tumble,--let the common fellow, who has
made it his business, imitate the song of birds and the gestures of
animals, but not the man of quality, who can deserve no credit or renown
from any skill in these things.

_Scip._ Enough said, Berganza; I understand you; go on.

_Berg._ Would that others for whom I say this understood me as well! For
there is something or other in my nature which makes me feel greatly
shocked when I see a cavalier make a buffoon of himself, and taking
pride in being able to play at thimblerig, and in dancing the _chacona_
to perfection, I know a cavalier who boasted, that he had, at the
request of a sacristan, cut out thirty-two paper ornaments, to stick
upon the black cloth over a monument; and he was so proud of his
performance that he took his friends to see it, as though he were
showing them pennons and trophies taken from the enemy, and hung over
the tombs of his forefathers. Well, this merchant I have been telling
you of had two sons, one aged twelve, the other about fourteen, who were
studying the humanities in the classes of the Company of Jesus. They
went in pomp to the college, accompanied by their tutor, and by pages to
carry their books, and what they called their Vademecum. To see them go
with such parade, on horseback in fine weather, and in a carriage when
it rained, made me wonder at the plain manner in which their father
went abroad upon his business, attended by no other servant than a
negro, and sometimes mounted upon a sorry mule.

_Scip._ You must know, Berganza, that it is a customary thing with the
merchants of Seville, and of other cities also, to display their wealth
and importance, not in their own persons, but in those of their sons:
for merchants are greater in their shadows than in themselves; and as
they rarely attend to anything else than their bargains, they spend
little on themselves; but as ambition and wealth burn to display
themselves, they show their own in the persons of their sons,
maintaining them as sumptuously as if they were sons of princes.
Sometimes too they purchase titles for them, and set upon their breasts
the mark that so much distinguishes men of rank from the commonalty.

_Berg._ It is ambition, but a generous ambition that seeks to improve
one's condition without prejudice to others.

_Scip._ Seldom or never can ambition consist with abstinence from injury
to others.

_Berg._ Have we not said that we are not to speak evil of any one?