PRINCESS MINUTE AND KING FLORIDOR.
La Princesse Minutie et le Roi Floridor is written in a spirit of playful satire, which reminds one of those sprightly caricatures of fairy tales which flowed so pleasantly from the pen of Count Hamilton; but, unlike Le Belier and Fleur d'Epine of that accomplished satirist, Princess Minute and King Floridor presents us with a sound and serious moral, which at this moment, when the sacrifice of important interests to routine and etiquette has caused so much animadversion, is singularly apropos. It also reads a pleasant lesson to those who neglect or misuse the great means and opportunities which it has pleased Providence to bestow upon them, and amidst all its whimsical extravagances, never ceases to whisper in the words of Solomon—
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.
Floridor was the name of a celebrated French actor of the seventeenth century. In Le Temple du Destin, written by Le Sage, and acted at the Fair of St. Laurent in 1715, the High Priest of Destiny observes upon the vanity of an actor—
Tout ce qui reluit n'est pas or Ils out tous ce génie, Chacun se croit un Floridor La plaisante manie!