to state his claims on benevolence. His instructions in the art of soliciting charity had, however, been ample, and he had digested his lessons with a sagacity and acuteness vastly superior to his years. It may readily be believed, I did not turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of a child, clad in the habiliments of want and misery, thus singularly endowed; and from a grateful spirit, or perhaps to show himself master of his profession (which supposition I would rather adopt), prayers for my welfare were offered to Heaven through the distinct and articulate medium of three separate languages.
The association of ideas when I was conversing with this little urchin, brought to my mind the story of Prince Maurice of Orange, and the parrot that conversed with, him in the Brazils, as it is told by Sir William Temple, and adopted, with a credulity worthy of the gossiping bishop of Sarum, Dr. Burnet, by Locke in his Essay concerning Human Understanding.
At the Hague, and Rotterdam, where
