Now it happened that, in the vacation following, a French steamer, I think the Geryon, came to Boston. And there was, perhaps a civic dinner, certainly an excursion down the harbor, to persuade her officers, and through them Louis Philippe, for this was in the early age of stone, that Boston Harbor was the best point for the projected line of French packets to stop at,--and somebody invited me to go. And it turned out that few of the Frenchmen spoke English, and few of the Common Councilmen spoke French, so that poor little I came to some miserable use as a half-interpreter. I remember telling a Lieutenant de Vaisseau that the "Centurion" rock was called so because the 74 Centurion was lost there; and that an indignant civic authority, guessing out my speech, told me they did not want the Frenchmen to know anything was ever lost in Boston Harbor! Perhaps that was the reason the French packets never came. Well, by and by there was the inevitable collation in the cabin. (A collation, dear boy, is a dinner where you have nothing to eat.) And we went down stairs to collate. I began to think of the speeches. Suppose they should call on the youngest of the interpreters, what could he say? What Latin quotation that would answer? Not Tityrus certainly! No. Nor Æneas's nurse certainly, for she went overboard,--bad luck to her!--or was she buried decently? Bad omen that! But--yes! certainly--what better than the thunderbolts of Jove? Steam-navigation forever,--Robert Fulton, Marquis of Worcester, madman in the French bedlam,--bolts of heaven secured for service of earth,--Franklin,--the great alliance,--steam-navigation uniting the world! Was not the whole prefigured, _messieurs, quand le grand poète_ forged the very thunderbolts of the _Dieu des Cieux_? "Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosæ Addiderant, tres rutili ignis, tres alitis Austri." What better description of the power which at that moment was driving us along,-- "Three rays of writhen rain, of fire three more, Of winged southern winds, and cloudy store, As many parts the dreadful mixture frame"? Could anything have been more happy? And fortunately no member of Phi Beta was present but myself. But, unfortunately, there was no speaking, and for the moment I lost my opportunity. But not my preparation, dear Tom. And for this purpose have I written this long story, to show you how, in thirty happy years since, when I have had nothing else to say, "Tres imbris torti radios" has always stood me in stead. One good quotation makes an after-dinner speaker the match of the whole world. And if you have it in Latin, the people who understand that language enjoy it especially, and those who do not always appear to enjoy it more especially. Perhaps they do. There is also the advantage of slight variations in the translation. Note the difference between Mr. Everett's above, and John Dryden's.