily on the floor.

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The lamp turned over on the table
and very luckily went out. Haply

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was left in the dark. With
a start, he felt the strange moth

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blunder into his face. It was
maddening. He had no lights. If

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he opened the door of the room, the thing would get away. In

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the darkness, he saw Porkins quite
distinctly laughing at him. Porkins had ever

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an oily laugh. He swore furiously
and stamped his foot on the floor.

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There was a timid rapping at the
door. Then it opened, perhaps a

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foot, and very slowly. The
alarmed face of the landlady appeared behind a

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pink candle flame. She wore a
nightcap over her gray hair, and had

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some purple garment over her shoulders.
What was that fearful smash? She said?

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Has anything? The strange moth appeared
fluttering about the chink of the door.

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Shut the door, said Happily,
and suddenly rushed at her. The

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door slammed hastily. Happily was left
alone in the dark. Then, in

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the pause, he heard the landlady
scuttle upstairs, lock her door, and

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drag something heavy across the room and
put against it. It became evident to

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Happily that his conduct and appearance had
been strange and alarming. Confound the moths

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and pawkins. However, it was
a pity to lose the moth. Now

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he felt his way into the hall
and found the matches. After sending his

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head down upon the floor with a
noise like a drum. With a lighted

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candle, he returned to the sitting
room. No moth was to be seen.

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He at once for a moment it
seemed that the thing was fluttering around

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his head. Happily very suddenly decided
to give up the moth and go to

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bed, But he was excited all
night long. His sleep was broken by

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dreams of the moth, pawkins,
and the landlady. Twice in the night

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he turned out and soused his head
in cold water. One thing was very

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clear to him. The landlady could
not possibly understand about the strange moth,

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especially as he had failed to catch
it. No one but an entomologist would

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understand quite how he felt. She
was probably frightened at his behavior, and

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yet he failed to see how he
could explain it. He decided to say

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nothing further about the events of last
night. After breakfast, he saw her

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in the garden and decided to go
out and to her to reassure her.

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He talked to her about beans and
potatoes, bees, caterpillars, and the

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price of fruit. She replied in
her usual manner, but she looked at

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him a little suspiciously and kept walking
as he walked, so that there was

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always a bed of flowers or a
row of beans, or something of that

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sort between them. After a while, he began to feel singularly irritated at

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this, and to conceal his vexation, he went indoors and presently went out

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for a walk. The moss or
butterfly, trailing an odd flavor of porkins

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with it, kept coming into that
walk, though he did his best to

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keep his mind off it. Once
he saw it quite distinctly with its wings

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flattened out upon the old stone wall
that runs along the west edge of the

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park. But going up to it, he found it was only two lumps

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of gray and yellow lichen. This, said Happily, is the reverse of

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mimicry. Instead of a butterfly looking
like a stone, here is a stone

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looking like a butterfly. Once something
hovered and fluttered around his head, but

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by an effort of will he drove
that impression out of his mind. Again.

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In the afternoon, Happily called upon
the vicar and argued with him upon

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theological questions. They sat in the
little arbor covered with briar, and smoked

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as they wrangled. Look at that
moth, said Happily, suddenly, pointing

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to the edge of the wooden table
where, said the vicar. You don't

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see a moth on the edge of
the table there, said Happily, Certainly,

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not, said the vicar. Haply
was thunderstruck. He gasped. The

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vicar was staring at him. Clearly
the man saw nothing. The eye of

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the faith is no better than the
eye of science, said Happily awkwardly.

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I don't see your point, said
the vicar, thinking it was part of

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the argument. That night, Happily
found the moths crawling over his counterplane.

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He sat on the edge of the
bed in his shirt sleeves, reasoned with

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himself. Was it pure hallucination?
He knew he was slipping, and he

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battled for his sanity with the same
silent energy he had formerly displayed against porkins.

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So persistent his mental habit that he
felt as if it were a struggle

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with porkins. He was well versed
in psychology. He knew that such visual

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illusions did not come as a result
of mental strain. But the point was

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he did not see the moth.
He had heard it when it touched the

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edge of the lamp shade, and
afterwards when it hit against the wall,

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and he had felt it strike his
face in the dark. He looked at

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it. It was not at all
dream like, but perfectly clear and solid.

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Looking in the candle light, he
saw the hairy body, and the

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short, feathery antennae, the jointed
legs, even a place where the dawn

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was rubbed from the wing. He
suddenly felt angry with himself for being afraid

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of a little insect. His landlady
had got the servant to sleep with her

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that night. She was afraid to
be alone in addition, she had locked

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the door and put the chest of
drawers against it. They listened and talked

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in whispers after they had gone to
bed, but nothing occurred to alarm them.

