e Zaire, in the French
tragedy of that name. Properly introduced, will show not only your
knowledge of the language, but your general reading and wit. You can
say, for instance, that the chicken you were eating (write an article
about being choked to death by a chicken-bone) was not altogether aussi
tendre que Zaire. Write!

'Van muerte tan escondida,
Que no te sienta venir,
Porque el plazer del morir,
No mestorne a dar la vida.'

"That's Spanish--from Miguel de Cervantes. 'Come quickly, O death! but
be sure and don't let me see you coming, lest the pleasure I shall feel
at your appearance should unfortunately bring me back again to life.'
This you may slip in quite a propos when you are struggling in the last
agonies with the chicken-bone. Write!

_'Il pover 'huomo che non se'n era accorto, Andava combattendo, e era
morto.'_

"That's Italian, you perceive--from Ariosto. It means that a great hero,
in the heat of combat, not perceiving that he had been fairly killed,
continued to fight valiantly, dead as he was. The application of this
to your own case is obvious--for I trust, Miss Psyche, that you will
not neglect to kick for at least an hour and a half after you have been
choked to death by that chicken-bone. Please to write!

_'Und sterb'ich doch, no sterb'ich denn_

_Durch sie--durch sie!'_

"That's German--from Schiller. 'And if I die, at least I die--for
thee--for thee!' Here it is clear that you are apostrophizing the cause
of your disaster, the chicken. Indeed what gentleman (or lady either) of
sense, wouldn't die, I should like to know, for a well fattened capon of
the right Molucca breed, stuffed with capers and mushrooms, and served
up in a salad-bowl, with orange-jellies en mosaiques. Write! (You can
get them that way at Tortoni's)--Write, if you please!

"Here is a nice little Latin phrase, and rare too, (one can't be too
recherche or brief in one's Latin, it's getting so common--ignoratio
elenchi. He has committed an ignoratio elenchi--that is to say, he has
understood the words of your proposition, but not the idea. The man was
a fool, you see. Some poor fellow whom you address while choking with
that chicken-bone, and who therefore didn't precisely understand what
you were talking about. Throw the ignoratio elenchi in his teeth, and,
at once, you have him annihilated. If he dares to reply, you can tell
him from Lucan (here it is) that speeches are mere anemonae verbor