Nep. Sir, your toast is most welcome.
Usher. Empty your cup, since so meagre a draught remains in it.
Nep. This would be new to me.
Praec. What! not empty it? But you, Usher, what do you say? What have you new to give us at our meal?
Grammatical Questions—1. On Genders. 2. On Tenses
Usher. I say nothing indeed, but I have thought much during the last two hours on the art of grammar.
Master. And what of that now?
Usher. On very hidden things and the penetration of learning: first, why the grammarians have placed in their art three genders when there are merely two in nature? again, why nature does not produce things of the neuter gender as it does of the masculine and feminine? I cannot find out the cause of this great mystery. So, too, the philosophers say that there are three tenses, but our art demands five, therefore our art is outside the nature of things.
Master. Nay, rather thou art thyself outside of the nature of things, for art is in the nature of things.