author is guilty of a great anachronism in this passage; for having said
that the contested succession occasioned long wars, he yet speaks of
queen Grata at the conclusion of them, as still sitting in her mother's
lap as a child. Now I can confute them from their own state of the
question_. Like a child _does not import that she actually was a child:
she only sat_ like a child; _and so she might though thirty years old.
Civilians have declared at what period of his life a king may be of age
before he is: but neither Grotius nor Puffendorffe, nor any of the
tribe, have determined how long a king or queen may remain infants after
they are past their infancy._]




TALE V.

Mi Li. _A Chinese Fairy Tale_.


Mi Li, prince of China, was brought up by his godmother the fairy Hih,
who was famous for telling fortunes with a tea-cup. From that unerring
oracle she assured him, that he would be the most unhappy man alive
unless he married a princess whose name was the same with her father's
dominions. As in all probability there could not be above one person in
the world to whom that accident had happened, the prince thought there
would be nothing so easy as to learn who his destined bride was. He had
been too well educated to put the question to his godmother, for he knew
when she uttered an oracle, that it was with intention to perplex, not
to inform; which has made people so fond of consulting all those who do
not give an explicit answer, such as prophets, lawyers, and any body you