Parle calme. ‘In calm weather.’ Of. 1, 16, note

2.— J’essuie bientôt une bourrasque — Essmjer={\) wipe ; essuyer ses larmes, wipe away one’s tears ; (2) expérience ; essuyer une douleur, suffer a sorrow ; essuyer une houri'asque, to expérience a squall. Render, “ a squall cornes down on me and drives me from my course.’

1 1. — C’est le dada de mon oncle Tobie. Dada is a nur-

sery Word for cheval, corresponding also to ‘ hobby-horse ’ and ‘ hobby,’ — Il est ,sur son dada, He is riding his hobby. ‘ Uncle Toby ’ is a character of Tristram Shandy, a famous novel by Laurence Sterne (1713-1768). Uncle Toby, who had been wounded at Namur, retired with Oorporal Trim to Shandy Hall, there to ride his hobby — to construct fortifications and win battles in imitation of the operations in the Low Countries.

When de Maistre remarks, “that is Uncle Toby’s hobby,” he apparently means to excuse his own fondness for painting by alluding to the proverbial and pardonable hobby of the captain.