bright yellow, that appeared almost transparent, while the crimson tulip seemed to blossom on their cheeks. Their features and limbs were delicate beyond the statuary's power to express, and their teeth whiter than their own ivory. He was almost persuaded to reside among them, when unfortunately one of the ladies talked of appointing his seraglio. "In this procession the naked inhabitants of Southern America would not be left behind; their charms were found to surpass whatever the warmest imagination could conceive; and served to show, that beauty could be perfect, even with the seeming disadvantage of a brown complexion. But their savage education rendered them utterly unqualified to make the proper use of their power, and they were rejected as being incapable of uniting mental with sensual satisfaction. In this manner the deputies of other kingdoms had their suits rejected: the black beauties of Benin, and the tawny daughters of Borneo; the women of Wida with well-scarred faces, and the hideous virgins of Caffraria; the squab ladies of Lapland, three feet high, and the giant fair ones of Patagonia. "The beauties of Europe at last appeared; grace was in their steps, and sensibility sat smiling in every eye. It was the universal opinion while they were approaching, that they would prevail; and the Genius seemed to lend them his most favourable attention. They opened their pretensions with the utmost modesty; but unfortunately, as their orator proceeded, she happened to let fall the words, house in town, settlement, and pin money. These seemingly harmless terms had instantly a surprising effect: the Genius with ungovernable rage burst from amidst the circle; and, waving his youthful pinions, left this earth, and flew back to those ethereal mansions from whence he descended. LETTER CXIV. FROM THE SAME. MANKIND have ever been prone to expatiate in the praise of human nature. The dignity of man is a subject that has always been the favourite theme of humanity: they have declaimed with that ostentation which usually accompanies such as are sure of having a partial audience; they have obtained victories because there were none to oppose. Yet, from all I have ever read or seen, men appear more apt to err by having too high, than by having too despicable an opinion of their nature; and by attempting to exalt their original place in creation, depress their real value in society. The most ignorant nations have always been found to think most highly of themselves. The Deity has ever been thought peculiarly concerned in their glory and preservation; to have fought their battles, and inspired their teachers: their wizards are said to be familiar with heaven; and every hero has a guard of angels, as well as men, to attend him. When the Portuguese first came among the wretched inhabitants of the coast of Africa, these savage nations readily allowed the strangers more skill in navigation and war; yet still considered them at best but as useful servants, brought to their coast by their guardian serpent, to supply them with luxuries they could have lived without. Though they could grant the Portuguese more riches, they could never allow them to have such a king as their Tottimondelem, who wore a bracelet of shells round his neck, and whose legs were covered with ivory. In this manner, examine a savage in the history of his country and predecessors, you ever find his warriors able to conquer armies, and his sages acquainted with more than possible "The whole assembly was struck with knowledge. Human nature is to him an unamazement; they now justly apprehended, that known country: he thinks it capable of great female power would be no more, since Love things, because he is ignorant of its boundahad forsaken them. They continued some ries; whatever can be conceived to be done, time thus in a state of torpid despair, when it he allows to be possible, and whatever is poswas proposed by one of the number, that, sible, he conjectures must have been done. since the real Genius had left them, in order He never measures the actions and powers of to continue their power, they should set up an others by what himself is able to perform ; nor idol in his stead; and that the ladies of every makes a proper estimate of the greatness of country should furnish him with what each his fellows, by bringing it to the standard of liked best. This proposal was instantly relish- his own incapacity. He is satisfied to be one ed and agreed to. An idol was formed by of a country where mighty things have been; uniting the capricious gifts of all the assembly, and imagines the fancied powers of others rethough no way resembling the departed Genius. flect a lustre on himself. Thus, by degrees, The ladies of China furnished the monster with he loses the idea of his own insignificance in a wings; those of Cashmire supplied him with confused notion of the extraordinary powers of horns; the dames of Europe clapped a purse humanity, and is willing to grant extraordinary in his hand; and the virgins of Congo furnish-gifts to every pretender, because unacquainted