Mont. I admit that. Jacob. I study husbandry and the cultivation of the soil: therefore, I opine, I am more learned than Mounseer.

Mont. In your opinion, then, the rude labour of a peasant is the most important?

Jacob. I do not rightly know about that; but of this I am sure, that if farmers were to take a piece of chalk in hand and commence busying themselves in trying to measure the distance between the earth and the moon, you high learned persons would soon get pinched in your stomachs. You scholars pass your time in disputing about the shape of the world, whether it be round, flat, or a triangle, while we farmers labour to keep up the fruitfulness of the earth. Does not Mounseer perceive from this that our occupation is the more important of the two, and that, consequently, Niels Christensen is the most learned man here in town, as he has improved his land to such a degree that it is worth thirty dollars an acre more than in the time of the man who held the lease before him, a fellow who sat the whole day with a pipe in his mouth poring over the dog-eared Chronicle of Arent Hvitfelt?

Mont. The deuce is in it! I never heard such a speech from the mouth of a peasant boy. Although all you have just said is false and presumptuous, yet it is surprising enough from one of your condition. Tell me where you have learned to talk in this manner.

Jacob. I have not been at college, as Mounseer knows, but I may have something in my head for all that. The circuit judge never comes to town but he sends for me; and his Honour has said many a time that my parents should have kept me to my books. When I have nothing else to do, I keep a-thinking and speculating on lots of things. Not long ago I made a verse on Morten

I had to recite it aloud to the judge the other day; he wrote it down in his note-book, and was so pleased that he gave me two marks.

Mont. The verse, though formaliter very bad, is materialiter excellent. The prosody, which is most important, is wanting.

Jacob. What does that mean? Mont. The lines have not proper pedes-feet.

Jacob. Faith, they have run over the whole country in a few days.

Mont. You are a cunning_rogue, and not devoid of parts. I could have wished you had studied and understood your Philosophiam instrumentalem-I could have used you to respond under me; come, let us go. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

A Lieutenant, Jesper.

Lieut. Yes, yes; I've heard of that learned youth, Mr. Bailiff. I think I could manage him. Is he a fine man?

Jesper. He looks well enough, and has a tongue like a razor.

Lieut. No matter about that, so that he is strong and sound.

Jesper. He says what he likes, and defends it too. He proved just now, beyond a doubt, that Peer Clerk was a cock.

Lieut. Is he pretty broad across the shoulders?

Jesper. A handsome, well-built young man. Everybody is afraid of

him, even his own parents; he can change them all to bulls and horses, and change them back again to human beings—that is, he can prove out of books that they are such. Lieut. Does he look as if he could stand hardship?

Jesper. He proved also that the earth was round.

Lieut. Pshaw! Does he seem a plucky fellow?

Jesper. He would peril his life for the spelling of a word. I am sure he will get all the people hereabouts down on him, but little he cares for that; whatever may happen, he won't budge an inch from his notions and conceits.

Lieut. From all I hear, Bailiff, I think he was made for a soldier. Jesper. 'Twould be a rare game, Lieutenant. Remember, he is a student.

Lieut. That is nothing. He can change folks into cocks and bulls, you say; let me see if I cannot change a student to a soldier.

Jesper. If you could only do that, sir, I would laugh myself to pieces.

Lieut. Say nothing about it; when the Bailiff and Lieutenant put their heads together it may not be so impossible; but here comes a pretty fellow-perhaps it is he?

SCENE II.

Montanus, The Lieutenant.

Lieut. Permit me to wish you joy of your return home.

Mont. I am obliged to your polite

ness.

Lieut. I have taken the liberty to pay my respects to Monsieur as the only gentleman of parts and letters in this poor place.

Mont. I am glad to make your acquaintance, Lieutenant; when did you graduate, if I may be so free to ask?

Lieut. It is now more than ten years ago.

Mont. Ah! the Lieutenant is an

old Academicus. Which faculty did you study?

Lieut. Truth to say I devoted myself principally to the old classical autores, and studied natural and moral law, which I still continue to do.

Mont. Saving your presence, that is not academicum. Paid you no attention to philosophiam instrumentalem?

Lieut. Not especially.

Mont. You have also never disputed?

Lieut. No, never.

Mont. And you call that to study? Philosophia instrumentalis, believe me, is the only solid studium; other branches may be interesting enough, but cannot be considered learned. One who thoroughly understands logica and metaphysica can manage himself everywhere, and dispute on all materiæ, even if they should be unknown to him. I hardly know a single subject of discussion which I could not undertake to defend, and successfully too: never a disputation took place at the Academy but that I volunteered to be opponens.

Lieut. Who is esteemed the greatest disputator at the present time?

