tales by the Countess de Murat, and the Countess d'Auneuil, without distinction or explanation, changing the titles where they occurred in the intermediate narrative, and altering or wholly omitting the remarks made upon them by the personages for whose entertainment they are supposed to be related, so that the reader could not suspect the imposition that was practised upon him, for what reason it is difficult to imagine.
Nor was the injustice to the author limited to this singular caprice. The tales, instead of being faithfully translated, were recklessly abridged and loosely paraphrased; while the incidental couplets occasionally, and the versified morals invariably, were dispensed with altogether.
Other abridgments and paraphrases of a few of these stories have appeared in sundry juvenile publications; and, in a very recent one, the rising generation was presented with "Babiole," "Princess Rosette," "Princess Printaniere" (called "Princess Maia"), "The Beneficent Frog," and "The Good Little Mouse;" but still abridged, and adapted to the atmosphere of the nursery. I beg to disclaim any intention of depreciating these latter productions, which are avowedly addressed to the youngest class of readers; but the first was a literary fraud, which cannot be too severely denounced, whether it be regarded as an imposition on the public or an injustice to the original author. And yet the writer of the Preface to the fifth edition (London, 1766) says, "I shall not pretend to say anything in commendation of the translators, only that they have kept up to the sense and spirit of the
