mpany of
those ancient Romans, for whose society you were always much fitter than
for that of your contemporaries. Cato should have lived with Fabricius
and Curius, not with Pompey and Caesar.

DIALOGUE X.

CHRISTINA, Queen Of Sweden--Chancellor OXENSTIERN.

_Christina_.--You seem to avoid me, Oxenstiern; and, now we are met, you
don't pay me the reverence that is due to your queen! Have you forgotten
that I was your sovereign?

_Oxenstiern_.--I am not your subject here, madam; but you have forgotten
that you yourself broke that bond, and freed me from my allegiance, many
years before you died, by abdicating the crown, against my advice and the
inclination of your people. Reverence here is paid only to virtue.

_Christina_.--I see you would mortify me if it were in your power for
acting against your advice. But my fame does not depend upon your
judgment. All Europe admired the greatness of my mind in resigning a
crown to dedicate myself entirely to the love of the sciences and the
fine arts; things of which you had no taste in barbarous Sweden, the
realm of Goths and Vandals.

_Oxenstiern_.--There is hardly any mind too great for a crown, but there
are many too little. Are you sure, madam, it was magnanimity that caused
you to fly from the government of a kingdom which your ancestors, and
particularly your heroic father Gustavus, had ruled with so much glory?

_Christina_.--Am I sure of it? Yes; and to confirm my own judgment, I
have that of many learned men and _beaux esprits_ of all countries, who
have celebrated my action as the perfection of heroism.

_Oxenstiern_.--Those _beaux esprits_ judged according to their
predominant passion. I have heard young ladies express their admiration
of Mark Antony for heroically leaving his fleet at the Battle of Actium
to follow his mistress. Your passion for literature had the same effect
upon you. But why did not you indulge it in a manner more becoming your
birth and rank? Why did not you bring the muses to Sweden, instead of
deserting that kingdom to seek them in Rome? For a prince to encourage
and protect arts and sciences, and more especially to instruct an
illiterate people and inspire them with knowledge, politeness, and fine
taste is indeed an act of true greatness.

_Christina_.--The Swedes were too gross to be refined by any culture
which I could have given to their dull, their half-frozen souls. Wit and
genius require the influence of a mor