ed him with a tail. Since that time, all the with their claims. vows addressed to love are in reality paid to the idol; but, as in other false religions, the adoration seems most fervent where the heart is least sincere." Adieu. This is the reason why demi-gods and heroes ever have been erected in times or countries of ignorance and barbarity: they addressed a people who had high opinions of human nature, because they were ignorant how far it could extend: they addressed a people, who | gods of strangers, or of their ancestors, which were willing to allow that men should be gods, had their existence in times of obscurity; their because they were yet imperfectly acquainted weakness being forgotten, while nothing but with God and with man. These impostors their power and their miracles were rememknew, that all men are naturally fond of seeing bered. The Chinese, for instance, never had something very great made from the little a god of their own country: the idols which materials of humanity; that ignorant nations the vulgar worship at this day, were brought are not more proud of building a tower to from the barbarous nations around them. reach to heaven, or a pyramid to last for ages, The Roman emperors who pretended to divithan of raising up a demi-god of their own nity, were generally taught by a poniard that country and creation. The same pride that they were mortal; and Alexander, though he erects a colossus or a pyramid, instals a god or passed among barbarous countries for a real a hero; but though the adoring savage can god, could never persuade his polite countryraise his colossus to the clouds, he can exalt men into a similitude of thinking.-The Lacethe hero not one inch above the standard of dæmonians shrewdly complied with his comhumanity: incapable, therefore, of exalting the mands by the following sarcastic edict : idol, he debases himself, and falls prostrate before him. When man has thus acquired an erroneous idea of the dignity of his species, he and the gods become perfectly intimate; men are but angels, angels are but men, nay, but servants, that stand in waiting to execute human commands. The Persians, for instance, thus address their prophet Haly: "I salute thee, glorious creator, of whom the sun is but the shadow. Masterpiece of the Lord of human creatures, great star of justice and religion! The sea is not rich and liberal, but by the gifts of thy munificent hands. The angel treasurer of heaven reaps his harvest in the fertile gardens of the purity of thy nature. The primum mobile would never dart the ball of the sun through the trunk of heaven, were it not to serve the morning out of the extreme love she has for thee. The angel Gabriel, messenger of truth, every day kisses the groundsel of thy gate. Were there a place more exalted than the most high throne of God, I would affirm it to be thy place, O master of the faithful! Gabriel, with all his art and knowledge, is but a mere scholar to thee." Thus, my friend, men think proper to treat angels; but if indeed there' be such an order of beings, with what a degree of satirical contempt must they listen to the songs of little mortals thus flattering each other! thus to see creatures, wiser indeed than the monkey, and more active than the oyster, claiming to themselves the mastery of heaven! minims, the tenants of an atom, thus arrogating a partnership in the creation of universal nature! Sure Heaven is kind, that launches no thunder at those guilty heads! but it is kind, and regards their follies with pity, nor will destroy creatures that it loved into being. But, whatever success this practice of making demi-gods might have been attended with, in barbarous nations, I do not know that any man became a god in a country where the inhabitants were refined. Such countries generally have too close an inspection into human weakness, to think it invested with celestial power. They sometimes indeed admit the * Chardin's Travels, p. 402. Ει Αλέξανδρος βουληται είναι Θεός, Θεος εστω. LETTER CXV. FROM THE SAME. Adieu. THERE is something irresistibly pleasing in the conversation of a fine woman; even though her tongue be silent, the eloquence of her eyes teaches wisdom. The mind sympathizes with the regularity of the object in view, and, struck with external grace, vibrates into respondent harmony. In this agreeable disposition, I lately found myself in company with my friend and his niece. Our conversation turned upon love, which she seemed equally capable of defending and inspiring. We were each of different opinions upon this subject: the lady insisted that it was a natural and universal passion, and produced the happiness of those who cultivated it with proper precaution. My friend denied it to be the work of nature, but allowed it to have a real existence, and affirmed, that it was of infinite service in refining society, while I, to keep up the dispute, affirmed it to be merely a name, first used by the cunning part of the fair sex, and admitted by the silly part of ours, therefore no way more natural than taking snuff, or chewing opium. "How is it possible," cried I, "that such a passion can be natural, when our opinions even of beauty, which inspires it, are entirely the result of fashion and caprice? The ancients, who pretended to be connoisseurs in the art, have praised narrow foreheads, red hair, and eyebrows that joined each other above the nose. Such were the charms that once captivated Catullus, Ovid, and Anacreon.