Eh bien; Monsieur l'Anglois, said the Count, gaily; you are not come to spy the nakedness of the land; I believe you; ni encore, I dare say, that of our women: but permit me to conjecture, if par hazard, they fell into your way, that the prospect would not affect you.

I have something within me which cannot bear the shock of the least indecent insinuation: in the sportability of chit-chat I have often endeavoured to conquer it, and with infinite pain have hazarded a thousand things to a dozen of the sex together, the least of which I could not venture to a single one to gain Heaven.

Excuse me, Monsieur le Comte, said I: as for the nakedness of your land, if I saw it, I should cast my eyes over it with tears in them; and for that of your women (blushing at the idea he had excited in me) I am so evangelical in this, and have such a fellowfeeling for whatever is weak about them, that I would cover it with a garment, if I knew how to throw it on; but I could wish, continued I, to spy the nakedness of their hearts, and, through the different disguises of customs, climates, and religion, find out what is good in them to fashion my own by; and, therefore, am I

come.

It is for this reason, Monsieur le Comte, continued I, that I have not seen the Palais Royal nor the Luxembourg, nor the Façade of the Louvre, nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of pictures, statues, and churches. I conceive every fair being as a temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings, and loose sketches, hung up in it, than the Transfiguration of Raphael itself.

The thirst of this, continued I, as impatient as that which inflames the breast of the connoisseur, has led me from my own home into France, and from France will lead me through Italy; -'tis a quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of Nature, and those affections which arise out of her, which make us love each other, and the world, better than we do.

The Count said a great many civil things to me upon the occasion; and added, very politely, how much he stood obliged to Shakspeare for making me known to him. But, à-propos, said he; Shakspeare is full of great things; he forgot the small punctilio of announcing your name: it puts you under the necessity of doing it yourself.

--

--

THE PASSPORT.

VERSAILLES.

for

THERE is not a more perplexing affair in life to me than to set about telling any one who I am, there is scarce any body I cannot give a better account of than myself; and I have often wished I could do it in a single word, and have an end of it. It was the only time and occasion in my life I could accomplish this to any purpose; for Shakspeare lying upon the table, and recollecting I was in his books, I took up Hamlet, and turning immediately to the gravedigger's scene in the fifth act, I laid my finger upon YORICK; and, advancing the book to the Count, with my finger all the way over the name, Me voici! said I.

Now, whether the idea of poor Yorick's skull was

-

put out of the Count's mind by the reality of my own,
or by what magic he could drop a period of seven or
eight hundred years, makes nothing in this account;
'tis certain, the French conceive better than they com-
bine; I wonder at nothing in this world, and the
less at this; inasmuch as one of the first of our own
church, for whose candour and paternal sentiments I
have the highest veneration, fell into the same mistake
in the very same case:
"He could not bear," he
said, "to look into the sermons wrote by the King of
Denmark's jester.".... Good, my Lord! said I; but there
are two Yoricks. The Yorick your Lordship thinks of
has been dead and buried eight hundred years ago; he
flourished in Horwendillus's Court; the other Yorick
is myself, who have flourish'd, my Lord, in no Court.
He shook his head..... Good God! said I, you might
as well confound Alexander the Great with Alexander
the Coppersmith, my Lord!.... 'Twas all one, he
replied.

If Alexander, King of Macedon, could have translated your Lordship, said I, I'm sure your Lordship would not have said so.

The poor Count de B**** fell but into the same

error.

....

moi qui

Et, Monsieur, est il Yorick? cried the Count.
Je le suis, said I. .... Vous? .... Moi
ai l'honneur de vous parler, Monsieur le Comte.
Mon Dieu! said he, embracing me,
Yorick?

....

Vous êtes

The Count instantly put the Shakspeare into his pocket, and left me alone in his room.

ISTITUTO

FILULOGIA

FONDO:

SECHI

MODERNA

BIBLIOTECA

THE PASSPORT.

VERSAILLES.

I COULD not conceive why the Count de B**** had gone so abruptly out of the room, any more than I could conceive why he had put the Shakspeare into his pocket. Mysteries, which must explain themselves, are not worth the loss of time which a conjecture about them takes up; 'twas better to read Shakspeare; so, taking up "Much Ado about Nothing," I transported myself instantly from the chair I sat in to Messina in Sicily, and got so busy with Don Pedro, and Benedict, and Beatrice, that I thought not of Versailles, the Count, or the passport.

Sweet pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary moments! Long, long since had ye number'd out my days, had I not trod so great a part of them upon this enchanted ground. When my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it, to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scatter'd over with rose-buds of delights; and, having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthen'd and refresh'd. When evils press sore upon me, and there is no retreat from them in this world, then I take a new course; I leave it,

and,

as I have a clearer idea of the Elysian Fields than I have of Heaven, I force myself, like Æneas, into them:

I see him meet the pensive shade of his forsaken Dido, and wish to recognise it; I see the injured spirit wave her head, and turn off silent from the author of her miseries and dishonours; I lose the

feelings for myself in hers, and in those affections which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school.

nor

Surely, this is not walking in a vain shadow, does man disquiet himself in vain by it: he oftener does so in trusting the issue of his commotions to reason only. I can safely say, for myself, I was never able to conquer any one single bad sensation in my heart so decisively as by beating up as fast as I could for some kindly and gentle sensation to fight it upon its own ground.

When I had got to the end of the third act, the Count de B**** entered with my passport in his hand. M. le Duc de C said the Count, is as good a prophet, I dare say, as he is a statesman. Un homme

qui rit, said the Duke, ne sera jamais dangereux. ・・・・ Had it been for any one but the King's jester, added the Count, I could not have got it these two hours..... Pardonnez moi, Mons. le Count, said I, I am not the King's jester. But you are Yorick?.... Yes. .... Et vous plaisantez?.... I answered, Indeed I did jest -but was not paid for it; 'twas entirely at my own expense.

....

We have no jester at Court, M. le Comte, said I; the last we had was in the licentious reign of Charles II.; since which time, our manners have been so gradually refining that our Court at present is so full of patriots, who wish for nothing but the honours and wealth of our country; and our ladies are all so chaste, so spotless, so good, so devout thing for a jester to make a jest of.

Voilà un persiflage! cried the Count.

there is no