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Article A FRENCH NOVELIST OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ← Page 10 of 12 →
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A French Novelist Of The Seventeenth Century.
suppose , if it be not from the vapours by which they are constantly surrounded , and which penetrate their bodies , and thus nourish them ?' " We conversed some time longer , and then we went upstairs to bed . A man presented himself on the landing-place , who , after having looked at us both attentively , conducted me into a
closet where the floor was coA'ered three feet in depth with orange-blossoms , ancl my demon into another filled with carnations and jasmin . He told me , when he saw I was amazed at this magnificence , that these were the beds of the country . Finally , ive each went to rest in our cells , ancl as soon as I was stretched upon my flowers , I fell sound asleep by the light of about thirty glowworms inclosed in a crystal globe , for no other candles are used there . "
On the following morning , when our travellers were about to pursue their journey , the ci-devant associate of Socrates paid their bill with a poem of six lines . " Were we to put up here for a week , " said he , " we should not spend a sonnet ; and I have four about me , besides two epigrams , tivo odes , ancl an eclogue . " " Ah ! would to GOD that things were managed in the same
way in our world ! " exclaims Bergerac , with all the feeling of a poet ; " I know a goodly number of honest versifiers , who are dying there of hunger , and who woulcl never want for good cheer if they coulcl pay their entertainers in such coin !" On his arrival at court , the philosopher was confronted with a little Spaniard , who had made his way to the Moon on the back
of a bird . Grandees and people alike decided that the two were of the same species ; but Bergerac indignantly denied that he was an animal , as the court unanimously declared ; and , in order to prove his assertion , he lost no time in acquiring a knowledge bf the national language , in ivhich he had no sooner succeeded than an assembly of the states was formally convoked , to hear
him sustain a philosophical proposition . As , hoivever , he unfortunately only replied to the questions Avhich Avere addressed to him by quoting certain passages of Aristotle , it Avas decided that he was not a man , but in all probability a species of ostrich , " since he carried his head erect , Avalked upon tAvo feet , and was partially feathered ; " and the bird-keeper Avas accordingly commanded to confine him in a cage .
The conversation of the Castilian , and the attentions of the maids of honour , AVIIO were constantly throwing one good thing or another into his prison , afforded him some consolation ; but he neA'ertheless persisted so perseveringly in arguing upon every subject , that he ivas at last brought to trial , and condemned to declare publicly that the Moon Avas not a moon , nor the Earth
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A French Novelist Of The Seventeenth Century.
suppose , if it be not from the vapours by which they are constantly surrounded , and which penetrate their bodies , and thus nourish them ?' " We conversed some time longer , and then we went upstairs to bed . A man presented himself on the landing-place , who , after having looked at us both attentively , conducted me into a
closet where the floor was coA'ered three feet in depth with orange-blossoms , ancl my demon into another filled with carnations and jasmin . He told me , when he saw I was amazed at this magnificence , that these were the beds of the country . Finally , ive each went to rest in our cells , ancl as soon as I was stretched upon my flowers , I fell sound asleep by the light of about thirty glowworms inclosed in a crystal globe , for no other candles are used there . "
On the following morning , when our travellers were about to pursue their journey , the ci-devant associate of Socrates paid their bill with a poem of six lines . " Were we to put up here for a week , " said he , " we should not spend a sonnet ; and I have four about me , besides two epigrams , tivo odes , ancl an eclogue . " " Ah ! would to GOD that things were managed in the same
way in our world ! " exclaims Bergerac , with all the feeling of a poet ; " I know a goodly number of honest versifiers , who are dying there of hunger , and who woulcl never want for good cheer if they coulcl pay their entertainers in such coin !" On his arrival at court , the philosopher was confronted with a little Spaniard , who had made his way to the Moon on the back
of a bird . Grandees and people alike decided that the two were of the same species ; but Bergerac indignantly denied that he was an animal , as the court unanimously declared ; and , in order to prove his assertion , he lost no time in acquiring a knowledge bf the national language , in ivhich he had no sooner succeeded than an assembly of the states was formally convoked , to hear
him sustain a philosophical proposition . As , hoivever , he unfortunately only replied to the questions Avhich Avere addressed to him by quoting certain passages of Aristotle , it Avas decided that he was not a man , but in all probability a species of ostrich , " since he carried his head erect , Avalked upon tAvo feet , and was partially feathered ; " and the bird-keeper Avas accordingly commanded to confine him in a cage .
The conversation of the Castilian , and the attentions of the maids of honour , AVIIO were constantly throwing one good thing or another into his prison , afforded him some consolation ; but he neA'ertheless persisted so perseveringly in arguing upon every subject , that he ivas at last brought to trial , and condemned to declare publicly that the Moon Avas not a moon , nor the Earth