"Bon-Bon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

"Were you ever at Rome?" asked the restaurateur, as he finished
his second bottle of Mousseux, and drew from the closet a larger
supply of Chambertin.
But once, Monsieur Bon-Bon, but once. There was a time," said the
devil, as if reciting some passage from a book- "there was a time
when occurred an anarchy of five years, during which the republic,
bereft of all its officers, had no magistracy besides the tribunes
of the people, and these were not legally vested with any degree of
executive power- at that time, Monsieur Bon-Bon- at that time only I
was in Rome, and I have no earthly acquaintance, consequently, with
any of its philosophy."*

*Ils ecrivaient sur la Philosophie (Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca)
mais c'etait la Philosophie Grecque.- Condorcet.

"What do you think of- what do you think of- hiccup!- Epicurus?"
"What do I think of whom?" said the devil, in astonishment, "you
cannot surely mean to find any fault with Epicurus! What do I think of
Epicurus! Do you mean me, sir?- I am Epicurus! I am the same
philosopher who wrote each of the three hundred treatises commemorated
by Diogenes Laertes."
"That's a lie!" said the metaphysician, for the wine had gotten a
little into his head.
"Very well!- very well, sir!- very well, indeed, sir!" said his
Majesty, apparently much flattered.
"That's a lie!" repeated the restaurateur, dogmatically; "that's
a- hiccup!- a lie!"
"Well, well, have it your own way!" said the devil, pacifically, and
Bon-Bon, having beaten his Majesty at argument, thought it his duty to
conclude a second bottle of Chambertin.
"As I was saying," resumed the visiter- "as I was observing a
little while ago, there are some very outre notions in that book of
yours Monsieur Bon-Bon. What, for instance, do you mean by all that
humbug about the soul? Pray, sir, what is the soul?"
"The- hiccup!- soul," replied the metaphysician, referring to his
MS., "is undoubtedly-"
"No, sir!"
"Indubitably-"
"No, sir!"
"Indisputably-"
"No, sir!"
"Evidently-"
"No, sir!"
"Incontrovertibly-"
"No, sir!"
"Hiccup!-"
"No, sir!"
"And beyond all question, a-"
"No sir, the soul is no such thing!" (Here the philosopher,
looking daggers, took occasion to make an end, upon the spot, of his