“ Mr. Ricaric,” says Mirzoza, “Selim is in the right. Let everyone enjoy what belongs to him, and let us not make the public suspect, that our panegyrics are a sort of robberies committed on the memory of our fathers: declare this from me in the next full meeting of the academy.”

“People are too long in possession of this custom,” 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.”