d a Dutch
picture of a butcher's shop, where all the charm was in detail.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I cannot admire anything of the kind. I must
take pleasure in the thing represented before I can derive any from the
representation.

_Mr. Pallet._ I am afraid, sir, as our favourite studies all lead us to
extreme opinions, you think the Greek painting was the better for not
having perspective, and the Greek music for not having harmony.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I think they had as much perspective and as much
harmony as was consistent with that simplicity which characterised their
painting and music as much as their poetry.

_Lord Curryfin._ What is your opinion, Mr. MacBorrowdale?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I think you may just buz that bottle before you.

_Lord Curryfin._ I mean your opinion of Greek perspective?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Troth, I am of opinion that a bottle looks smaller
at a distance than when it is close by, and I prefer it as a full-sized
object in the foreground.

_Lord Curryfin._ I have often wondered that a gentleman so well
qualified as you are to discuss all subjects should so carefully avoid
discussing any.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ After dinner, my lord, after dinner. I work hard
all the morning at serious things, sometimes till I get a headache,
which, however, does not often trouble me. After dinner I like to crack
my bottle and chirp and talk nonsense, and fit myself for the company of
Jack of Dover.

_Lord Curryfin._ Jack of Dover! Who was he?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ He was a man who travelled in search of a greater
fool than himself, and did not find him.{1}

1 _Jacke of Dover His Quest of Inquirie, or His Privy Search
for the Veriest Foote in England._ London, 1604. Reprinted
for the Percy Society, 1842.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He must have lived in odd times. In our days
he would not have gone far without falling in with a teetotaller, or
a decimal coinage man, or a school-for-all man, or a competitive
examination man, who would not allow a drayman to lower a barrel into a
cellar unless he could expound the mathematical principles by which he
performed the operation.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Nay, that is all pragmatical fooling. The fooling
Jack looked for was jovial fooling, fooling to the top of his bent,
excellent fooling, which, under the semblance of folly, was both merry
and wise. He did not look for mere unmixed folly, of which there never
was a deficiency. The f