For some years these young men's advantages
had been quite favorable, and withal they had not been negligent in their
studies. They were exceedingly vain of their acquirements, and their
pride and arrogance kept pace with their vanity. The success of others,
to them, was invariably a source of mortification.

They had already heard complimentary reports of the youths of Judah from
no mean sources; and they became their foes, and were determined to see
them humbled. As students, they met but seldom, and the real acquirements
of the Israelitish youths were not known to these envious Chaldeans. With
these two victims of vanity and envy was cast the unhappy lot of another
youth, their cousin. He was of "humbler birth," as the term is used, but
almost infinitely their superior in everything that beautifies and adorns
humanity. He was frank, generous, noble, and endowed with no small share
of natural wit. For his conceited cousins he was anything but a pleasant
companion; and daily was their arrogance rebuked by his far-searching
repartees. Thus have we introduced to the reader three young Chaldeans,
Scribbo and Shagoth, with their Cousin Apgomer.

"I cannot, for my part," said Scribbo, "see the propriety of elevating
these contemptible captives to share equal privileges with the native
sons of Chaldea. Surely the king, in this, has betrayed a lamentable lack
of discernment."

"Truly!" replied Shagoth, with an air of consequence. "And if he does not
ere long see his folly, and retrace his steps, he will lose my
confidence, and that of all the members of our house."

"May the gods pity the king!" cried Apgomer, with a feigned solemn
visage. "Peradventure, that in the great pressure of business he forgot
that the confidence of my illustrious cousins was so essential to his
well-being, as well as the safety and perpetuity of the empire."

"My remarks were called forth by the sensible statement of my brother,"
said Shagoth, peevishly; "and it would have been perfectly excusable in
thee to have remained silent, until I should have thought fit to make
some remarks suitable to the capacity of thy mind."

"My worthy cousin will, I trust, in the plenitude of his overflowing
generosity, pardon the officiousness of his unworthy servant of limited
capacities, and believe him when he assures thee that those remarks were
offered as an humble apology for the great sovereign of the Chaldean
empire; and I still hope that, in the richness