C H A P. XLII. 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 Slaw- kenbergius. Slawkenbergius in every page of him was a rich treasury of inexhaustible knowledge to my father, -- he could not                           open [ 200 ] 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 go- vernments, he would say, through dis- use, 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 Slawkenber- gius 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              4              and [ 201 ] 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 Slawkenber- gius, 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 Hafem Slawkenbergius, is his tales, ---- and, con- sidering 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 comtaining 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 spor- tive, than speculative, -- but in general                           they [ 202 ] they are to be looked upon by the learn- ed as a detail of so many independent facts, all of them turning round some- how or other upon the main hinges of his subject, and collected by him with great fidelity, and added to his work as so ma- ny 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. THE END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.