Louisa. Natural history shall be one of my pleasures. I will not call it a lesson; but will study it when I am most in the fit for it. And will you be so kind as to help me, papa?
"Willingly, my dear, provided your fit comes on when I am at liberty," replied Mr. Bernard.
Louisa thanked her father, adding, "and now I must tell you, that I am quite satisfied with the account I have read of Servius Tullius. I perfectly understand now, who he is."
Ferdinand. Louisa, before we begin our history, I wish to ask papa a question about those verses which he repeated a few minutes ago. There is one line, which I do not think I understand. Please to say them over once more, papa.
Mr. B.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
Here shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely sobers us again."
Ferdinand. The first line is plain enough; but I do not at all know the meaning of Pierian, which is in the second.
Mr. B. It is an epithet applied to the Muses and poetical compositions, and takes its name from Pieria, a small tract of country in Thessaly, in Macedonia, where stands a mountain called Pierius, on which the nine Muses are said to have been born.
Ferdinand. Are not all those places in Greece?
Mr. B. Yes, my dear.