I Thought At First That I Was About To
Make A Fortune, And In Fact My Books Would Be So In Any Other
Place; But Here I Have Offered An Elzevir For Half A Dollar In
Vain.
I should starve were it not for the strangers who
occasionally purchase of me.
Myself. - Seville is a large cathedral city, abounding with priests
and canons; surely one of these occasionally visit you to make
purchases of classic works, and books connected with ecclesiastical
literature.
Dionysius. - If you think so, Kyrie, you know little respecting the
ecclesiastics of Seville. I am acquainted with many of them, and
can assure you that a tribe of beings can scarcely be found with a
more confirmed aversion to intellectual pursuits of every kind.
Their reading is confined to newspapers, which they take up in the
hope of seeing that their friend Don Carlos is at length reinstated
at Madrid; but they prefer their chocolate and biscuits, and nap
before dinner, to the wisdom of Plato and the eloquence of Tully.
They occasionally visit me, but it is only to pass away a heavy
hour in chattering nonsense. Once on a time, three of them came,
in the hope of making me a convert to their Latin superstition.
"Signior Donatio," said they, (for so they called me,) "how is it
that an unprejudiced person like yourself, a man really with some
pretension to knowledge, can still cling to this absurd religion of
yours? Surely, after having resided so many years in a civilised
country like this of Spain, it is high time to abandon your half-
pagan form of worship, and to enter the bosom of the church; now
pray be advised, and you shall be none the worse for it." "Thank
you, gentlemen," I replied, "for the interest you take in my
welfare; I am always open to conviction; let us proceed to discuss
the subject.
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