"The Professor will give five pounds; and will look upon his face
with satisfaction, as an object perpetuated for public
contemplation at a reasonable rate, if Mr. Kerby will accept the
sum just mentioned.
"In regard to the Professor's ability to pay five pounds, as well
as to offer them, if Mr. Kerby should, from ignorance, entertain
injurious doubts, he is requested to apply to the Professor's
honorable friend, Mr. Lanfray, of Rockleigh Place."
But for the reference at the end of this strange note, I should
certainly have considered it as a mere trap set to make a fool of
me by some mischievous friend. As it was, I rather doubted the
propriety of taking any serious notice of Professor Tizzi's
offer; and I might probably have ended by putting the letter in
the fire without further thought about it, but for the arrival by
the next post of a note from Mr. Lanfray, which solved all my
doubts, and sent me away at once to make the acquaintance of the
learned discoverer of the Essence of Life.
"Do not be surprised" (Mr. Lanfray wrote) "if you get a strange
note from a very eccentric Italian, one Professor Tizzi, formerly
of the University of Padua. I have known him for some years.
Scientific inquiry is his monomania, and vanity his ruling
passion. He has written a book on the principle of life, which
nobody but himself will ever read; but which he is determined to
publish, with his own portrait for frontispiece.
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