those which preceded them; at least no general revolution has utterly
destroyed all the monuments of antiquity: we have had horrible, but
temporary convulsions, and amid these storms, have been fortunate enough
to preserve the works of your father, and of some other great men: thus,
the sacred fire has never been utterly extinguished, and has in the end
produced an almost universal illumination. We despise the barbarous
scholastic systems, which have long had some influence among us, but
revere Cicero and all the ancients who have taught us to think. If we
possess other laws of physics than those of your times, we have no other
rules of eloquence, and this perhaps may settle the dispute between the
ancients and moderns.

(Every one agreed with the duke. Finally they went to the opera of
Castor and Pollux, with the words and music of which, Tullia was much
gratified, and she acknowledged such a spectacle to be extremely
superior to that of a combat of gladiators.[9])

_Great Marlow, Bucks._

M.L.B.

[3] Crébillon, author of Catalina.

[4] Groseilles, literally; gooseberries or currents; but we have
taken the liberty here, and elsewhere, slightly to deviate from
the original text, in compliment to English customs, tastes,
idioms, &c.

[5] Russia: whose Empress, Catherine II, is intended by the
succeeding sentence.