And they opened the box between them , of course , to see what was inside : for , else , of what possible use could it have been to them ? `` And out flew all the ills which flesh is heir to ; all the children of the four great bogies , Self-will , Ignorance , Fear , and Dirt -- for instance : Measles , Famines , Monks , Quacks , Scarlatina , Unpaid bills , Idols , Tight stays , Hooping-coughs , Potatoes , Popes , Bad Wine , Wars , Despots , Peacemongers , Demagogues , And , worst of all , Naughty Boys and Girls . But one thing remained at the bottom of the box , and that was , Hope . `` So Epimetheus got a great deal of trouble , as most men do in this world : but he got the three best things in the world into the bargain -- a good wife , and experience , and hope : while Prometheus had just as much trouble , and a great deal more -LRB- as you will hear -RRB- , of his own making ; with nothing beside , save fancies spun out of his own brain , as a spider spins her web out of her stomach . `` And Prometheus kept on looking before him so far ahead , that as he was running about with a box of lucifers -LRB- which were the only useful things he ever invented , and do as much harm as good -RRB- , he trod on his own nose , and tumbled down -LRB- as most deductive philosophers do -RRB- , whereby he set the Thames on fire ; and they have hardly put it out again yet . So he had to be chained to the top of a mountain , with a vulture by him to give him a peck whenever he stirred , lest he should turn the whole world upside down with his prophecies and his theories . `` But stupid old Epimetheus went working and grubbing on , with the help of his wife Pandora , always looking behind him to see what had happened , till he really learnt to know now and then what would happen next ; and understood so well which side his bread was buttered , and which way the cat jumped , that he began to make things which would work , and go on working , too ; to till and drain the ground , and to make looms , and ships , and railroads , and steam ploughs , and electric telegraphs , and all the things which you see in the Great Exhibition ; and to foretell famine , and bad weather , and the price of stocks and -LRB- what is hardest of all -RRB- the next vagary of the great idol Whirligig , which some call Public Opinion ; till at last he grew as rich as a Jew , and as fat as a farmer , and people thought twice before they meddled with him , but only once before they asked him to help them ; for , because he earned his money well , he could afford to spend it well likewise . `` And his children are the men of science , who get good lasting work done in the world ; but the children of Prometheus are the fanatics , and the theorists , and the bigots , and the bores , and the noisy windy people , who go telling silly folk what will happen , instead of looking to see what has happened already . '' Now , was not Mother Carey 's a wonderful story ? And , I am happy to say , Tom believed it every word . For so it happened to Tom likewise . He was very sorely tried ; for though , by keeping the dog to heels -LRB- or rather to toes , for he had to walk backward -RRB- , he could see pretty well which way the dog was hunting , yet it was much slower work to go backwards than to go forwards . But , what was more trying still , no sooner had he got out of Peacepool , than there came running to him all the conjurors , fortune-tellers , astrologers , prophesiers , projectors , prestigiators , as many as were in those parts -LRB- and there are too many of them everywhere -RRB- , Old Mother Shipton on her broomstick , with Merlin , Thomas the Rhymer , Gerbertus , Rabanus Maurus , Nostradamus , Zadkiel , Raphael , Moore , Old Nixon , and a good many in black coats and white ties who might have known better , considering in what century they were born , all bawling and screaming at him , `` Look a-head , only look a-head ; and we will show you what man never saw before , and right away to the end of the world ! '' But I am proud to say that , though Tom had not been to Cambridge -- for , if he had , he would have certainly been senior wrangler -- he was such a little dogged , hard , gnarly , foursquare brick of an English boy , that he never turned his head round once all the way from Peacepool to the Other-end-of-Nowhere : but kept his eye on the dog , and let him pick out the scent , hot or cold , straight or crooked , wet or dry , up hill or down dale ; by which means he never made a single mistake , and saw all the wonderful and hitherto by - no-mortal-man-imagined things , which it is my duty to relate to you in the next chapter . CHAPTER VIII AND LAST `` Come to me , O ye children ! For I hear you at your play ; And the questions that perplexed me Have vanished quite away . `` Ye open the Eastern windows , That look towards the sun , Where thoughts are singing swallows , And the brooks of morning run . * * * * * `` For what are all our contrivings And the wisdom of our books , When compared with your caresses , And the gladness of your looks ? `` Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said ; For ye are living poems , And all the rest are dead . '' LONGFELLOW .
Here begins the never-to-be-too-much-studied account of the nine - hundred-and-ninety-ninth part XXXXX the wonderful things which Tom saw on his journey to the Other-end-of-Nowhere ; which all good little children are requested to read ; that , if ever they get to the Other-end-of-Nowhere , as they may very probably do , they may not burst out laughing , or try to run away , or do any other silly vulgar thing which may offend Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid .
So as at between inside lest next of on to