quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of Nature, and those

affections which arise out of her, which make us love each other, -
and the world, better than we do.

The Count said a great many civil things to me upon the occasion;
and added very politely, how much he stood obliged to Shakespeare

for making me known to him. - But a propos, said he; - Shakespeare
is full of great things; - he forgot a small punctilio of

announcing your name: - it puts you under a necessity of doing it
yourself.

THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES.
There is not a more perplexing affair in life to me, than to set

about telling any one who I am, - for there is scarce any body I
cannot give a better account of than myself; and I have often

wished I could do it in a single word, - and have an end of it. It
was the only time and occasion in my life I could accomplish this

to any purpose; - for Shakespeare lying upon the table, and
recollecting I was in his books, I took up Hamlet, and turning

immediately to the grave-diggers' scene in the fifth act, I laid my
finger upon Yorick, and advancing the book to the Count, with my

finger all the way over the name, - Me voici! said I.
Now, whether the idea of poor Yorick's skull was put out of the

Count's mind by the reality of my own, or by what magic he could
drop a period of seven or eight hundred years, makes nothing in

this account; - 'tis certain the French conceive better than they
combine; - I wonder at nothing in this world, and the less at this;

inasmuch as one of the first of our own Church, for whose candour
and paternal sentiments I have the highest veneration, fell into

the same mistake in the very same case: - "He could not bear," he
said, "to look into the sermons wrote by the King of Denmark's

jester." Good, my Lord said I; but there are two Yoricks. The
Yorick your Lordship thinks of, has been dead and buried eight

hundred years ago; he flourished in Horwendillus's court; - the
other Yorick is myself, who have flourished, my Lord, in no court.

- He shook his head. Good God! said I, you might as well confound
Alexander the Great with Alexander the Coppersmith, my lord! -

"'Twas all one," he replied. -
- If Alexander, King of Macedon, could have translated your

Lordship, said I, I'm sure your Lordship would not have said so.
The poor Count de B- fell but into the same ERROR.

- Et, Monsieur, est-il Yorick? cried the Count. - Je le suis, said
I. - Vous? - Moi, - moi qui ai l'honneur de vous parler, Monsieur

le Comte. - Mon Dieu! said he, embracing me, - Vous etes Yorick!
The Count instantly put the Shakespeare into his pocket, and left

me alone in his room.
THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES.

I could not conceive why the Count de B- had gone so abruptly out
of the room, any more than I could conceive why he had put the

Shakespeare into his pocket. -
Mysteries which must explain themselves are not worth the loss of

time which a conjecture about them takes up: 'twas better to read
Shakespeare; so taking up "Much Ado About Nothing," I transported

myself instantly from the chair I sat in to Messina in Sicily, and
got so busy with Don Pedro, and Benedict, and Beatrice, that I

thought not of Versailles, the Count, or the passport.
Sweet pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself

to illusions, which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary
moments! - Long, - long since had ye number'd out my days, had I

not trod so great a part of them upon this enchanted ground. When
my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I

get off it, to some smooth velvet path, which Fancy has scattered
over with rosebuds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it,

come back strengthened and refresh'd. - When evils press sore upon
me, and there is no retreat from them in this world, then I take a

new course; - I leave it, - and as I have a clearer idea of the
Elysian fields than I have of heaven, I force myself, like AEneas,

into them. - I see him meet the pensive shade of his forsaken Dido,
and wish to recognise it; - I see the injured spirit wave her head,

and turn off silent from the author of her miseries and dishonours;
- I lose the feelings for myself in hers, and in those affections

which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school.
Surely this is not walking in a vain shadow - nor does man disquiet

himself in vain by it: -he oftener does so in trusting the issue of
his commotions to reason only. - I can safely say for myself, I was

never able to conquer any one single bad sensation in my heart so
decisively, as beating up as fast as I could for some kindly and

gentle sensation to fight it upon its own ground
When I had got to the end of the third act the Count de B- entered,

with my passport in his hand. Monsieur le Duc de C-, said the
Count, is as good a prophet, I dare say, as he is a statesman. Un

homme qui rit, said the Duke, ne sera jamais dangereux. - Had it
been for any one but the king's jester, added the Count, I could

not have got it these two hours. - Pardonnez moi, Monsieur le
Count, said I - I am not the king's jester. - But you are Yorick? -

Yes. - Et vous plaisantez? - I answered, Indeed I did jest, - but
was not paid for it; - 'twas entirely at my own expense.

We have no jester at court, Monsieur le Count, said I; the last we
had was in the licentious reign of Charles II.; - since which time

our manners have been so gradually refining, that our court at
present is so full of patriots, who wish for NOTHING but the

honours and wealth of their country; - and our ladies are all so
chaste, so spotless, so good, so devout, - there is nothing for a

jester to make a jest of. -
Voila un persiflage! cried the Count.

THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES.
As the passport was directed to all lieutenant-governors,

governors, and commandants of cities, generals of armies,
justiciaries, and all officers of justice, to let Mr. Yorick the

king's jester, and his baggage, travel quietly along, I own the
triumph of obtaining the passport was not a little tarnish'd by the

figure I cut in it. - But there is nothing unmix'd in this world;
and some of the gravest of our divines have carried it so far as to

affirm, that enjoyment itself was attended even with a sigh, - and
that the greatest THEY KNEW OF terminated, IN A GENERAL WAY, in

little better than a convulsion.
I remember the grave and learned Bevoriskius, in his Commentary

upon the Generations from Adam, very naturally breaks off in the
middle of a note to give an account to the world of a couple of

sparrows upon the out-edge of his window, which had incommoded him
all the time he wrote, and at last had entirely taken him off from

his genealogy.
- 'Tis strange! writes Bevoriskius; but the facts are certain, for

I have had the curiosity to mark them down one by one with my pen;
- but the cock sparrow, during the little time that I could have

finished the other half of this note, has actually interrupted me
with the reiteration of his caresses three-and-twenty times and a

half.
How merciful, adds Bevoriskius, is heaven to his creatures!

Ill fated Yorick! that the gravest of thy brethren should be able
to write that to the world, which stains thy face with crimson to

copy, even in thy study.
But this is nothing to my travels. - So I twice, - twice beg pardon

for it.
CHARACTER. VERSAILLES.

And how do you find the French? said the Count de B-, after he had
given me the passport.

The reader may suppose, that after so obliging a proof of courtesy,
I could not be at a loss to say something handsome to the enquiry.