I seemed to hear some readers mutter yesterday at the mention Tobias Smollett's notions about Davy Jones.

I hear some readers ask: yes.

'Girls and boys still together?' I hear some readers ask.

"Very well," I hear some readers say, "is conscience to be dismissed so shortly?

"But this," I hear some readers say, "is the illusion of faith and has nothing of the permanence of fact."