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About eleven they had ventured to put
the candle out and had both dozed

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off to sleep. Then they woke
up with a start and sat up in

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bed, listening in the darkness.
Then they heard the slip at feet going

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to and fro. In Hapley's room, a chair was overturned. There was

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a violent dab at the wall,
then a china mental ornament smashed upon the

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fender. Suddenly the door of the
room opened and they heard him upon the

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landing. They clung to one another
listening. He seemed to be dancing upon

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the staircase. Now he would go
down three or four steps quickly, then

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up again, then hurry down into
the hall. They heard the umbrella stand

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go over, and the fan like
brick. Then the bolt shot and the

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chain rattled. He was opening the
door. They hurried to the window.

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It was a dim, gray night
and almost broken sheet of watery cloud was

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sweeping across the moon, and the
hedge and the trees in front of the

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house were black against the pale roadway, they saw happily, looking like a

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ghost, in his shirt and white
trousers, running to and fro in the

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road and beating the air. Now
he would stop. Now he would dart

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very rapidly at something invisible. Now
he would move upon it with stealthy strides.

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At last he went out of sight
up the road towards the down.

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Then, while they argued who should
go down and lock the door, he

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returned. He was walking very fast, and he came straight into the house,

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closed the door carefully, and went
quietly up to his bedroom. Everything

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was silent, Missus Colville said,
happily, calling down the staircase. Next

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00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:52,160
morning, I hope I did not
alarm you last night. You may well

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ask that, said Missus Carvill.
The fact is I'm a sleepwalker, and

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the last two nights I have been
without my sleeping mixture. There's nothing to

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be alarmed about. Really, I'm
sorry I made such an ass of myself.

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I will go over the down to
shore him and get some stuff to

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make me sleep soundly. I ought
to have done it yesterday, but half

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way over the down by the chalk
pits, the moth came upon. Happily

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again, he went on trying to
keep his mind upon chess problems, but

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it was no good. The thing
fluttered into his face, and he struck

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at it with his hat in self
defense. Then rage, the old rage,

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the rage he had so often felt
against porkins, returned once more.

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He went on leaping and striking at
the eddying insect. Suddenly he trod on

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nothing and fell headlong. There was
a gap in his sensations, and happily

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00:21:42,039 --> 00:21:45,480
found himself sitting on the heap of
flints in front of the opening of the

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chalk pits, with a leg twisted
back underneath him. The strange moth was

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still fluttering around his head. He
struck at it with his hand, and

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turning his head saw two men approaching
him. One was the village doctor.

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It occurred to Happily that this was
lucky. Then it came into his mind

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with extraordinary vividness, that no one
would ever be able to see the strange

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moth except himself, and that it
behooved him to keep silent about it.

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Late that night, however, after
his broken leg was set, he was

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feverish and forgot his self restraint.
He was lying flat on his bed,

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and he began to run his eyes
around the room to see if the moth

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was still about. He tried not
to do this, but it was no

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good. He soon caught sight of
the thing resting close to his hand by

275
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the night light, on the green
tablecloth. The wings quivered with a sudden

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wave of anger. He smote at
it with his fist, and the nurse

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woke up with a shriek. He
had missed it, that moth, he

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00:22:45,039 --> 00:22:48,240
said, And then it was fancy
nothing. All the time, he could

279
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,400
see quite clearly the insect going round
the cornice and darting across the room.

280
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And he could also see that the
nurse saw nothing of it, and looked

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00:22:56,319 --> 00:23:00,480
at him strangely. He must keep
himself in hand, and he knew he

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was a lost man if he did
not keep himself in hand. But as

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the night waned, the fever grew
upon him, and the very dread he

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had of seeing the moth made him
see it about five, just as the

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dawn was gray. He tried to
get out of bed and catch it,

286
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,839
though his leg was a fire with
pain. The nurse had to struggle with

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00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,920
him. On account of this,
they tied him down to the bed.

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At this the moth grew bolder,
and once he felt it settled in his

289
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hair. Then, because he struck
out violently with his arms, they tied

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these also. At this the moth
came and crawled over his face, and

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00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,920
happily wept, swore, screamed,
prayed for them to take it off him.

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00:23:40,039 --> 00:23:45,200
Unavailingly. The doctor was a blockhead, a half qualified general practitioner,

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and quite ignorant of mental science.
He simply said, there's no moth.

294
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Had he possessed the wit, he
might still perhaps have saved happily from his

295
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,240
fate by entering into his delusion and
covering his face with gauze, as he

296
00:23:57,319 --> 00:24:02,599
prayed might be done. But as
I say, the doctor was a blockhead,

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00:24:03,079 --> 00:24:06,640
and until the leg was healed,
haply was kept tied to his bed,

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00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,920
with the imaginary moth crawling over him. It never left him while he

299
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,839
was awake, and it grew to
a monster in his dreams. While he

300
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,799
was awake, he longed for sleep, and from sleep he awoke screaming.

301
00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:23,240
So now happily is spending the remainder
of his days in a padded room,

302
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:29,240
worried by a moth that no one
else can see. The asylum doctor calls

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00:24:29,279 --> 00:24:33,319
it hallucination, but haply when he
is in his easier mood and can talk,

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00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:38,160
says it is the ghost of Pawkins, and consequently a unique specimen and

305
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:44,839
well worth the trouble of catching end
of a moth. Genus unknown,