-Ladies would at present be out of humour, if their lovers praised them for such graces; and should an antique beauty now revive, her face would cer tainly be put under the discipline of the twee zer, forehead-cloth, and lead comb, before it could be seen in public company. "But the difference between the ancients and moderns is not so great as between the dif : ferent countries of the present world. A lover | Let us only consider with what ease it was of Gongora, for instance, sighs for thick lips; formerly extinguished in Rome, and with a Chinese lover is poetical in praise of thin. what difficulty it was lately revived in Europe In Circassia, a straight nose is thought most it seemed to sleep for ages, and at last fought consistent with beauty; cross but a mountain its way among us, through tilts, tournaments, which separates it from the Tartars, and there dragons, and all the dreams of chivalry. The flat noses, tawny skins, and eyes three inches rest of the world, China only excepted, are, asunder, are all the fashion. In Persia, and and have ever been, utter strangers to its desome other countries, a man, when he marries, lights and advantages. In other countries, as chooses to have his bride a maid; in the Phil- men find themselves stronger than women, lippine Islands, if a bridegroom happens to per- they lay a claim to a rigorous superiority: this ceive, on the first night, that he is put off with is natural, and love which gives up this naa virgin, the marriage is declared void to all in- tural advantage, must certainly be the effect of tents and purposes, and the bride sent back | art,—an art calculated to lengthen out our hapwith disgrace. In some parts of the east, a pier moments, and add new graces to society," woman of beauty properly fed up for sale, often "I entirely acquiesce in your sentiments," amounts to one hundred crowns; in the king- says the lady," with regard to the advantages dom of Loango, ladies of the very best fashion of this passion, but cannot avoid giving it a are sold for a pig; queens, however, sell bet-nobler origin than you have been pleased to ter, and sometimes amount to a cow. In short, turn even to England, do not I there see the beautiful part of the sex neglected; and none now marrying or making love, but old men and old women that have saved money?- Do not I see beauty from fifteen to twenty-one, rendered null and void to all intents and purposes, and those six precious years of womanhood put under a statute of virginity? What! shall I call that rancid passion love, which passes between an old bachelor of fiftysix, and a widow lady of forty-nine? Never! never! what advantage is society to reap from an intercourse, where the big belly is oftenest on the man's side? Would any persuade me that such a passion was natural, unless the human race were more fit for love as they approached the decline, and, like silk-worms, became breeders just as they expired." "Whether love be natural or no," replied my friend gravely, "it contributes to the happiness of every society into which it is introduced. All our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protracting our greatest pleasure: and surely that gamester, who plays the greatest stake to the best advantage, will, at the end of life, rise victorious. This was the opinion of Vanini, who affirmed, that every hour was lost which was spent in love.' His accusers were unable to comprehend his meaning; and the poor advocate for love was burned in flames, alas! no way metaphorical. But whatever ad. vantages the individual may reap from this passion, society will certainly be refined and im. proved by its introduction: all laws calculated to discourage it, tend to imbrute the species and weaken the state. Though it cannot plant morals in the human breast, it cultivates them when there pity, generosity, and honour, receive a brighter polish from its assistance; and a single amour is sufficient to brush off the clown. : "But it is an exotic of the most delicate constitution; it requires the greatest art to introduce it into a state, and the smallest discouragement is sufficient to repress it again. assign. I must think, that those countries "In all my Enna's beauties blest, For though she gives me up her breast, "But the effects of love are too violent to be the result of an artificial passion. Nor is it in the power of fashion to force the constitution into those changes which we every day observe. Several have died of it. Few lovers are unacquainted with the fate of the two Italian lovers, Da Corfin and Julia Bellamano, who, after a long separation, expired with pleasure in each other's arms. Such instances are too strong confirmations of