I am not such a bigot to _Slawkenbergius_ as my father; ----there is a fund in him, no doubt: but in my opinion, the best, I don’t say the most profitable, but the most amusing part of _Hafen Slawkenbergius_, is his tales------and, considering he was a _German_, many of them told not without fancy: ------these take up his second book, containing nearly one half of his folio, and are comprehended in ten decads, each decad containing ten tales ------Philosophy is not built upon tales; and therefore ’twas certainly wrong in _Slawkenbergius_ to send them into the world by that name! ----there are a few of them in his eighth, ninth, and tenth decads, which I own seem rather playful and sportive, than speculative--but in general they are to be looked upon by the learned as a detail of so many independent facts, all of them turning round somehow or other upon the main hinges of his subject, and collected by him with great fidelity, and added to his work as so many illustrations upon the doctrines of noses. As we have leisure enough upon our hands----if you give me leave, madam, I’ll tell you the ninth tale of his tenth decad. [Transcriber’s Note: Like the Excommunication, the following section was printed on facing pages. For this e-text it is given in consecutive paragraphs, with the Latin text inset.] BOOK IV SLAWKENBERGII FABELLA[4.1] SLAWKENBERGIUS’S TALE _Vespera quâdam frigidulâ, posteriori in parte mensis _Augusti_, peregrinus, mulo fusco colore insidens, manticâ a tergo, paucis indusiis, binis calceis, braccisque sericis coccineis repleta, _Argentoratum_ ingressus est._ It was one cool refreshing evening, at the close of a very sultry day, in the latter end of the month of _August_, when a stranger, mounted upon a dark mule, with a small cloak-bag behind him, containing a few shirts, a pair of shoes, and a crimson-sattin pair of breeches, entered the town of _Strasburg_. _Militi eum percontanti, quum portas intraret dixit, se apud Nasorum promontorium fuisse, Francofurtum proficisci, et Argentoratum, transitu ad fines Sarmatiæ mensis intervallo, reversurum._ He told the centinel, who questioned him as he entered the gates, that he had been at the Promontory of NOSES--was going on to _Frankfort_----and should be back again at _Strasburg_ that day month, in his way to the borders of _Crim Tartary_. _Miles peregrini in faciem suspexit ----Dî boni, nova forma nasi!_ The centinel looked up into the stranger’s face----he never saw such a Nose in his life! _At multum mihi profuit, inquit peregrinus, carpum amento extrahens, e quo pependit acinaces: Loculo manum inseruit; et magnâ cum urbanitate, pilei parte anteriore tactâ manu sinistrâ, ut extendit dextram, militi florinum dedit et processit._