CHAPTER XX

A Jew Named Mardocheus Becomes My Travelling Companion--He Persuades Me
to Lodge in His House--I Fall in Love With His Daughter Leah--After a
Stay of Six Weeks I Go to Trieste

Some time elapsed before I had time to examine the Marquis of Mosca's
collection of Latin poets, amongst which the 'Priapeia' found no place.

No doubt this work bore witness to his love for literature but not to his
learning, for there was nothing of his own in it. All he had done was to
classify each fragment in chronological order. I should have liked to see
notes, comments, explanations, and such like; but there was nothing of
the kind. Besides, the type was not elegant, the margins were poor, the
paper common, and misprints not infrequent. All these are bad faults,
especially in a work which should have become a classic. Consequently,
the book was not a profitable one; and as the marquis was not a rich man
he was occasionally reproached by his wife for the money he had expended.

I read his treatise on almsgiving and his apology for it, and understood
a good deal of the marquis's way of thinking. I could easily imagine that
his writings must have given great offence at Rome, and that with sounder
judgment he would have avoided this danger. Of course the marquis was
really in the right, but in theology one is only in the right when Rome
says yes.

The marquis was a rigorist, and though he had a tincture of Jansenism he
often differed from St. Augustine.