PEDANTRY AGAINST INERTIA.

BY LUDVIG HOLBERG.

(From "Erasmus Montanus.")

[LUDVIG HOLBERG, the Scandinavian Molière, and also historian, philosopher, essayist, critic, and letter-writer, was born at Bergen, Norway, December 3, 1684; but was educated in Copenhagen; left Norway permanently at twentyone, and is purely Danish in work and influence, the creator of modern Danish literature. He was the youngest of twelve children, and early orphaned. He journeyed much abroad for twenty years, spending 1705-1707 at Oxford, and was the means of fertilizing Scandinavian thought and letters with foreign ideas and art. He became a professor in the Copenhagen University in 1718, and never left its service, teaching at first metaphysics, which he hated, and afterwards other branches. His first works were historical; next he wrote on international law, then a satirical mock epic, "Peder Paars"; then he began writing comedies for the Copenhagen theater, producing twenty-eight in five years, immortalizing himself, and creating a great national Danish stage. The burning of Copenhagen in 1728, and the accession of a strait-laced king in 1730, put an end to the theater, and it was nearly twenty years before Holberg began again, producing six more plays. The best known of them outside is "Erasmus Montanus"; "The Lucky Shipwreck" is the author's self-defense for his satire; he dealt with all sides of life and character. He wrote also a notable History of Denmark; hero and heroine stories in Plutarch's manner; "Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey" (of the Gulliver sort); "Moral Thoughts," and several volumes of "Letters." He was ennobled in 1747, and died January 28, 1754.]

[Rasmus Berg is just home from the university. He has Latinized his name into Erasmus Montanus, and airs his vanity and superior knowledge with needless frequency and offensiveness among the villagers.]

Present: MONTANUS, JEPPE his father, NILLE his mother, JESPER the bailiff.

Jesper Serviteur, Monsieur! I wish you joy of your arrival.

Montanus-I thank you, Master Bailiff.

Jesper I am truly glad that we have got such a learned man in our town. It must have given you many a headache before you got so far. I congratulate you also, Jeppe Berg, on the great comfort you have got in your old days.

Jeppe Comfort and joy indeed!

Jesper But prithee, my dear Monsieur Rasmus, I beg leave to ask you about something.

Montanus-My name is Montanus.

Jesper [aside to Jeppe] - Is that Latin for Rasmus?
Jeppe - I suppose it is.

Jesper Pray, my dear Montanus Berg, tell me. I have heard that learned folks have the queerest notions. Is it true that in Copenhagen there are people who believe that the earth is round? Nobody will believe that, here in our place; the world seems to us perfectly flat.

Montanus The reason is that the earth is so large that its rotundity is not perceived.

Jesper That is true; the earth is very large, almost half of the universe. Can Monsieur tell me how many stars go to

one moon?

Montanus- The moon is to a star what a cabbage-garden is to all Zealand.

Jesper Ha, ha, ha! good that! These learned folks must have a screw loose somewhere. There are some, too, who would make us believe that the earth moves, and the sun stands still. Surely Monsieur does not believe that?

Montanus No man of sense doubts that any more.

Jesper Ha, ha, ha, ha! if the earth moves, we must needs all of us fall out and break our necks.

Montanus-Can't a ship move with you without you breaking your neck?

Jesper But you say, sir, that the earth moves around: if the ship should turn round too, wouldn't the people fall out into the sea?

Montanus-No, no. I will make it plain to you if you will have a little patience.

Jesper Faith, and I won't listen! I must be crazy before I believe such nonsense. The earth to turn round and we not

But, my dear M. Berg,

fall off, down into the bottomless pit! how is it that the moon sometimes is so little and at other times

so big?

Montanus-If I should tell you the reason, you would not believe me.

Jesper -Oh! be good enough to tell me.

Montanus [jocularly] — The reason is, that when the moon is full grown, they cut it to pieces to make stars of.

Jesper Faith, that is curious.

I never knew that before. But, sure enough, it stands to reason that if no pieces were cut away from her, she would soon grow bigger than the whole of Zealand. It is a wise Providence which rules these things. But tell me, how is it that the moon doesn't warm like the sun, as it is just as big?

Montanus Because the moon has no light, but is made of the same dark matter as our earth, which borrows its light from the sun.

Jesper Ha, ha, ha, ha! What awful stuff and nonsense! It makes one's head swim to think of it.

Present: MONTANUS, JERONIMUS, JESPER.

Montanus Welcome, my respected father-in-law [in prospect] I am glad to see you in such good health.

Jeronimus [coldly] - Health at my age cannot be much to speak of.

Montanus-Still, I must say you look remarkably well.
Jeronimus - Do you really think so?

Montanus-Indeed I do. How is Mademoiselle Lisbed,

pray?

Jeronimus-Well enough, thank ye.

