BOOK TENTH.

INITIAL CHAPTER.


UPON THIS FACT,--THAT THE WORLD IS STILL MUCH THE SAME AS IT ALWAYS HAS
BEEN.

It is observed by a very pleasant writer, read nowadays only by the brave
pertinacious few who still struggle hard to rescue from the House of
Pluto the souls of departed authors, jostled and chased as those souls
are by the noisy footsteps of the living,--it is observed by the
admirable Charron, that "judgment and wisdom is not only the best, but
the happiest portion God Almighty hath distributed amongst men; for
though this distribution be made with a very uneven hand, yet nobody
thinks himself stinted or ill-dealt with, but he that hath never so
little is contented in this respect."

And, certainly, the present narrative may serve in notable illustration
of the remark so dryly made by the witty and wise preacher. For whether
our friend Riccabocca deduce theories for daily life from the great folio
of Machiavelli; or that promising young gentleman, Mr. Randal Leslie,
interpret the power of knowledge into the art of being too knowing for
dull honest folks to cope with him; or acute Dick Avenel push his way up
the social ascent with a blow for those before, and a kick for those
behind him, after the approved fashion of your strong New Man; or Baron
Levy--that cynical impersonation of Gold--compare himself to the Magnetic
Rock in the Arabian tale, to which the nails in every ship that
approaches the influence of the loadstone fly from the planks, and a
shipwreck per day adds its waifs to the Rock,--questionless, at least; it