TO   THE   KING
 

lUE,
 

The Indians maintain that the mhid of a man
cannot always he occupied with serious affairs, and
that he remains forever a child in this respect: that, to
develop what is good hi him, almost as much care must
be taken to amuse him as to cause him to study. This
may he true with regard to the natives of Asia, hut
Judging hy all the great thing's I hear said everywhere
regarding Fkakce a7id her Monarch, from the Ganges
and the Indus, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, unto the
Seine, I have some difficulty in helieving this to he a
saying capable of universal application. Nevertheless I
will still venture to offer Him this History, because it
seems to me capable of affording .wme hours of amuse¬
ment to a King, who might wish to find occasicmal relaxa¬
tion from weighty affairs of State; not only because it
is a Tragedy which I have just seen acted in one of the
largest Theatres in the World, hut from the fact of its
being varied hy several great and extraordinary in¬
cidents, affecting one of the most illustrious of the Royal
Families of Asia.    I cannot, however, doubt that it is