244 Travelling Sketches. [SEPT. 



cases. He was too much absorbed in his own feelings to relish conversa- 

 tion, and we remained silent. In a short time, however, he seemed dis- 

 posed to rally his spirits ; and evidently from a motive of politeness 

 addressed me. Sense, information, and talent marked all he said. In 

 classical learning he seemed. a proficient, and shewed an equal acquaintance 

 with history, philosophy, and science. By degrees he became animated ; 

 his gloom wore off, and occasional flashes of wit proved that his intellectual 

 wealth did not all consist of a paper currency, Still there was in his talk 

 a guardedness on every topic pointing to himself an anti-egotism which 

 evinced his wish to preserve the incognito. . 



At the end of the first stage, we were joined by a young officer lively, 

 frank, and spirited, and with a mind as brimful of the present as if there 

 were no such things, in or out of the world, as the past and the future. 

 The accession of his gaiety was a fresh supply of oxygen ; and my Parisian 

 friend and 1, who ran some risk of growing profound and prosy, brightened 

 up, like reviving chandeliers. Our new guest lost no time in informing us 

 that ho was a native of Brittany that he had been bred at the Ecolo 

 Polytechnique had fought among the pupils at the memorable defence of 

 Mont Martre had fallen in love the week after had tried to run away 

 with his mistress and had gotten into disgrace with his father, who hired 

 him the next day in the disguise of a footman, and forgave him for the 

 sake of the frolic that, as a dutiful son, he had passed a month in a 

 counting-house, and ten days in a lawyer's office then followed nature, 

 and entered the army was fond of the flute thought Petit the best boot- 

 maker, and Lamarque the best tailor, in Paris was now a captain in the 

 Guards was on his way to join his corps at Bayonne liked all good fel- 

 lows and hated but one man in the world, and that was the chaplain of 

 his own regiment. 



A volubility like this, is generally unpromising; but there was a 

 redeeming air of candour and generosity about this young militaire, which 

 impressed us favourably ; and I found on this, as I had done in many 

 other instances, that a redundant flow of animal spirits is not certain 

 evidence of weak intellects, or shallow feelings. " But, why, Sir," said 

 I, " this ungracious exclusion of the chaplain from the benefit of that 

 rule of universal good will which you profess, and which ought surely to 

 be a rule without an exception ?" 



" I cannot help," he replied, "hating hypocrisy. It is a sort of 

 refined treachery, and has always struck me to be that sin against the 

 Holy Ghost, for which there is forgiveness neither in this world nor in the 

 next." 



" So much the greater danger," I said, " of imputing it rashly ; ,and 

 you will not be offended at my saying, that among young soldiers, it is 

 too much the fashion to make some individual priest the scape-goat of all 

 the ecclesiastical demerits of Christendom. The clerical robe may save 

 a man's bones ; but 'tis a weak mantle of defence against prejudice." 

 " I am an enemy," he replied, " to all prejudice, and am neither a man- 

 hater, a woman-hater, nor a priest-hater : but as you view this matter 

 seriously, permit me to ask, whether religion can be recommended, or 

 morality promoted in a regiment by a gloomy monk, or stray ascetic, who 

 knows no difference between mirth and vice, demureness and virtue ; who 

 shuns society, or mars it by pedantry or fastidiousness ; and whose 

 theory and practice constitute the perfection of bigotry ? For my part," 