the reality of the passion, and serve to show that suppressing it is but opposing the natural dictates of the heart." Adieu. LETTER CXVI. FROM THE SAME. THE clock just struck two, the expiring taper rises and sinks in the socket, the watchman forgets the hour in slumber, the laborious and the happy are at rest, and nothing wakes but meditation, guilt, revelry, and despair. The drunkard once more fills the destroying Translation of a South American Ode. bowl, the robber walks his midnight round, and the suicide lifts his guilty arm against his own sacred person. their betrayers, they sue to wretches whose hearts are insensible, or debauchees who may curse, but will not relieve them. Poor Let me no longer waste the night over the Why was I born a man, and yet see the suf page of antiquity, or the sallies of contempo-ferings of wretches I cannot relieve ! rary genius, but pursue the solitary walk, where Vanity ever changing, but a few hours past walked before me, where she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed with her own importunities. What a gloom hangs all around! The dy ing lamp feebly emits a yellow gleam; no sound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the distant watch-dog. All the bustle of human pride is forgotten, an hour like this may well display the emptiness of human vanity. There will come a time, when this temporary solitude may be made continual, and the city itself, like its inhabitants, fade away, and leave a desert in its room. What cities, as great as this, have once triumphed in existence, had their victories as great, joy as just and as unbounded, and, with short-sighted presumption, promised themselves immortality!-Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others; and, as he beholds, he learns wisdom, and feels the transience of every sublunary possession. Here," he cries, "stood their citadel, now grown over with weeds; there their senatehouse, but now the haunt of every noxious rep. tile; temples and theatres stood here, now ouly an undistinguished heap of ruin. They are fallen, for luxury and avarice first made them feeble. The rewards of the state conferred on amusing, and not on useful members of society. Their riches and opulence invited the invaders, who, though at first repulsed, returned again, conquered by perseverance, and at last swept the defendants into undistinguished destruction." How few appear in those streets which but some few hours ago were crowded! and those who appear, now no longer wear their daily mask, nor attempt to hide their lewdness or their misery. But who are those who make the streets their couch, and find a short repose from wretchedness at the doors of the opulent? These are strangers, wanderers and orphans, whose circumstances are too humble to expect redress, and whose distresses are too great even for pity. Their wretchedness excites rather horror than pity. Some are without the covering even of rags, and others emaciated with disease: the world has disclaimed them; society turns its back upon their distress, and has given them up to nakedness and hunger. These poor shivering females have once seen happier days, and been fluttered into beauty. They have been prostituted to the gay luxurious villain, and are now turned out to meet the severity of winter. Perhaps, now lying at the doors of houseless creatures! the world will give you reproaches, but will not give you relief. The slightest misfortunes of the great, the most im-aginary uneasiness of the rich, are aggravated with all the power of eloquence, and held up to engage our attention and sympathetic sorrow. The poor weep unheeded, persecuted by every subordinate species of tyranny; and every law which gives others security, becomes an enemy to them. Why was this heart of mine formed with so much sensibility? or why was not my fortune adapted to its impulse? Tenderness, without a capacity of relieving, only makes the man who feels it more wretched than the object which sues for assistance. Adieu. LETTER CXVIL FROM FUM HOAM TO LIEN CHI ALTANGI, THE DISCONTENTED WANDERER, BY THE WAY OF MOSCOW. I HAVE been just sent upon an embassy to Japan; my commission is to be despatched in four days, and you can hardly conceive the pleasure I shall find upon revisiting my native country. I shall leave with joy this proud, barbarous, inhospitable region, where every object conspires to diminish my satisfaction, and increase my patriotism. But though I find the inhabitants savage, yet the Dutch merchants, who are permitted to trade hither, seem still more detestable. They have raised my dislike to Europe in general; by them I learn how low avarice can degrade human nature; how many indignities a European will suffer for gain. I was present at an audience given by the emperor to the Dutch envoy, who had sent several presents to all the courtiers, some days previous to his admission; but he was obliged to attend those designed for the emperor himself. From the accounts I had heard of this ceremony, my curiosity prompted me to be a spectator of the whole. First went the