with chirping. These, he told him, were sonnets, odes, and
dedications, addressed by venal poets to great people.

The paladin beheld with wonder what seemed a lake of spilled milk. "It
is," said the saint, "the charity done by frightened misers on their
death-beds." It would take too long to tell all that the valley
contained: meanness, affectations, pretended virtues, and concealed
vices were there in abundance.

Among the rest Astolpho perceived many days of his own lost, and many
imprudent sallies which he had made, and would have been glad not to
have been reminded of. But he also saw among so many lost things a
great abundance of one thing which men are apt to think they all
possess, and do not think it necessary to pray for,--good sense. This
commodity appeared under the form of a liquor, most light and apt to
evaporate. It was therefore kept in vials, firmly sealed. One of these
was labelled, "The sense of the Paladin Orlando."

All the bottles were ticketed, and the sage placed one in Astolpho's
hand, which he found was his own. It was more than half full. He was
surprised to find there many other vials which contained almost the
whole of the wits of many persons who passed among men for wise. Ah,
how easy it is to lose one's reason! Some lose theirs by yielding to
the sway of the passions; some in braving tempests and shoals in search
of wealth; some by trusting too much to the promises of the great; some
by setting their hearts on trifles. As might have been expected, the
bottles which held the wits of astrologers, inventors, metaphysicians,
and above all, of poets, were in general the best filled of all.

Astolpho took his bottle, put it to his nose, and inhaled it all; and
Turpin assures us that he was for a long time afterwards as sage as one
could wish; but the Archbishop adds that there was reason to fear that
some of the precious fluid afterwards found its way back into the
bottle. The paladin took also the bottle which belonged to Orlando. It
was a large one, and quite full.

Before quitting the planetary region Astolpho was conducted to an
edifice on the borders of a river. He was shown an immense hall full of
bundles of silk, linen, cotton, and wool. A thousand different colors,
brilliant or dull, some quite black, were among these skeins. In one
part of the hall an old woman was busy winding off yarns from all these
different bundles. When she had finished a skein another ancient dame
took it