Mont. It is a collegian named Peter Iversen. When he has refuted an adversary, so that he hasn't a word to say for himself any more, he will say, 'Now if you will take my opinion, I will take yours and defend that.' It is a pity that fellow did not become a lawyer, he would have made a mint of money. Next to him I am considered the strongest. Last time I disputed he whispered in my ear, Jam sumus ergo pares. Still I will always yield to him the preference.

Lieut. But I have been told that Monsieur could prove that it is the duty of a son to chastise his parents: that would be no easy matter to demonstrate, I opine.

Mont. If I have propounded such thesis, I am abundantly able to demonstrate the proposition.

Lieut. I will wager a ducat that Monsieur is not able to do it. Mont. I accept the wager. Lieut. Done-let us now hear. Mont. Those we love the most we chastise the most; we ought to love none more than our parents; hence, we ought to chastise them the most. And, by way of Syllogismus, I will further add: what I have received I am bound to repay; and as I, in my boyhood, have received many blows from my parents, it becomes my duty to return them again.

Lieut. Enough: I have lost; you have fairly won your ducat.

Mont. Surely, Lieutenant, I was not in earnest. I will profecto receive no money.

Lieut. You shall receive it, upon my honour: I swear you shall.

Mont. Well, then, I will consent to receive it to save you from perjuring yourself. [Accepts the money.]

Lieut. I hear you can transform people. Permit me to try and turn you into something else -par exemple: shall I make a soldier out of you?

Mont. Oh, that is easy enough: all we students are, in a manner, spiritual soldiers.

Lieut. Well, I will convince you that you are a bodily soldier as well. Listen: He who has taken the King's money is a regular enlisted soldier. You have just done that: ergo

Mont. Nego minorem.

Lieut. Et ego probo minorem of the money you just now received. Mont. Distinguendum est

nummos.

inter

Lieut. There is no distinction whatsoever; you are now a soldier. Mont. Distinguendum est inter simpliciter et relative accipere.

Lieut. Stuff and nonsense! The contract is concluded, and you have got your money.

Mont. Distinguendum est intercontractum verum et apparentum. Lieut. Do you deny that you have received my money?

Mont. But why did I take the money?-distinguendum est interLieut. I will stand no nonsense. Stay here, Niels, and watch him till I get the uniform.

[Niels collars him. Mont. Murder, murder!

Niels. If you don't stop your noise, you dog, I will run my bayonet through ye. Has he not enlisted, Bailiff?

Jesper. That he has, sure enough. Lieut. Now quick-off with the black coat and on with the red one. Pshaw! you are much better off now than ever you were. Drill him well, Corporal: begin at once. He is a very learned chap, but he is still raw in his manual.

[Niels (Corporal) takes him aside, drills him, and strikes him occasionally with his cane.

SCENE IV.

Lieutenant, Niels, Montanus. Lieut. Say, Corporal, does he learn his drill?

Niels. But slowly, sir. He is a lazy dog, and must be caned every minute.

Mont. Oh, gracious, master, have pity on me; I am in poor health, and cannot bear such treatment.

Lieut. It is somewhat hard at first, I grant; but when your back gets well hardened, you won't mind it so much another time.

Mont. Oh that I had never been

axiom of philosophy is to know yourself, and the more you do that the more modest you become, and the more conscious of how much is still to be learned. But you and your class wish to convert philosophy to a fencing school, and deem him a philosopher par excellence who, by all kinds of subtile distinctions and hairsplitting niceties, can confound the truth and make the worse appear the better cause. Through these practices ye get the ill-will of everybody and bring true learning into contempt, as the common people come to believe that all such sophistries are the legitimate fruits of scholarship. The best advice I can give you is, that you henceforward labour to forget what has cost you so many night-watches to acquire; and that you turn your mind to a profession by which you can earn your honest bread and advance in life; or, if you will continue to pursue your studies, at all events to do so on a different system, and with a different object.

Mont. Ah, gracious sir, I shall humbly be guided by your advice, and endeavour to be a better man in future.

Lieut. Good. I will then let you go when you have made a solemn promise of amendment to your

parents and parents-in-law, and humbly begged their pardon.

Mont. I do, then, most humbly beg everybody's pardon. I promise to lead a different life, and I repent me of my former follies, which I have been brought to see in their true light no more by my late predicament than by this brave gentleman's sound reason and weighty words, whom I shall always holdnext to my parents-in the highest esteem and reverence.

Jer. You retract then, my dear son-in-law, your pestiferous notion about the earth being round: that piece of heresy worries me most of all.

Mont. My dear father-in-law, I don't care to discuss that matter any farther: I will only remark that all men of learning hold now-adays that the earth is round.

Jer. The Devil! Oh, Mr. Lieutenant, do make him a soldier again, till he confesses that the earth is flat.

Mont. Hold, my dear sir. The earth is as flat as a pancake. Will that satisfy you?

Jer. Yes, perfectly. Now we are all friends again, and you shall have my daughter. Let us all go in and drink a glass to a general reconciliation. Lieutenant, do us the honour of joining us.