knew
Plato, Bon-Bon?--ah, no, I beg a thousand pardons. He met me at
Athens, one day, in the Parthenon, and told me he was distressed for
an idea. I bade him write down that '[Greek: ho nous estin aulos].' He
said that he would do so, and went home, while I stepped over to the
pyramids. But my conscience smote me for having uttered a truth, even
to aid a friend, and hastening back to Athens, I arrived behind the
philosopher's chair as he was inditing the '[Greek: aulos].'

"Giving the lambda a fillip with my finger, I turned it upside down.
So the sentence now reads '[Greek: ho nous estin augos],' and is, you
perceive, the fundamental doctrine in his metaphysics."

"Were you ever at Rome?" asked the _restaurateur_, as he finished his
second bottle of Mousseaux, and drew from the closet a larger supply
of Chambertin.

"But once, Monsieur Bon-Bon, but once. There was a time," said the
Devil, as if reciting some passage from a book--"there was a time when
occurred an anarchy of five years, during which the republic, bereft
of all its officers, had no magistracy besides the tribunes of the
people, and these were not legally vested with any degree of executive
power--at that time, Monsieur Bon-Bon--at that time _only_ I was in
Rome, and I have no earthly acquaintance, consequently, with any of
its philosophy."[14]

[14] Ils ecrivaient sur la philosophie (_Cicero_,
_Lucretius_, _Seneca_), mais c'etait la philosophie
grecque.--_Condorcet._

"What do you think of--what do you think of--hiccup!--Epicurus?"

"What do I think of _whom_?" said the Devil, in astonishment; "you
surely do not mean to find any fault with Epicurus! What do I think of
Epicurus! Do you mean me, sir?--I am Epicurus! I am the same
philosopher who wrote each of the three hundred treatises commemorated
by Diogenes Laertes."

"That's a lie!" said the metaphysician, for the wine had gotten a
little into his head.

"Very well!--very well, sir!--very well, indeed, sir!" said his
Majesty, apparently much flattered.

"That's a lie!" repeated the _restaurateur_, dogmatically; "that's
a--hiccup!--a lie!"

"Well, well, have it your own way!" said the Devil, pacifically, and
Bon-Bon, having beaten his Majesty at an argument, thought it his duty
to conclude a second bottle of Chambertin.

"As I was saying," resumed the visitor--"as I was observing a little
while ago, there are some very _outre_ notions in that book of yours,
Monsieur Bon-Bon.