258 GEORGE STOWELL
do not take into consideration the law of heredity and the fact
that Mr. 's ancestors have been merchants for a
thousand years, and although almost devoid of intellect he is thoroughly saturated with 'calico instinct.' Defective rea- soning brings these farmers to his store, and leads them across
the threshold. At this point they confront Mr. 's
hereditary instinct and in due time emerge from his establish- ment shorn closer than a summer lawn. Consequently, we see, and must concede that instinct is superior to defective reason-
ing."
I never heard him mention the matter thereafter, nor have I. seen a book or treatise on logic, bearing his name as author, and it is presumed he abandoned his purpose of reaching the abode of the immortals by that pathway.
Later on he announced his intention of producing a great poem a cosmic epic the world and its history to be its all- embracing subject. Indeed, he said he had commonced writ- ing it already. Upon our solicitations he consented to repeat what he had written, which was as follows :
"In the olden time when the world was new and tribes of men were fierce and few" and then remarked that that was all he had yet composed, but would report progress as he pn> ceeded. Inasmuch, however, as he never again made any ref- erence to the matter it is surmised that this great purpose went "darkling in the trackless void" also.
In the spring of 1871 his successor in the office was ap- pointed and "Lish" moved to the Mohawk Valley in the north- eastern part of Lane county, and made his abode on a farm he had purchased a short time before his retirement from the pub- lic service, and turned his attention, or nominally so, to agri- cultural pursuits. His success in that line of endeavor was not so brilliant as to inspire the admiration of his friends for his ability in bucolic pursuits.
While in Eugene one day during his residence on the farm he called at the office, for the purpose, he said, of obtaining an interpretation of the "Golden Rule," and upon being told that it was believed to mean just what it said, and that any
