I + 

The Mental Faculties of Doctor Heraclius Gloss + 

Doctor Heraclius Gloss was a very learned man. Although no book of any description written by him had ever appeared in the bookshops of the town, all the inhabitants of the erudite city of Balançon regarded Doctor Heraclius Gloss as a very learned man. + 

How and of what was he a doctor? No one could say. No more was known than that his father and his grandfather had been called “Doctor” by their fellow citizens. He had inherited their title at the same time as he had inherited their name and their possessions: in his family one became “Doctor” from father to son, just as, from son to father, one was called Heraclius Gloss. + 

But even though he possessed no diploma signed and countersigned by every member of some illustrious Faculty, Doctor Heraclius was, none the less, a very worthy and a very learned man. One had only to see the forty shelves loaded with books which covered the four panels of his vast study to be quite convinced that no more learned doctor had ever honoured the city of Balançon. And, moreover, each time there was any mention of his name in the presence of either the Dean or the Warden, these worthies were always seen to smile mysteriously. It was even rumoured that one day the Warden had delivered a long eulogy on him in Latin before the Archbishop; and the witness who told the story quoted besides, as undeniable proof, these few words which he had heard: + 

Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus. + 

It was said, too, that the Dean and the Warden dined with him every Sunday; and thus no one would have dared to dispute that Doctor Heraclius Gloss was a very learned man. + 