designed for
those who are too wise to be happy.'

"This sentence confounded me greatly, especially as it seemed to
threaten me with carrying my wisdom back again to earth. I told the
judge, though he would not admit me at the gate, I hoped I had committed
no crime while alive which merited my being wise any longer. He answered
me, I must take my chance as to that matter, and immediately we turned
our backs to each other."

CHAPTER XVII

Julian enters into the person of a king.

"I was now born at Oviedo in Spain. My father's name was Veremond, and I
was adopted by my uncle king Alphonso the chaste.

"I don't recollect in all the pilgrimages I have made on earth that I
ever passed a more miserable infancy than now; being under the utmost
confinement and restraint, and surrounded with physicians who were
ever dosing me, and tutors who were continually plaguing me with their
instructions; even those hours of leisure which my inclination would
have spent in play were allotted to tedious pomp and ceremony, which,
at an age wherein I had no ambition to enjoy the servility of courtiers,
enslaved me more than it could the meanest of them. However, as I
advanced towards manhood, my condition made me some amends; for the most
beautiful women of their own accord threw out lures for me, and I had
the happiness, which no man in an inferior degree can arrive at, of
enjoying the most delicious creatures, without the previous and
tiresome ceremonies of courtship, unless with the most simple, young and
unexperienced. As for the court ladies, they regarded me rather as men
do the most lovely of the other sex; and, though they outwardly retained
some appearance of modesty, they in reality rather considered themselves
as receiving than conferring favors.

"Another happiness I enjoyed was in conferring favors of another sort;
for, as I was extremely good-natured and generous, so I had daily
opportunities of satisfying those passions. Besides my own princely
allowance, which was very bountiful, and with which I did many liberal
and good actions, I recommended numberless persons of merit in distress
to the king's notice, most of whom were provided for. Indeed, had I
sufficiently known my blessed situation at this time, I should have
grieved at nothing more than the death of Alphonso, by which the burden
of government devolved upon me; but, so blindly fond is ambition, and
such charms doth it fancy in the power and pomp and