It is told with the same humour and careless
vivacity. The design is to ridicule the cold pedantry that judges of
youth, without making any allowance for the warmth of inexperience, and
the charms of beauty. Such readers as take up a book merely for
entertainment, and do not quarrel with an author that does not
scrupulously confine himself within the limits of moral instruction,
will infallibly find their account in it.
The following specimen will give some idea of the manner in which the
story is told.
"The learned Bertram was much scandalized at the dissipation that
prevailed in the court of Hohenzollern. He was credibly informed that
the lord treasurer of the principality, who had no less than a revenue
of 109l. 7s. 10-3/4d. committed to his management, sometimes forgot the
cares of an exchequer in the arms of a mistress. Nay, fame had even
whispered in his ear, that the reverend confessor himself had an
intrigue with a certain cook-maid. But that which beyond all things,
afflicted him was the amour of Theodore with the beautiful Wilhelmina.
What, cried he, when he ruminated upon the subject, can it be excusable
in the learned Bertram, whose reputation has filled a fourth part of the
circle of Swabia, who twice bore away the prize in the university of
Otweiler, to pass these crying sins in silence? It shall not be said.
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