THE ESCHEVINS. 213 



torian, geometer, mechanician, astronomer, physician, 



chemist, or geologist, &c His desire, his will, is to 



speak on every thing. He requires, therefore, colleagues 

 who cannot contradict him. 



If the town constructs an edifice, the Eschevin, losing 

 sight of the question, talks away on the aspect of the 

 facades. He declares with the imperturbable assurance 

 inspired by a fact that he had heard speak of whilst on 

 the knees of his nurse, that on a particular side of the 

 future building, the moon, an active agent of destruction, 

 will incessantly corrode the stones of the frontage, the 

 shafts of the columns, and that it will efface in a few 

 years all the projecting ornaments ; and hence the fear of 

 the moon's voracity will lead to the upsetting of all the 

 views, the studies, and the well-digested plans of several 

 architects. Place a meteorologist on the council, and, 

 despite the authority of the nurses, a whole scaffolding of 

 gratuitous suppositions will be crumbled to dust by these 

 few categorical and strict words of science; the moon 

 does not exert the action that is attributed to it. 



At another time, the Eschevin hurls his anathema at 

 the system of warming by steam. According to him, 

 this diabolical invention is an incessant cause of damp to 

 the wood-work, the furniture, the papers, and the books. 

 The Eschevin fancies, in short, that in this way of warm- 

 ing, torrents of watery vapour enter into the atmosphere 

 of the apartments. Can he love a colleague, I ask, who 

 after having had the cunning patience to let him come to 

 the conclusion of his discourse, informs him that, although 

 vapour, the vehicle of an enormous quantity of latent 

 heat, rapidly conveys this caloric to every floor of the 

 largest edifice, it has never occasion therefore to escape 

 from those impermeable tubes through which the circu- 

 lation is effected ! 



