It fell to earth I know not where.'
"I've never acquiesced in the idea that that was an inspired bit of verse meaning the sending of an argosy
to some unknown port and getting it back with a surprise cargo of ivory and peacocks, apes and
precious stones. There are some people who can't stand at a window high above a busy street, or on top
of a skyscraper, without wanting to throw something down. They get a thrill in wondering who or what
will be hit. The feeling of power. It's a bit like being God and unloosing the pestilence upon the just and
the unjust alike. Longfellow must have been one of those people. In his heart, he wanted to shoot a real
arrow and then mull over in his imagination whether it had dropped in somebody's eye, hit a heart, or just
missed someone and skewered a stray dog. Carry this on a little further. Give one of these people power
and opportunity to loose death at random, death whose cause he is sure cannot be detected. He sits in