The time employed was, within a second or two more or less, nine minutes.

I neither hurried the operation, nor lingered about it. Every thing was done in my ordinary orderly way, steadily, and without waste of time.

Now as to my beard, it is not such a beard as that of Domenico d'Ancona, which was delle barbe la corona, that is to say the crown of beards, or rather in English idiom the king.

Una barba la più singulare

Che mai fosse discritta in verso o'n prosa,

A beard the most unparallell'd

That ever was yet described in prose or rhyme,

and of which Berni says that the Barber ought to have felt less reluctance in cutting the said Domenico's throat, than in cutting off so incomparable a beard. Neither do I think that mine ever by possibility could vie with that of Futteh Ali Shah, King of Persia at this day: nay, I doubt whether Macassar Oil, Bear's grease, Elephant's marrow, or the approved recipe of sour milk with which the Persians cultivate their beards, could ever bring mine

to the far inferior growth of his son's, Prince Abbas Mirza. Indeed no Mussulmen would ever look upon it, as they did upon Mungo Park's, with envious eyes, and think that it was too good a beard for a Christian. But for a Christian and moreover an Englishman, it is a sufficient beard; and for the individual a desirable one: nihil me pœnitet hujus barba; desirable I say, inasmuch as it is in thickness and rate of growth rather below the average standard of beards. Nine minutes therefore will be about the average time required for shaving, by a Zebedeean,-one who shaves himself. A professional operator makes quicker work; but he cannot be always exactly to the time, and at the year's end as much may have been lost in waiting for the barber, as is gained by his celerity of hand.

Assuming then the moderate average of nine minutes, nine minutes per day amount to an hour and three minutes per week; an hour and three minutes per week are fifty-four hours thirty-six minutes per year. We will suppose

that our shaver begins to operate every day when he has completed his twentieth year; many, if not most men, begin earlier; they will do so if they are ambitious of obtaining whiskers; they must do so if their beards are black, or carroty, or of strong growth. There are then fifty years of daily shaving to be computed; and in that time he will have consumed two thousand, seven hundred and thirty hours in the act of shaving himself. I have stated the numbers throughout in words, to guard against the mistakes which always creep into the after editions of any book, when figures are introduced.

Now let us see whether a man could in that time acquire a competent knowledge of seven languages.

I do not of course mean such a knowledge as Professor Porson and Dr. Elmsley had attained of Greek, or as is possessed by Bishop Blomfield and Bishop Monk,-but a passable knowledge of living languages, such as would enable a man to read them with facility and pleasure,

if not critically, and to travel without needing either an interpreter-or the use of French in the countries where they are spoken.

Dividing therefore two thousand seven hundred and thirty, being the number of hours which might be appropriated to learning languages, -by seven, the number of languages to be learnt, we have three hundred and ninety hours for each language; three hundred and ninety lessons of an hour long,-wherein it is evident that any person of common capacity might with common diligence learn to read, speak and write-sufficiently well for all ordinary purposes, any European language. The assertion therefore, though it might seem extravagant at first, is true as far as it goes, and is only inaccurate because it is far short of the truth.

For take notice that I did not strop the razor this morning, but only passed it, after the operation, ten or twelve times over the palm of the hand, according to my every day practice. One minute more at least would have been required for stropping. There are

many men whose beards render it necessary for them to apply to the strop every day, and for a longer time, and who are obliged to try first one razor and then another. But let us allow only a minute for this-one minute a day amounts to six hours five minutes in the year; and in fifty years to three hundred and four hours ten minutes,-time enough for an eighth language.

Observe also that some languages are so easy, and others so nearly related to each other, that very much less than half the number of hours allowed in this computation would suffice for learning them. It is strictly true that in the time specified a man of good capacity might add seven more languages to the seven for which that computation was formed; and that a person who has any remarkable aptitude for such studies might in that time acquire every language in which there are books to be procured.

Hé bien, me suis je enfin rendu croyable? Est-on content?*

See Reader, what the value of time is, when

* PIRON.