The New York Packet

It is a very interesting amusement to mark the progress of liberality and politeness. When Louis the XIVth was furnishing his magnificent library, he made very liberal offers of reward to whoever might discover the defective parts of Livy, Polybius, and those other historians which the Gothic rage had burned or destroyed. Amongst other efforts to obtain these desirable treasures of polite literature, he offered a considerable sum to obtain access to the Signior's library at Constantinople. All his endeavours were ineffectual. The present grand Signior has granted that indulgence to a private gentleman of France, whose only recommendation to so great a distinction was his eminence in the republic of letters. He has had free access to that repository of learning, denied to a mighty monarch, and for many ages inaccessible to the curious. May the benefit of his researches be extensive in value, and circulate throughout the world.