INEW YORK.
 

[APTER VI.
 

Of the great pipe plot—and of the dolorous per¬
plexities into which William the Testy was
thrown, by reason of his having enlightened the
multitude.

Wilhelmus Kieft, as has already been made
manifest, was a great legislator upon a small scale.
He was of an active, or rather a busy mind; that is
to say, his was one of those small, but brisk minds,
which make up by bustle and constant motion for
the want of great scope and power. He had, when
quite a youngling, been impressed with the advice
of Solomon, " go to the ant thou sluggard, consider
her ways and be wise," in conformity to which, he
had ever been of a restless, ant-like turn, worrying
hither and thither, busying himself about little mat¬
ters, with an air of great importance and anxiety-
laying up wisdom by the morsel, and often toiling
and puffing at a grain of mustard seed, under the
full conviction that he was moving a mountain.

Thus we are told, that once upon a time, in one
of his fits of mental bustle, which he termed deli¬
beration, he framed an unlucky law, to prohibit the
universal practice of smoking.    This he proved*

by mathematical demonstration, to be, not merely
VOL. I.                              a a