ence! and vat eyes! vat a milk-vite forehead! O my heafen' vy, you're a Got! ANSWER. You do me too much honor, Sir. THE DANE. O me! if you should dink I is flattering you!No, no, no! I haf ten tousand a year—yes, ten tousand a year— yes, ten tousand pound a year! Vell-and vhat is dhat? a mere trifle! I 'ouldn't gif my sincere heart for ten times dhe money. Yes, you're a Got! I a mere man! But, my dear friend! dhink of me, as a man! Is, is-I mean ask you now, my dear friend-is I not very eloquent? Is I not speak English very fine? ANSW. Most admirably! Believe me, Sir! I have seldom heard even a native talk so fluently. THE DANE. (Squeezing my hand with great vehemence.) My dear friend! vat an affection and fidelity ve have for each odher! But tell me, do tell me,-Is I not, now and den, speak some fault? Is I not in some wrong? ANSW. Why, Sir! perhaps it might be observed by nice. critics in the English language, that you occasionally use the word "Is" instead of "am." In our best companies we generally say I am, and not I is or I'se. Excuse me, Sir! it is a mere trifle. THE DANE. know. O!-is, is, am, am, am. Yes, yes I know, I ANSW. I am, thou art, he is, we are, ye are, they are. THE DANE. Yes, yes I know, I know—Am, am, am, is dhe præsens, and is is dhe perfectum-yes, yes-and are is dhe plusquam perfectum. ANSW. And art, Sir! is ? THE DANE. My dear friend! it is dhe plusquam perfectum, no, no-dhat is a great lie; are is dhe plusquam perfectum—and art is dhe plusquam plue-perfectum—(then, swinging my hand to and fro, and cocking his little bright hazle eyes at me, that danced with vanity and wine)-You see, my dear friend! that I too have some lehrning. ANSW. Learning, Sir? Who dares suspect it? Who can listen to you for a minute, who can even look at you, without perceiving the extent of it? THE DANE. My dear friend!—(then with a would-be humble look, and in a tone of voice as if he was reasoning) I could not talk so of præsens and imperfectum, and futurum and plusquamplue-perfectum, and all dhat, my dear friend! without lehrning? some ANSW. Sir! a man like you cannot talk on any subject without discovering the depth of his information. THE DANE. Dhe grammatic Greek, my friend; ha! ha! ha! (laughing, and swinging my hand to and fro-then with a sudden transition to great solemnity) Now I will tell you, my dear friend! Dhere did happen about me vat de whole historia of Denmark record no instance about nobody else. Dhe bishop did ask me all dhe questions about all dhe religion in dhe Latin grammar. ANSW. The grammar, Sir? The language, I presume THE DANE. (A little offended.) Grammar is language, and language is grammar ANSW. Ten thousand pardons ! THE DANE. Vell, and I was only fourteen years- THE DANE. No more. I vas fourteen years old—and he asked me all questions, religion and philosophy, and all in dhe Latin language-and I answered him all every one, my dear friend all in dhe Latin language. ANSW. A prodigy! an absolute prodigy! THE DANE. No, no, no! he was a bishop, a great superintendent. ANSW. Yes! a bishop. THE DANE. A bishop-not a mere predicant, not a prediger ANSW. My dear Sir! we have misunderstood each other. I said that your answering in Latin at so early an age was a prodigy, that is, a thing that is wonderful; that does not often happen. THE DANE. Often! Dhere is not von instance recorded in dhe whole historia of Denmark. THE DANE. I was sent ofer to dhe Vest Indies-to our Island, and dhere I had no more to do vid books. No! no! I put my genius anodher way-and I haf made ten tousand pound a year. Is not dhat ghenius, my dear friend ?-But vat is money?—I dhink the poorest man alive my equal. Yes, my dear friend! my little fortune is pleasant to my generous heart, because I can do good-no man with so little a fortune ever did so much generosity-no person-no man person, no woman person ever denies it. But we are all Got's children. Here the Hanoverian interrupted him, and the other Dane, the Swede, and the Prussian joined us, together with a young Eng. lishman who spoke the German fluently, and interpreted to me many of the Prussian's jokes. The Prussian was a travelling merchant, turned of threescore, a hale man, tall, strong, and stout, full of stories, gesticulations, and buffoonery, with the soul as well as the look of the mountebank, who, while he is making you laugh, picks your pocket. Amid all his droll looks and droll gestures, there remained one look untouched by laughter; and that one look was the true face, the others were but its mask. The Hanoverian was a pale, fat, bloated young man, whose father had made a large fortune in London, as an army-contractor. He seemed to emulate the manners of young Englishmen of fortune. He was a good-natured fellow, not without information or literature; but a most egregious coxcomb. He had been in the habit of attending the House of Commons, and had once spoken, as he informed me, with great applause in a debating society. For this he appeared to have qualified himself with laudable industry; for he was perfect in Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, and with an accent, which forcibly reminded me of