replied Selim, "to expect any benefit from this advice."

"I believe, Sir, that you are mistaken," said Ricaric to Selim. "The academy is still the sanctuary of good taste; and its best times do not afford us either philosophers or poets, whom we cannot match at this day. Our stage has passed, and may still pass for the first stage of Africa. Oh! what a work is the Tamerlane of Tuxigraphus! 'Tis the pathetic of Eurisope, and the loftiness of Azopha. 'Tis antiquity quite pure."

"I saw," said the favorite, "the first representation of Tamerlane; and join with you in thinking the work well conducted, the dialogue elegant, and the propriety of characters well observed."

"What difference, madam," interrupted Ricaric, "between such an author as Tuxigraphus, fatted with the perusal of the ancients, and most part of our moderns."

"Yet these moderns," said Selim, "whom you