18 DECEMBER 1875, Page 2

One would almost like to believe that Thomassen was himself

an automaton like his own clockwork, only set for rather more than eight days, if that convenient solution of the problem did not throw back the responsibility on a greater and more awful will. And oddly enough, it is chiefly in presence of great acts like these,—whether of evil or of good,—that the automatic theory of man seems wholly incredible and even monstrous.