the Scotchman in Roderic Random, who professed to teach the English pronunciation, he was constantly deferring to my supe rior judgment, whether or no I had pronounced this or that word with propriety, or "the true delicacy." When he spoke, though it were only half a dozen sentences, he always rose; for which I could detect no other motive, than his partiality to that elegant phrase so liberally introduced in the orations of our British legislators, "While I am on my legs." The Swede, whom, for reasons that will soon appear, I shall distinguish by the name of Nobility, was a strong-featured, scurvy-faced man, his complex. ion resembling in color, a red hot poker beginning to cool. He appeared miserably dependent on the Dane; but was, however, incomparably the best informed and most rational of the party. Indeed his manners and conversation discovered him to be both a man of the world and a gentleman. The Jew was in the hold: the French gentleman was lying on the deck so ill, that I could observe nothing concerning him, except the affectionate attentions of his servant to him. The poor fellow was very sick himself, and every now and then ran to the side of the vessel, still keeping his eye on his master, but returned in a moment and seated himself again by him, now supporting his head, now wiping his forehead, and talking to him all the while in the most soothing tones. There had been a matrimonial squabble of a very ludicrous kind in the cabin, between the little German tailor and his little wife. He had secured two beds, one for himself and one for her. This had struck the little woman as a very cruel action; she insisted upon their having but one, and assured the mate in the most piteous tones, that she was his lawful wife. The mate and the cabin boy decided in her favor, abused the little man for his want of tenderness with much humor, and hoisted him into the same compartment with his sea-sick wife. This quarrel was interesting to me, as it procured me a bed, which I otherwise should not have had. In the evening, at seven o'clock, the sea rolled higher, and the Dane, by means of the greater agitation, eliminated enough of what he had been swallowing to make room for a great deal more. His favorite potation was sugar and brandy, i. e. a very little warm water with a large quantity of brandy, sugar, and nutmeg. His servant boy, a black-eyed Mulatto, had a goodnatured round face, exactly the color of the skin of the walnutkernel. The Dane and I were again seated, tête-à-tête, in the ship's boat. The conversation, which was now indeed rather an oration than a dialogue, became extravagant beyond all that I ever heard. He told me that he had made a large fortune in the island of Santa Cruz, and was now returning to Denmark to enjoy it. He expatiated on the style in which he meant to live, and the great undertakings which he proposed to himself to com mence, till, the brandy aiding his vanity, and his vanity and rulity aiding the brandy, he talked like a madman-entieated me to accompany him to Denmark-there I should see his influence with the government, and he would introduce me to the king, &c., &c. Thus he went on dreaming aloud, and then passing with a very lyrical transition to the subject of general politics, he declaimed, like a member of the Corresponding Society, about (not concerning) the Rights of Man, and assured me that, notwithstanding his fortune, he thought the poorest man alive his equal. "All are equal, my dear friend! all are equal' Ve are all Got's children. The poorest man haf the sams rights with me. Jack! Jack! some more sugar and brandy. Dhere is that fellow now! He is a Mulatto-but he is my equal. That's right, Jack! (taking the sugar and brandy.) Here you, Sir! shake hands with dhis gentleman! Shake hands with me, you dog! Dhere, dhere!-We are all equal, my dear riend!Do I not speak like Socrates, and Plato, and Catohey were all philosophers, my dear philosophe all very great aen-and so was Homer and Virgil-but they were poets. Yes, yes! I know all about it!-But what can anybody say nore than this? We are all equal, all Got's children. I haf ven thousand a year, but I am no more dhan de meanest man alive. I haf no pride; and yet, my dear friend! I can say do! and it is done. Ha! ha! ha! my dear friend! Now dhere is dhat gentleman (pointing to Nobility) he is a Swedish baronyou shall see.. Ho! (calling to the Swede) get me, will you, a bottle of wine from the cabin. SWEDE.-Here, Jack! go and get your master a bottle of wine from the cabin. Dane. No, no, no! do you go now-you go yourself you go now! Swede. Hah!-Dane. Now go! Go, I pray you. And the Swede went!! After this the Dane commenced an harangue on religion, and mistaking me for un philosophe in the continental sense of the word, he talked of Deity in a declamatory style, very much resembling the devotional rants of that rude blunderer, Mr. Thomas Paine, in his Age of Reasoning, and whispered in my ear, what damned hypocrism all Jesus Christ's business was. I dare aver, that few men have less reason to charge themselves with indulg ing in persiflage than myself. I should hate it, if it were only |