At least I fancied so, but I soon found my mistake.
They got on comfortably at first, though they were much puzzled with my
tobacco-pipe and insisted on seeing me use it. When I had shown them
what I did with it, they were astonished but not displeased, and seemed
to like the smell. But by and by they came to my watch, which I had
hidden away in the inmost pocket that I had, and had forgotten when they
began their search. They seemed concerned and uneasy as soon as they got
hold of it. They then made me open it and show the works; and when I had
done so they gave signs of very grave displeasure, which disturbed me all
the more because I could not conceive wherein it could have offended
them.
I remember that when they first found it I had thought of Paley, and how
he tells us that a savage on seeing a watch would at once conclude that
it was designed. True, these people were not savages, but I none the
less felt sure that this was the conclusion they would arrive at; and I
was thinking what a wonderfully wise man Archbishop Paley must have been,
when I was aroused by a look of horror and dismay upon the face of the
magistrate, a look which conveyed to me the impression that he regarded
my watch not as having been designed, but rather as the designer of
himself and of the universe; or as at any rate one of the great first
causes of all things.
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