To you, I allow, these optical affairs are indispensable.
Endeavor, Bon-Bon, to use them well;- my vision is the soul."
Hereupon the guest helped himself to the wine upon the table, and
pouring out a bumper for Bon-Bon, requested him to drink it without
scruple, and make himself perfectly at home.
"A clever book that of yours, Pierre," resumed his Majesty,
tapping our friend knowingly upon the shoulder, as the latter put down
his glass after a thorough compliance with his visiter's injunction.
"A clever book that of yours, upon my honor. It's a work after my
own heart. Your arrangement of the matter, I think, however, might
be improved, and many of your notions remind me of Aristotle. That
philosopher was one of my most intimate acquaintances. I liked him
as much for his terrible ill temper, as for his happy knack at
making a blunder. There is only one solid truth in all that he has
written, and for that I gave him the hint out of pure compassion for
his absurdity. I suppose, Pierre Bon-Bon, you very well know to what
divine moral truth I am alluding?"
"Cannot say that I-"
"Indeed!- why it was I who told Aristotle that by sneezing, men
expelled superfluous ideas through the proboscis."
"Which is- hiccup!- undoubtedly the case," said the metaphysician,
while he poured out for himself another bumper of Mousseux, and
offered his snuff-box to the fingers of his visiter.
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