He was a merry drunken fellow,
but would by no means handle any money (for something I purchased of
him), it being Saturday; but desired me to leave it in the window,
meaning to receive it on Sunday morning."
In an old book-shop at Leyden I bought from an odd lot of English
books, chiefly minor fiction for travellers, the _Colloquia
Peripatetica_ of John Duncan, LL.D., Professor of Hebrew in the
New College, Edinburgh. "I'm first a Christian, next a Catholic,
then a Calvinist, fourth a Paedo-baptist, and fifth a Presbyterian. I
cannot reverse the order," is one of his emphatic utterances. Here
are others, not unconnected with the country we are travelling in:
"Poor Erasmus truckled all his life for a hat. If he could only have
been made a cardinal! You see the longing for it in his very features,
and can't help regarding him with mingled respect and pity." Of
Thomas a Kempis, the recluse of Deventer: "A fine fellow, but hazy,
and weak betimes. He and his school tend (as some one has well said)
to make humility and humiliation change places." Finally, of the Bible:
"The three best translations of the Bible, in my opinion, are, in order
of merit, the English, the Dutch, and Diodati's Italian version. As
to Luther, he is admirable in rendering the prophets.
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