Squaring the Circle and Circling the Square.

But ignoring any further claims of the predigested perennial, what think you, is really and truly the greatest invention of all time. Yes, reader, your mental phosphoresence does you credit—the answer is in the affirmative; in other words it is “the wheel,” described by Dan Webster, in his famous Welter of Words, as “a circular frame turning on its axis; an instrument for spinning and for torture,” which serves to prove that conditions have altered not at all since the days of Dan.

In some histories of the whirled you will find that the invention of the wheel is ascribed to China, which, if true, accounts for the record number of revolutions to the square mile in the land of the drag-on. On the other hand, Ima- Bit-Dizzy the Hottentot historian asserts that the wheel was first used by the ancient circle of Rotarians for circularising and rounding up their members who failed to act on the square. But whoever it was that started the wheel whirling he has more on his conscience than his Borsalino. Lucky for him that his patent rights have long since expired. But wheels, like everything else in this vale of gears, can be used for weal or woe.