Montanus What is the matter? It seems to me my worthy Jeronimus speaks rather coldly to his future son-in-law. Jeronimus- Perhaps I have a reason for it. Montanus-In what way have I offended?

Jeronimus - I am told that you hold such curious opinions. Folks will think you are getting crazy. How can a sensible

man be so foolish as to maintain that the world is round? Montanus-Most assuredly it is round. I must needs maintain what is the truth.

Jeronimus-Truth? - it must be the devil's truth, then, and of necessity spring from the Evil One, who is the father of lies. I am sure there is not a soul in this town but condemns it. Ask the bailiff, who is a man of sense, if he is not of my opinion.

Jesper Indeed, it don't concern me much whether it is long or round; but I am bound to believe my own eyes, which tell me that the earth is as flat as a pancake.

Montanus Nor does it concern me what the bailiff and others in this place may think of the matter; but the earth is round for all that.

Jeronimus- The devil it is! Are you crazy? Sure you have eyes in your head, as any other Christian.

Montanus It is well known that there are people who live right underneath us, and whose feet are turned towards ours. Jesper - Ha, ha, ha, ha! hi, hi, hi, hi!

Jeronimus Yes, the bailiff may well laugh. You must have a screw loose somewhere. Just you try to walk on the ceiling up there with your head down, and see what will come of it.

as

Montanus-That is a very different thing, father-in-law,

Jeronimus - I will by no manner of means be your fatherin-law. I love my daughter too much to throw her away on the likes of you.

Montanus-Believe me, I love your daughter as my own soul; but that I should deny philosophia for her sake, or stultify myself, is more than you have a right to demand.

Jeronimus-What proofs do you offer for assertions?

Montanus-No proofs are considered necessary. No men of education have any doubt about it at all.

Jesper Still, Peer Clerk won't allow any such thing. Montanus-Peer Clerk ! he is a pretty fellow, and I am but a fool to allow myself to discuss philosophia with the likes of him and you. But to please M. Jeronimus I will adduce a couple of proofs, to wit, firstly travelers, when they reach a point many thousand miles from here, have day when we have night, and look upon another heaven and other stars. Jeronimus- You are raving!

You are raving! Have we more than one heaven or one earth?

There are

Jesper -Yes; with submission, M. Jeronimus. seven heavens, each one higher than the other, till you come at last to the heaven of crystal- so far he is right enough.

Montanus [clasps his hands] - O quantæ tenebræ!

Jeronimus- Well, then, I have in my youth been sixteen times to the great fair in Kiel; and, as I hope to be saved, I have never seen any other heaven than the one above us.

Montanus-You will have to travel sixteen times farther, Domine Jeronyme, before you will see what I told you; when Jeronimus-Cease this nonsense: it has neither rhyme nor Let us hear the other proofs.

reason.

Montanus- The second proof is the eclipse of the sun and

moon.

Jeronimus - You must stop now: this is really too much. Montanus-What is your opinion of an eclipse, Mr. Bailiff? Jesper Eclipses are certain signs which appear on the sun and moon when any great calamity is going to happen, which I can prove by my own experience. When, for instance, my wife

miscarried three years ago, and my daughter Gertrude died, there were two eclipses immediately before.

Montanus-I shall get insane if I listen to this much longer.

Jeronimus The bailiff is right: there is never an eclipse but that it means something. When the last eclipse occurred everything seemed all right, but not for long, mind ye fourteen days afterwards came news from Copenhagen that six students had failed to pass their examinations at the university, all the sons of great people, two bishops' sons among them. If no illluck happens in one place, you can be sure it will in another.

Montanus-Most certainly; as no day passes away but that some calamity happens in this world of ours. As for the students you mentioned, they needn't blame the eclipse. If they had attended more to their studies, they would not have been. rejected.

Jeronimus What is, then, an eclipse of the moon, according to your notion?

Montanus - Simply the shadow of the earth, which deprives the moon of the light of the sun; and, as the shadow is plainly round, the earth which causes it must needs be round too. The whole is perfectly natural: you can calculate beforehand when an eclipse will occur, and only stupidity and folly can see in that phenomenon a warning sign of misfortunes to come.

Jeronimus Oh, Mr. Bailiff! I begin to feel unwell. In an unhappy hour it came to pass that your honest parents took you from the plow and put you in college.

Jesper He is not far from being an atheist, too. I must get the clerk to take him in hand again. That is a fellow who talks with unction. He is your man, whether in Latin or Greek, and will soon convince you that the earth, thank God, is as flat as the palm of my hand. But here comes Madame Jeronimus and her daughter.

Enter MAGDELONE AND LISBED.

Magdelone Ah, my dearest son-in-law, it is indeed a joy to see you looking so well.

Lisbed Oh, darling, let me kiss you.

Jeronimus-Quietly, my child; be not too forward.

Lisbed May I not embrace my sweetheart that I have not seen for such a long time?

Jeronimus-Keep away from him, I tell you.