s a dash of the pencil across some final verse, with
the remark, "Better without these." Twice or thrice Landor finds fault
with a word. He objects to the expression, "eyes so fair," saying _fair_
is a bad word for eyes.

* * * * *

The subject of Latin being one day mentioned, Landor very eagerly
proposed that I should study this language with him.

The thought was awful, and I expostulated. "But, Mr. Landor, you who are
so noble a Latinist can never have the patience to instruct such a
stumbling scholar."

"I insist upon it. You shall be my first pupil," he said, laughing at
the idea of beginning to teach in his extreme old age. "It will give the
old man something to do."

"But you will get very tired of me, Mr. Landor."

"Well, well, I'll tell you when I am tired. You say you have a grammar;
then I'll bring along with me to-morrow something to read."

True to his promise, the "old pedagogue," for so he was wont to call
himself, made his appearance with a time-worn Virgil under his arm,--a
Virgil that in 1809 was the property, according to much pen and ink
scribbling, of one "John Prince, aetat. 12. College School, Hereford."

"Now, then, for our lesson," Landor exclaimed, in a cheery voice.
"Giallo knows all about it, and quite approves of the arrangement. Don't
you, Giallo?" And the wise dog wagged his sympathetic tail, jumped up on
his master's knees, and put his fore paws around Landor's neck. "There,
you see, he gives consent; for this is the way Giallo expresses
approbation."

The kindness and amiability of my teacher made me forget his greatness,
and I soon found myself reciting with as much ease as if there had been
nothing strange in the affair. He was very patient, and never found
fault with me, but his criticisms on my Latin grammar were frequent and
severe. "It is strange," he would mutter, "that men cannot do things
properly. There is no necessity for this rule; it only confuses the
pupil. That note is absurd; this, unintelligible. Grammars should be
made more comprehensible."

Expressing a preference for the Italian method of pronunciation, I dared
to say that it seemed to be the most correct, inasmuch as the Italian
language was but bastard Latin. The master, however, would not listen to
such heresy, and declared that, with the exception of the French, the
Italian was the worst possible pronunciation to adopt; that the German
method was the most correct, and af