these words:

"'Ille horridus alter
Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum.'

"'Of a horrible and slothful figure, dragging along the ignoble weight of
the belly,' Senor Don Jose."

"You do well to translate it for me," said Pepe, "for I know very little
Latin."

"Oh, why should the men of the present day spend their time in studying
things that are out of date?" said the canon ironically. "Besides,
only poor creatures like Virgil and Cicero and Livy wrote in Latin. I,
however, am of a different way of thinking; as witness my nephew, to
whom I have taught that sublime language. The rascal knows it better
than I do. The worst of it is, that with his modern reading he is
forgetting it; and some fine day, without ever having suspected it, he
will find out that he is an ignoramus. For, Senor Don Jose, my nephew
has taken to studying the newest books and the most extravagant
theories, and it is Flammarion here and Flammarion there, and nothing
will do him but that the stars are full of people. Come, I fancy that
you two are going to be very good friends. Jacinto, beg this gentleman
to teach you the higher mathematics, to instruct you concerning the
German philosophers, and then you will be a man."

The worthy ecclesiastic laughed at his own wit, while Jacinto, delighted
to see the conversation turn on a theme so greatly to his taste, after
excusing himself to Pepe Rey, suddenly hurled this question at him: