have seen the sacred shield which fell from heaven in the time of
Numa. And surely you should obtain the sword which Washington
unsheathed at Cambridge. But the collection does you much credit.
Let us pass on."

In the next alcove we saw the golden thigh of Pythagoras, which had
so divine a meaning; and, by one of the queer analogies to which the
virtuoso seemed to be addicted, this ancient emblem lay on the same
shelf with Peter Stuyvesant's wooden leg, that was fabled to be of
silver. Here was a remnant of the Golden Fleece, and a sprig of
yellow leaves that resembled the foliage of a frost-bitten elm, but
was duly authenticated as a portion of the golden branch by which
AEneas gained admittance to the realm of Pluto. Atalanta's golden
apple and one of the apples of discord were wrapped in the napkin of
gold which Rampsinitus brought from Hades; and the whole were
deposited in the golden vase of Bias, with its inscription: "TO THE
WISEST."

"And how did you obtain this vase?" said I to the virtuoso.

"It was given me long ago," replied he, with a scornful expression
in his eye, "because I had learned to despise all things."

It had not escaped me that, though the virtuoso was evidently a man
of high cultivation, yet he seemed to lack sympathy with the
spiritual, the sublime, and the tender. Apart from the whim that
had led him to devote so much time, pains, and expense to the
collection of this museum, he impressed me as one of the hardest and
coldest men of the world whom I had ever met.