tral genie--a great king named Louis--blessed the child, and said
that he would be called "the father of his people," and another followed
suit with "the father of letters," and a third swore _Ventre Saint
Gris!_ and named the baby's uncle as "Joseph," and a still greater Louis
said other things, and a fairy named Maria Theresa crowned the
blessings. Then came an ogre mounted on a leopard and eating raw meat,
who was of Albion, and said he was king of the country, and observed
"_God ham_" [_sic_], and was told that he would be beaten and made to
lay down his arms by the child.

And the Dauphin, unless this _signalement_ is strangely delusive, lived
to know the worst ogres in the world (their chief was named Simon), who
were of his own people, and to die the most unhappy prince or king in
that world. And he of the Leopard who said _God ham_, would have saved
that Dauphin if he could, and did slay many of his less guiltless
relations and subjects, and beat the rest "thorough and thorough," and
restored (could they have had the will and wit to profit by it) the race
of Louis and Francis, and of the genie who said "Ventre Saint Gris!" to
their throne. And this was the end of the vaticinations of M. Selis, and
such are the tears of things.

The rest of this volume is occupied by a baker's dozen of _Contes
Choisis_, the first of which, _Les Trois Epreuves_, seems to imitate
Voltaire, and is smartly written, while some of the others are not bad.

Volume xxxvi. is occupied (not too appositely, though inoffensively in
itself) by a translation of Wieland's _Don Silvia de Rosalva_, which is
a German _Sir Launcelot Greaves_ or _Spiritual Quixote_, with fairy
tales substituted for romances of chivalry. The author of _Oberon_ was
seldom, if ever, unreadable, and he is not so here; but the thing is
neither a tale proper (seeing that it fills a whole volume), nor a real
fairy tale, nor French, so we may let it alone.

Then this curious collection once more comes to an end, which is not an
end, with a very useful though not too absolutely trustworthy volume of
_Notices des Auteurs_, containing not only "bio-bibliographical"
articles on the actual writers collected, but references to others,
great and small, from Marivaux, Lesage, Prevost, and Voltaire downwards,
and glances, sometimes with actual _comptes rendus_, at pieces of the
class not included. That it is conducted on the somewhat irresponsible
and indolent principles of its ti