in which to couch my approval; but he supplied it and said, "Is it not
Gottlich?" and I said it _was_ Gottlich; and while we finished the
two bottles, this solitary phrase sufficed for converse between
us, "Gottlich!" being uttered by each as he drained his glass, and
"Gottlich!" being re-echoed by his companion.

There is great wisdom in reducing our admiration to a word; giving,
as it were, a cognate number to our estimate of anything. Wherever we
amplify, we usually blunder: we employ epithets that disagree, or, in
even less questionable taste, soar into extravagances that are absurd.
Besides, our moods of highest enjoyment are not such as dispose to
talkativeness; the ecstasy that is most enthralling is self-contained.
Who, on looking at a glorious landscape, does not feel the insufferable
bathos of the descriptive enthusiast beside him? How grateful would
he own himself if he would be satisfied with one word for his
admiration! And if one needs this calm repose, this unbroken peace, for
the enjoyment of scenery, equally is it applicable to our appreciation
of a curious wine. I have no recollection that any further conversation
passed between us, but I have never ceased, and most probably never
shall cease, to have a perfect memory of the pleasant ramble of my
thoughts as I sat there sipping, sipping. I pondered long over a plan
of settling down in this place for life, by what means I could realize.
sufficient to live in that elevated sphere the host spoke of. If Potts
pere--I mean my father--were to learn that I were received in the
highest circles, admitted to all that was most socially exclusive, would
he be induced to make an adequate provision for me? He was an ambitious
and a worldly man; would he see in these beginnings of mine the seeds of
future greatness? Fathers, I well knew, are splendidly generous to
their successful children, and "the poor they send empty away." It is
so pleasant to aid him who does not need assistance, and such a hopeless
task to be always saving him who _will_ be drowned.

My first care, therefore, should be to impress upon my parent the
appropriateness of his contributing his share to what already was an
accomplished success. "Wishing, as the French say, to make you a part in
my triumph, dear father, I write these lines." How I picture him to my
mind's eye as he reads this, running frantically about to his neighbors,
and saying, "I have got a letter from Algy,--strange boy,--but as