Lieutenant.  Mr. Bailiff, from all I hear, he will make a perfect soldier.

Jesper.  How can you make a soldier of him, Lieutenant?  He is a student.

Lieutenant.  That has nothing to do with it.  If he can turn people into sheep, oxen, and cocks, I’ll have a try at turning a student into a soldier, for once.

Jesper.  I should be happy if you could.  I should laugh my belly in two.

Lieutenant.  Just keep quiet about it, Jesper!  When a bailiff and a lieutenant put their heads together, such things are not impossible.  But I see some one coming this war.  Is that he, by any chance?

Jesper.  Yes, it is.  I shall run off, so that he won’t suspect me. [Exit.]

SCENE 2

(Enter Montanus.)

Lieutenant.  Welcome to the village.

Montanus.  I humbly thank you.

Lieutenant.  I have taken the liberty of addressing you, because there aren’t many educated people hereabouts for a man to talk to.

Montanus.  I am delighted that you have been a scholar.  When did you graduate, if I may inquire?

Lieutenant.  Oh, ten years ago.

Montanus.  Then you are an old academicus.  What was your specialty when you were a student?

Lieutenant.  I read mostly the old Latin authors, and studied natural law and moral problems, as in fact I do still.

Montanus.  That is mere trumpery, not academicum.  Did you lay no stress on Philosophiam instrumentalem?

Lieutenant.  Not especially.

Montanus.  Then you have never done any disputation?

Lieutenant.  No.

Montanus.  Well, is that studying?  Philosophia instrumentalis is the only solid studium; the rest are all very fine, but they are not learned.  One who is well drilled in Logica and Metaphysica can get himself out of any difficulty and dispute on all subjects, even if he is unfamiliar with them.  I know of nothing which I should take upon myself to defend and not get out of it very well.  There was never any disputation at the university in which I did not take part.  A philosophus instrumentalis can pass for a polyhistor.

Lieutenant.  Who is the best disputer nowadays?

Montanus.  A student called Peer Iverson.  When he has refuted his opponent so that he hasn’t a word to say for himself, he says, “Now, if you will take my proposition, I will defend yours.”  In all that sort of thing his Philosophia instrumentalis is the greatest help.  It is a shame that the lad did not become a lawyer; he could have made a mighty good living.  Next to him, I am the strongest, for the last time I disputed, he whispered in my ear, “Jam sumus ergo pares.”  Yet I will always yield him the palm.

Lieutenant.  But I have heard it said that Monsieur can prove that it is the duty of a child to beat his parents.  That seems to be absurd.