Why do they call camels Ships-of-the-desert ? … Because they're full of Iranian seamen. (NOW, being politically correct you must, of course, substitute martian What a clever joke this becomes! Hopefully, there are no martians listening. )

Chapter 1, using the railway as a metonym, explored the relationship between past and present, and argued that diachronic, or historical, time was dissolved in the proliferation of present moments, or synchronic time.

Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures […].

Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes. […] But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.