cabinets of natural history, and was soon restored to my sober
senses. A grave hippopotamus contributed a great deal to their
reestablishment.

The butterflies, I must needs confess, were very near leading me
another dance: I thought of their native hills and beloved flowers,
of Haynang and Nan-Hoa; {110} but the jargon which was prating all
around me prevented the excursion, and I summoned a decent share of
attention for that ample chamber which has been appropriated to
bottled snakes and pickled foetuses.

After having enjoyed the same spectacle in the British Museum, no
very new or singular objects can be selected in this. One of the
rarest articles it contains is the representation in wax of a human
head, most dexterously flayed indeed! Rapturous encomiums have been
bestowed by amateurs on this performance. A German professor could
hardly believe it artificial; and, prompted by the love of truth, set
his teeth in this delicious morsel to be convinced of its reality.
My faith was less hazardously established; and I moved off, under the
conviction that art had never produced anything more horridly
natural.

It was one o'clock before I got through the mineral kingdom; and
another hour passed before I could quit with decorum the regions of
stuffed birds and marine productions. At length my departure was
allowable; and I went to dine at Sir Joseph Yorke's, with all nations
and languages. The Hague is the place in the world for a motley
assembly, and, in some humours, I think such the most agreeable.

After coffee I strayed to the great wood, which, considering that it