_Mercury._--Gentlemen, we here offer you a professor of the very best
and most select description. Who buys? Who wants to be a cut above the
rest of the world? Who wants to understand the harmonies of the universe
and to live two lives?

_Customer (turning the philosopher round and examining him)._--He’s not
bad to look at. What does he know best?

_Mercury._--Arithmetic, astronomy, prognostics, geometry, music, and
conjuring. You’ve a first-rate soothsayer before you.

_Customer._--May one ask him a few questions?

_Mercury._--Certainly--(_aside_), and much good may the answers do you.

_Customer._--What country do you come from?

_Pythagoras._--Samos.

_Customer._--Where were you educated?

_Pythagoras._--In Egypt, among the wise men there.

_Customer._--Suppose I buy you, now, what will you teach me?

_Pythagoras._--I will teach you nothing--only recall things to your
memory.

_Customer._--How will you do that?