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375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
137
Whether
these
data
are
worth
preserving
or
not,
I
think
that
the
appeal
that
this
especial
Mr.
Symons
makes
is
worthy
of
a
place
in
the
museum
we're
writing.
He
argues
against
belief
in
all
external
origins
"for
our
credit
as
Englishmen."
He
is
a
patriot,
but
I
think
that
these
foreigners
had
a
small
chance
"in
the
first
place"
for
hospitality
from
him.
Then
comes
a
"small
lump
of
iron
(two
inches
in
diameter)"
said
to
have
fallen,
during
a
thunderstorm,
at
Brixton,
Aug.
17,
1887.
Mr.
Symons
says:
"At
present
I
cannot
trace
it."
He
was
at
his
best
at
Notting
Hill:
there's
been
a
marked
falling
off
in
his
later
manner:
In
the
London
Times,
Feb.
1,
1888,
it
is
said
that
a
roundish
object
of
iron
had
been
found,
"after
a
violent
thunderstorm,"
in
a
garden
at
Brixton,
Aug.
17,
1887.
It
was
analyzed
by
a
chemist,
who
could
not
identify
it
as
true
meteoritic
material.
Whether
a
product
of
workmanship
like
human
workmanship
or
not,
this
object
is
described
as
an
oblate
spheroid,
about
two
inches
across
its
major
diameter.
The
chemist's
name
and
address
are
given:
Mr.
J.
James
Morgan:
Ebbw
Vale.
Garden--familiar
ground--I
suppose
that
in
Mr.
Symons'
opinion
this
symmetric
object
had
been
upon
the
ground
"in
the
first
place,"
though
he
neglects
to
say
this.
But
we
do
note
that
he
described
this
object
as
a
"lump,"
which
does
not
suggest
the
spheroidal
or
symmetric.
It
is
our
notion
that
the
word
"lump"
was,
because
of
its
meaning
of
amorphousness,
used
purposely
to
have
the
next
datum
stand
alone,
remote,
without
similars.
If
Mr.
Symons
had
said
that
there
had
been
a
report
of
another
round
object
that
had
fallen
from
the
sky,
his
readers
would
be
attracted
by
an
agreement.
He
distracts
his
readers
by
describing
in
terms
of
the
unprecedented--
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