KECOLLECTIONS, 1831-37. 133 



your character, a Christian moralizer, to behave as you 

 do, and if you continue I shall have to quit your com- 

 pany. But I shall not mind it, if every time you get 

 fits of impatience you will express your mortifications 

 in Latin ; he could do it as fluently as in French. 

 "Well, he said, I will do it, but as a compensation you 

 will teach me how I could beat you ! I can not do that. 

 I shall give you a chance to do it, but I can not demon- 

 strate to you technically. I am not expert enough in 

 that line. I have always been very superficial in every 

 thing except in raising plants from cuttings or procre- 

 ating defenders for my adopted country .... One 

 day he got so exasperated at my success in playing that 

 an idea got into my head, partly for fun, partly to give 

 him a lesson of Christian humih'ty, but mostly to find 

 out if he knew any thing of Voltaire's writings, that 

 nightmare of the clerical progeny. He had got in such 

 a passion when missing a carombol, that at once I 

 picked up his cap, handed it to him, and with all the 

 dignity I could assume I recited to him those four 

 verses of Voltaire (tragedy of Mahomet): 



' ' Ne sais tu pas encore, hoinine f aible et superbe, 

 "Que 1'insecte insensible enseveli sous Pherbe, 

 "Et 1'aigle imperieux qui plane en haut du ciel 

 "Rentrent dans le neant aux yeux de 1'eternel ! 



