et, let me tell you, sir, it is
not every dev--I mean it is not every gentleman who knows how to
_choose_ a philosopher. Long ones are _not_ good; and the best, if not
carefully shelled, are apt to be a little rancid on account of the
gall."

"Shelled!!"

"I mean taken out of the carcass."

"What do you think of a--hiccup!--physician?"

"_Don't_ mention them!--ugh! ugh!" (Here his Majesty retched
violently.) "I never tasted but one--that rascal Hippocrates!--smelt
of asafoetida--ugh! ugh! ugh!--caught a wretched cold washing him in
the Styx--and after all he gave me the cholera-morbus."

"The--hiccup!--wretch!" ejaculated Bon-Bon, "the--hiccup!--abortion of
a pill-box!"--and the philosopher dropped a tear.

"After all," continued the visitor, "after all, if a dev--if a
gentleman wishes to _live_, he must have more talents than one or two;
and with us a fat face is an evidence of diplomacy."

"How so?"

"Why we are sometimes exceedingly pushed for provisions. You must know
that, in a climate so sultry as mine, it is frequently impossible to
keep a spirit alive for more than two or three hours; and after death,
unless pickled immediately (and a pickled spirit is _not_ good), they
will--smell--you understand, eh? Putrefaction is always to be
apprehended when the souls are consigned to us in the usual way."

"Hiccup!--hiccup!--good God! how _do_ you manage?"

Here the iron lamp commenced swinging with redoubled violence, and the
Devil half started from his seat;--however, with a slight sigh, he
recovered his composure, merely saying to our hero in a low tone: "I
tell you what, Pierre Bon-Bon, we _must_ have no more swearing."

The host swallowed another bumper, by way of denoting thorough
comprehension and acquiescence, and the visitor continued:

"Why, there are _several_ ways of managing. The most of us starve:
some put up with the pickle: for my part I purchase my spirits
_vivente corpore_, in which case I find they keep very well."

"But the body!--hiccup!--the body!!"

"The body, the body--well, what of the body?--oh! ah! I perceive. Why,
sir, the body is not _at all_ affected by the transaction. I have made
innumerable purchases of the kind in my day, and the parties never
experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain and Nimrod, and Nero,
and Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and--and a thousand
others, who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter
part of their lives; yet, si