o_ say I sell coins?' 'Sir,' I say, 'all the
whole world say so.' Den he say, '_D--n all the whole world_; and when
any body tell you this again, say Abate _Rizzi_ call him a d----d fool,
and say he may go to h-ll!!!'" "Abate Rizzi!! why, that is the
_Professor of Eloquence_ to whom we were to be introduced yesterday."
"Yes, sir," says Jack, "and here he comes," glancing up the street. We
now see a personage, whose staid deportment and gait declare him to be
much beyond the age when it may be thought allowable to swear. "You
rascal, you have been telling us a lie; that gentleman could never have
said, damn the whole world." "He did not speak it in _English, sir_."
"Not speak it in English? why, what did he say?" "Sir, he say, '_Cazzo!
questa e una minchioneria!_' that means 'damn fool,' sir,--'_dettia
tutti d' andare al diavolo_,' that be the same as tell every body go to
h-ll!!" (the translation in this case we thought not _so_ bad;) we had
not, however, time to discuss the matter, for the Professor of
Eloquence, who had indulged our servant _pro re nata_ with so very
unusual a specimen of his art, was at our elbow. We saluted him
courteously, but offended dignity was apparent in a grave face of
considerable _church_ power; we therefore subjoined to the ordinary
salutation much regret at the awkwardness of our guide, and apologised
for intruding on his repose; which apologies, and further explanations,
immediately changed the current in our favour. Jack, too, regretted he
had been so indiscreet as to be misled by _current reports_; but _this_
was to rouse the calmed resentment into a new explosion. "_Who_," he
demanded, in very Demosthenic accents--"_who_ had dared to affirm that
he had ever sold a coin?" We went in, saw his very beautiful collection,
the Professor himself doing the honours with so much obligingness, that
we left him convinced that he neither sold coin nor dispensed anathemas.

EAR OF DIONYSIUS.

"Lautumias Syracusanas omnes audistis; plerique nostis. Opus
est ingens magnificum regumac tyrannorum. Totum est ex saxo in
mirandam altitudenem depresso, et multorum operis penitus
exciso. Nihil tam clausum ad exitus, nihil tam septum undique,
nihil tam tutum ad custodias, nec fieri nec cogitari potest."

Half an hour's shaking in a _lettiga_ brings us without a stumble, by
the old forum of Syracuse, to the Ear of Dionysius, and those other
stone quarries so well described in the