[Footnote 5:  Some commentators have ignorantly supposed that the Irish 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 meet on the road, who, if you ask the way, reply by desiring to know whence you came.  Mi Li was no sooner returned to his palace than he sent for his governor, who was deaf and dumb, qualities for which the fairy had selected him, that he might not instil any bad principles into his pupil; however, in recompence, he could talk upon his fingers like an angel.  Mi Li asked him directly who the princess was whose name was the same with her father’s kingdom?  This was a little exaggeration in the prince, but nobody ever repeats any thing just as they heard it:  besides, it was excusable in the heir of a great monarchy, who of all things had not been taught to speak truth, and perhaps had never heard what it was.  Still it was not the mistake of kingdom for dominions that puzzled the governor.  It never helped him to understand any thing the better for its being rightly stated.  However, as he had great presence of mind, which consisted in never giving a direct answer, and in looking as if he could, he replied, it was a question of too great importance to be resolved on a sudden.  How came you to know that?  Said the prince—­This youthful impetuosity told the governor that there was something more in the question than he had apprehended; and though he could be very solemn about nothing, he was ten