"Is it possible you can really think so, my dear sir?" replied another, who is an amateur, and a connoisseur, and a bel esprit, and an antiquary, and a fiddler, and a critic, and a poet. "I own my ideas on the subject are very different. Good God! ... what a reward for a man of genius!... Why, what would you do for an old nurse?" "I would give her a pension too," said the quiet gentleman. "I thought so!" retorted the man of taste. "And do you really feel no repugnance in placing the immortal efforts of genius on a par with rocking a few babies to sleep?--Fie on such philosophy!" "And what is the recompense which you would propose, sir?" inquired the advocate for the pension. "I, sir?--I would give the first offices and the first honours of the state to our men of genius: by so doing, a country ennobles itself in the face of the whole earth." "Yes, sir.... But the first offices of the state are attended with a good deal of troublesome business, which might, I think, interfere with the intellectual labour you wish to encourage. I should really be very sorry to see Dr. Southey made secretary-at-war,--and yet he deserves something of his country too." "A man of genius, sir, deserves everything of his country.... It is not a paltry pension can pay him. He should be put forward in parliament ... he should be..." "I think, sir, he should be put at his ease: depend upon it, this would suit him better than being returned knight of the shire for any county in England." "Good Heaven, sir!"... resumed the enthusiast; but he looked up and his opponent was gone. LETTER LXVIII. Walk to the Marché des Innocens.--Escape of a Canary Bird.--A Street Orator.--Burying-place of the Victims of July.