nt que Balzac--
Plus sage que Pibrac;
Mon bras seul faisant l'attaque
De la nation cossaque,
La mettroit au sac;
De Charon je passerois le lac
En dormant dans son bac;
J'irois au fier Eac,
Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac,
Presenter du tabac.
--_French Vaudeville._

That Pierre Bon-Bon was a _restaurateur_ of uncommon qualifications,
no man who, during the reign of ----, frequented the little _cafe_ in
the _cul-de-sac_ Le Febvre at Rouen, will, I imagine, feel himself at
liberty to dispute. That Pierre Bon-Bon was, in an equal degree,
skilled in the philosophy of that period is, I presume, still more
especially undeniable. His _pates a la fois_ were beyond doubt
immaculate; but what pen can do justice to his essays _sur la
Nature_--his thoughts _sur l'Ame_--his observations _sur l'Esprit_? If
his _omelettes_--if his _fricandeaux_ were inestimable, what
_litterateur_ of that day would not have given twice as much for an
"_Idee de Bon-Bon_" as for all the trash of all the "_Idees_" of all
the rest of the _savants_? Bon-Bon had ransacked libraries which no
other man had ransacked--had read more than any other would have
entertained a notion of reading--had understood more than any other
would have conceived the possibility of understanding; and although,
while he flourished, there were not wanting some authors at Rouen to
assert "that his _dicta_ evinced neither the purity of the Academy,
nor the depth of the Lyceum"--although, mark me, his doctrines were by
no means very generally comprehended, still it did not follow that
they were difficult of comprehension. It was, I think, on account of
their self-evidency that many persons were led to consider them
abstruse. It is to Bon-Bon--but let this go no further--it is to
Bon-Bon that Kant himself is mainly indebted for his metaphysics. The
former was indeed not a Platonist, nor strictly speaking an
Aristotelian--nor did he, like the modern Leibnitz, waste those
precious hours which might be employed in the invention of a
_fricassee_ or, _facili gradu_, the analysis of a sensation, in
frivolous attempts at reconciling the obstinate oils and waters of
ethical discussion. Not at all. Bon-Bon was Ionic--Bon-Bon was equally
Italic. He reasoned _a priori_--He reasoned _a posteriori_. His ideas
were innate--or otherwise. He believed in George of Trebizond--he
believed in Bossarion. Bon-Bon was emphatically a--Bon-Boni