Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/42

26 the Greek, you know already that in my youth I was somewhat latinized, and, however much in correspondence I may refrain from quoting—a habit which would be most unsuitable to a broker’s office—I could not help thinking, when I saw all this: “'” or: “'”

But this was really more the result of a kind of irritation, and of a certain impulse to address all this mass of learning in front of me with a Latin phrase, than that I truly meant it. For when I looked into some of the articles a little further, I had to admit that the writer appeared to be quite equal to his task, and even that his reasonings gave evidence of being very sound.

I found studies and essays on:

Sanscrit as the mother of the Teutonic languages.

Penal law on infanticide.

The Origin of the Nobility.

The difference between the conceptions of Infinite time and Eternity.

The theory of probability.

The book of Job. (I found another thing about Job, but that was in verse.)

Protein in the atmosphere.

Russian politics.

The vowels.

Solitary confinement.

The theses concerning the horror vacui.

The Desirableness of the abolition of penalties for libel.

The causes of the Dutch rebellion against Spain, arising not from the desire for religious or political liberty.

The perpetuum mobile, the squaring of the circle, and the root of rootless numbers.

The gravity of light.

The retrogression of civilization since the rise of Christianity. (What?!!)