k\
and spoke French distinctly; he contrived
to touch upon subjects which elicited general
conversation. This was no mean art
in a country where neither religion nor
politics could be publicly discussed ; for we
could not forget that we were under the
dominion of an absolute prince, governed
at the time by a foreign power still more
despotic. Indeed, the issue of the insurrection
in Piedmont was fresh in the minds
of every one ; and those who approved and
those who censured it, all joined secretly
in execrating the perfidious policy of the
Austrians, who were inciting the Sardinian
government to acts of cruelty and oppression
against the most respectable families,
in order to excite disaflfection, merely as a
plea to prolong and perpetuate their own
possession of the country. Among the
company were two characters I cannot soon
forget: one an opulent merchant from
Lyons; the other,his less successful friend,
from Valence, whom he had brought at his
own expence as a companion. The first
was about fifty-five years of age, rather low
in stature, but corpulent, smooth, and
sleek, with regular features, light blue
eyes, and an air of good-humoured satis131
faction in his countenance, as if he looked
always on the sunny side of the vale of life,
and regarded this as the best of all possible
worlds; he had, withal, a certain degree of
conscious importance, derived from the
possession of wealth. He was dressed in a
sky-blue coat, his hair was powdered and
tied in a club, and he wore a large hat
when he walked out. His friend, somewhat
older, was tall and meagre, and had a
thoughtful dissatisfied look; his lips were
curled into a settled snarl, and the whole
expression of his countenance indicated a
mind not morose by nature, but deeply
soured by disappointment, and disposed to
look at the dark side of objects, and to cry
out with the preacher, “ All is vanity and
vexation of spirit.” The latter Platonists
maintained, that there is an intimate connection
between the physical and intellectual
worlds, and that each element and
property of matter has its corresponding
genius residing in the intermundane space:
according to this system, one of the friends
might be supposed to represent the genius
of Oil, the other that of Vinegar. Be this
as it may. Oil and Vinegar were the names
by which the two friends were known in
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