THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES. COULD not conceive why the Count de B**** had gone fo abruptly out of the room, any more than I could conceive why he had put the Shakespeare into his pocket →→→→ Myfteries which must explain themselves, are not worth the lofs of time, which a conjecture about them takes up: it was better to read Shakespeare; fo taking "Much ado about nothing," I tranfported upr myself inftantly from the chair I fat in to Meflina in Sicily, and got fo bufy with Don Pedro and Benedict and Beatrice, that I thought not of Versailles, the Count or the Paffport. Sweet pliability of man's fpirit, that can at once furrender itself to illufions, which cheat expectation and forrow of their weary moments! long long fince had ye numbered out my days, had I not trod fo great a part of them upon this enchanted ground: when my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my ftrength, I get off it, to fome fmooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rofebuds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come back ftrengthened and refreshed When evils prefs fore 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 Elyfian fields than I have of heaven, I force, myself like Æneas, into them I fee him meet the penfive fhade of his for faken - faken Dido and with to recognize it I fee the injured fpirit wave her head, and turn off filent from the author of her miferies and difhonours lofe the feelings for myself in hers and in thofe affections which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school. Surely this is not walking in a vain shadownor does man difquiet himself in vain, by it- he oftener does fo in trufting the iffue of his commotions to reafon only. I can fafely fay for myself, I was never able to conquer any one fingle bad fenfation in my heart fo decifively, as by beating up as faft as I could for fome kindly and gentle fenfation, 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 paffport in his hand. Monf. le Duc de C***, faid the Count, is as good a prophet, I dare fay, as he is a statesman-Un homme qui rit, faid the Duke, ne fera jamais dangereux. Had it been for any one but the king's jefter, added the Count, I could not have got it these two hours. Pardonnez moi, Monf. Le Compte, said I—I am not the king's jester. But you are Yorick? Yes. Et vous plaifantez?—I answered, indeed I did jeft but was not paid for it—it was entirely at my own expence. We have no jefter at court, Monf. Le Compte, faid I; the laft we had was in the licentious reign of Charles the Ild fince which time our manners have been fo gradually refining, that our court at prefent is fo full of patriots, who with for nothing but the honours and and wealth of their country and our ladies are all fo chaste, so spotlefs, fo good, so devout, there is nothing for a jefter to make a jest of Voila un perfiflage! cried the Count. THE AS - THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES. S the paffport was directed to all lieutenant governors, governors and commandants of cities, generals of armies, jufticiaries, and all officers of justice, to let Mr. Yorick, the king's jester, and his baggage, travel quietly along I own the triumph of obtaining the paffport was not a little tarnished by the figure I cut in it But there is nothing unmixt in this world; and fome of the graveft of our divines have carried it fo far as to affirm, that enjoyment itself was attended even with a figh and that the greatest they knew of, terminated in a general way, in little better than a convulfion. I remember the grave and learned Bevoriskius, in his commentary upon the generation from Adam, very naturally breaks off in the middle of a note to give an account to the world of a couple of fparrows upon the out-edge of his window, which had incommoded him all the time he wrote, and at laft had entirely taken him off from his genealogy. It is ftrange! writes Bevorifkius; but the facts are certain, for I have had the curiofity to mark them down one by one with my pen but the cockfparrow during the little time that I could have finished the other half of this note, has actually interrupted me with the reiteration of his careffes three and twenty times and a half. How merciful, adds Bevoriskius, is heaven to` his creatures! |