NO matter—as an appendage to seamstressy, the thread-paper might be of
some consequence to my mother—of none to my father, as a mark in
_Slawkenbergius. Slawkenbergius_ in every page of him was a rich
treasure of inexhaustible knowledge to my father—he could not open him
amiss; and he would often say in closing the book, that if all the arts
and sciences in the world, with the books which treated of them, were
lost—should the wisdom and policies of governments, he would say,
through disuse, ever happen to be forgot, and all that statesmen had
wrote or caused to be written, upon the strong or the weak sides of
courts and kingdoms, should they be forgot also—and _Slawkenbergius_
only left——there would be enough in him in all conscience, he would
say, to set the world a-going again. A treasure therefore was he
indeed! an institute of all that was necessary to be known of noses,
and every thing else—at _matin_, noon, and vespers was _Hafen
Slawkenbergius_ his recreation and delight: ’twas for ever in his
hands——you would have sworn, Sir, it had been a canon’s prayer-book—so
worn, so glazed, so contrited and attrited was it with fingers and with
thumbs in all its parts, from one end even unto the other.
I am not such a bigot to _Slawkenbergius_ as my father;——there is a
fund in him, no doubt: but in my opinion, the best, I don’t say the
most profitable, but the most amusing part of _Hafen Slawkenbergius_,
is his tales——and, considering he was a _German_, many of them told not
without fancy:——these take up his second book, containing nearly one
half of his folio, and are comprehended in ten decads, each decad
containing ten tales——Philosophy is not built upon tales; and therefore
’twas certainly wrong in _Slawkenbergius_ to send them into the world
by that name!——there are a few of them in his eighth, ninth, and tenth
decads, which I own seem rather playful and sportive, than
speculative—but in general they are to be looked upon by the learned as
a detail of so many independent facts, all of them turning round
somehow or other upon the main hinges of his subject, and added to his
work as so many illustrations upon the doctrines of noses.
As we have leisure enough upon our hands——if you give me leave, madam,
I’ll tell you the ninth tale of his tenth decad.