mico."

Can the English public deny the justice of Pulci's illustration, after
something which it has lately witnessed? Has it not seen equivalents for
the hands and feet of brothers carried by popish perverts to the "holy
priests," and has it not seen the manner in which the offering has been
received? Let those who are in quest of bigotry seek for it among the
perverts to Rome, and not amongst those who, born in the pale of the
Church of England, have always continued in it.

CHAPTER III--On Foreign Nonsense.

With respect to the third point, various lessons which the book reads to
the nation at large, and which it would be well for the nation to ponder
and profit by.

There are many species of nonsense to which the nation is much addicted,
and of which the perusal of Lavengro ought to give them a wholesome
shame. First of all, with respect to the foreign nonsense so prevalent
now in England. The hero is a scholar; but, though possessed of a great
many tongues, he affects to be neither Frenchman, nor German, nor this or
that foreigner; he is one who loves his country, and the language and
literature of his country, and speaks up for each and all when there is
occasion to do so. Now what is the case with nine out of ten amongst
those of the English who study foreign languages? No sooner have they
picked up a smattering of this or that speech than they begin to abuse
their own country, and everything connected with it, more especially its
language. This is particularly the case with those who call themselves
German students. It is said, and the writer believes with truth, that
when a woman falls in love with a particularly ugly fellow, she squeezes
him with ten times more zest than she would a handsome one, if captivated
by him. So it is with these German students; no sooner have they taken
German in hand than there is nothing like German. Oh, the dear
delightful German! How proud I am that it is now my own, and that its
divine literature is within my reach! And all this whilst mumbling the
most uncouth speech, and crunching the most crabbed literature in Europe.
The writer is not an exclusive admirer of everything English; he does not
advise his country people never to go abroad, never to study foreign
languages, and he does not wish to persuade them that there is nothing
beautiful or valuable in foreign literature; he only wishes that they
would not make themselves fools with respect to foreign pe