but almost senseless.

To have taken no notice of the Dutchman's heavy wit would have been, I
confess, a mark of stupidity, but no one but a Turk could have laughed
like that. It may be said that a great Greek philosopher died of laughter
at seeing a toothless old woman trying to eat figs. But there is a great
difference between a Turk and a Greek, especially an ancient Greek.

Those who laugh a good deal are more fortunate than those who do not
laugh at all, as laughter is good for the digestion; but there is a just
mean in everything.

When I had gone two leagues from Amsterdam in my posting-chaise on two
wheels, my servant sitting beside me, I met a carriage on four wheels,
drawn like mine by two horses, and containing a fine-looking young man
and his servant. His coachman called out to mine to make way for him. My
coachman answered that if he did he might turn me into the ditch, but the
other insisted on it. I spoke to the master, begging him to tell his
coachman to make way for me.

"I am posting, sir," said I; "and, moreover, I am a foreigner."

"Sir," answered he, "in Holland we take no notice of posting or not
posting; and if you are foreigner, as you say, you must confess that you
have fewer rights than I who am in my own country."

The blood rushed to my face. I flung open the door with one hand and took
my sword with the other; and leaping into the snow, which was up to my
knees, I drew my sword, and summoned the Dutchman to give way or defend
himself. He was cooler than I, and replied, smiling, that he was not