bent toward languages and historical criticism. In
his early youth he showed a marked preference for uncanonical pursuits
and heretical doctrines and before he had reached his thirtieth year
prudence counseled him to prevent the consequences of his heresy and
avoid the too pressing Inquisition by a timely flight into France.
He arrived there in time to throw himself into the fight for liberty,
and in 1800 we find him at Basle attached to the staff of General Moreau.
While there he is said to have amused himself and some of his cronies by
writing notes on what Davenport would have called "Forbidden Subjects,"
and, as a means of publishing his erotic lucubrations, he constructed
this fragment, which brings in those topics on which he had enlarged.
He translated the fragment into French, attached his notes, and issued
the book. There is another story to the effect that he had been
reprimanded by Moreau for having written a loose song and that he
exculpated himself by assuring the general that it was but a new fragment
of Petronius which he had translated. Two days later he had the fragment
ready to prove his contention.

This is the account given by his Spanish biographer. In his preface,
dedicated to the Army of the Rhine, he states that he found the fragment
in a manuscript of the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests,
probably of the XI Century. A close examination revealed the fact that
it was a palimpsest which, after treatment, permitted the restoration of
this fragment. It is supposed to supply the gap in Chapter 26 after the
word "verberabant."

Its obscenity outrivals that of the preceding text, and the grammar,
style, and curiosa felicitas Petroniana make it an almost perfect
imitation. There is no internal evidence of forgery. If the text is
closely scrutinized it will be seen that it is composed of words and
expressions taken from various parts of the Satyricon, "and that in every
line it has exactly the Petronian turn of phrase."

"Not only is the original edition unprocurable," to quote again from
Mr. Gaselee's invaluable bibliography, "but the reprint at Soleure
(Brussels), 1865, consisted of only 120 copies, and is hard to find.
The most accessible place for English readers is in Bohn's translation,
in which, however, only the Latin text is given; and the notes were a
most important part of the original work."

These notes, humorously and perhaps sarcastically ascribed to Lallemand,
San