eat, that we do not feel it incumbent upon us to
settle the rules, the critical canon, of this nursery literature. We
have no objection, however, to peep into it now and then, and we shall
venture to give our readers another of Andersen's little stories, and so
take our leave of him. We omit a sentence, here and there, where we can
without injury to the tale; yet we have no fear that our gravest readers
will think the extract too long. Our quotation is from the volume called
"Tales from Denmark." There is another collection called, "The Shoes of
Fortune;" these are higher in pretension, and inferior in merit.

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES.

"One day a couple of swindlers, who called themselves first-rate
weavers, made their appearance in the imperial town of----. They
pretended that they were able to weave the richest stuffs, in which
not only the colours and the pattern were extremely beautiful, but
that the clothes made of such stuffs possessed the wonderful
property of remaining invisible to him who was unfit for the office
he held, or was extremely silly.

"'What capital clothes they must be!' thought the Emperor. 'If I
had but such a suit, I could directly find out what people in my
empire were not equal to their office; and besides, I should be
able to distinguish the clever from the stupid. By Jove, I must
have some of this stuff made directly for me!' And so he ordered
large sums of money to be given to the two swindlers, that they
might set to work immediately.

"The men erected two looms, and did as if they worked very
diligently; but in reality they had got nothing on the loom. They
boldly demanded the finest silk, and gold thread, put it all in
their own pockets, and worked away at the empty loom till quite
late at night.

"'I should like to know how the two weavers are getting on with my
stuff,' said the Emperor one day to himself; 'but he was rather
embarrassed when he remembered that a silly fellow, or one unfitted
for his office, would not be able to see the stuff. 'Tis true, he
thought, as far as regarded himself, there was no risk whatever;
but yet he preferred sending some one else, to bring him
intelligence of the two weavers, and how they were getting on,
before he went himself; for every body in the whole town had heard
of the wonderful property that this s