experience comes wisdom."

"But, for my part," said Boulainvilliers, "I think Tacitus is not so
invariably the analyzer of vice as you would make him. Look at the
'Agricola' and the 'Germania.'"

"Ah! the 'Germany,' above all things!" cried Hamilton, dropping a
delicious morsel of /sanglier/ in its way from hand to mouth, in his
hurry to speak. "Of course, the historian, Boulainvilliers, advocates
the 'Germany,' from its mention of the origin of the feudal
system,--that incomparable bundle of excellences, which Le Comte de
Boulainvilliers has declared to be /le chef d'oeuvre de l'esprit
humain/; and which the same gentleman regrets, in the most pathetic
terms, no longer exists in order that the seigneur may feed upon /des
gros morceaux de boeuf demi-cru/, may hang up half his peasants /pour
encourager les autres/, and ravish the daughters of the defunct /pour
leur donner quelque consolation./"

"Seriously though," said the old Abbe de Chaulieu, with a twinkling eye,
"the last mentioned evil, my dear Hamilton, was not without a little
alloy of good."

"Yes," said Hamilton, "if it was only the daughters; but perhaps the
seigneur was not too scrupulous with regard to the wives."

"Ah! shocking, shocking!" cried Chaulieu, solemnly. "Adultery is,
indeed, an atrocious crime. I am sure I would most conscientiously cry
out with the honest preacher, 'Adultery, my children, is the blackest of
sins. I do declare that I would rather have /ten/ virgins in love with
me than /one/ married woman!'"