presents, set out on beautiful enamelled tables, adorned with flowers, borne on men's shoulders, and followed by Japanese music and dancers. From so great respect paid to the gifts themselves, I had fancied the donors must have received almost divine hon. ours. But, about a quarter of an hour after the presents had been carried in triumph, the envoy and his train were brought forward. They were covered from head to foot with long black veils, which prevented their seeing, each led by a conductor, chosen from the meanest of the people. In this dishonourable manner, having traversed the city of Jedo, they at length arrived at the palace gate; and, after waiting half an hour, were admitted into the guard-room. Here their eyes were uncovered, and in about an hour, the gentlemanusher introduced them into the hall of audience. The emperor was at length shown, sitting in a kind of alcove at the upper end of the room, and the Dutch envoy was conducted towards the throne. As soon as he had approached within a certain distance, the gentleman-usher cried out with a loud voice Holanda Capitan; upon these words, the envoy fell flat upon the ground, and crept upon his hands and feet towards the throne. Still approaching, he reared himself upon his knees, and then bowed his forehead to the ground. These ceremonies being over, he was directed to withdraw, still grovelling on his belly, and going backward like a lobster. Men must be excessively fond of riches, when they are earned with such circumstances of abject submission. Do the Europeans worship Heaven itself with marks of more profound respect? Do they confer those honours on the Supreme of Beings, which they pay to a barbarous king, who gives them a permission to purchase trinkets and porcelain? What a glorious exchange, to forfeit their national honour, and even their title to humanity, for a screen or a snuff-box! If these ceremonies essayed in the first audience appeared mortifying, those which were practised in the second were infinitely more so. In the second audience, the emperor and the ladies of court were placed behind lattices, in such a manner as to see, without being seen. Here all the Europeans were directed to pass in review, and grovel and act the serpent as before: with this spectacle the whole court seemed highly delighted. The strangers were asked a thousand ridiculous questions, as their names, and their ages; they were ordered to write, to stand upright, to sit, to stoop, to compliment each other, to be drunk, to speak the Japanese language, to talk Dutch, to sing, to eat; in short, they were ordered to do all that could satisfy the curiosity of women. Imagine, my dear Altangi, a set of grave men thus transformed into buffoons, and acting a part every whit as honourable as that of those instructed animals which are shown in the streets of Pekin to the mob on a holiday. Yet the ceremony did not end here, for every great lord of the court was to be visited in the same manner; and their ladies, who took the whim from their husbands, were all equally fond of seeing the strangers perform, even the children seeming highly diverted with the dancing Dutchmen. the gravest of mankind into the most contemptible and riciculous! I had rather continue poor all my life, than become rich at such a rate. Perish those riches which are acquired at the expense of my honour or my humanity! Let me quit," said Ï, “a country where there are none but such as treat all others like slaves, and more detestable still, in suffering such treatment. I have seen enough of this nation to desire to see more of others. Let me leave a people suspicious to excess, whose morals are corrupted, and equally debased by superstition and vice; where the sciences are left uncultivated, where the great are slaves to the prince, and tyrants to the people; where the women are chaste only when debarred of the power of transgression; where the true disciples of Confucius are not less persecuted than those of Christianity; in a word, a country where men are forbidden to think, and consequently labour under the most miserable slavery, that of mental servitude." Adieu. LETTER CXVIII. FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI, TO FUM HOAM, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CEREMONIAL ACADEMY AT PEKIN IN CHINA. THE misfortunes of the great, my friend, are held up to engage our attention, are enlarged upon in tones of declamation, and the world is called upon to gaze at the noble sufferers: they have at once the comfort of admiration and pity. Yet, where is the magnanimity of bearing misfortunes when the whole world is looking on. Men, in such circumstances, can act bravely even from motives of vanity. He only who in the vale of obscurity, can brave adversity; who, without friends to encourage, acquaintances to pity, or even without hope to alleviate his distresses, can behave with tranquillity and indifference, is truly great: whether peasant or courtier, he deserves admiration, and should be held up for our imitation and respect. The miseries of the poor are, however, entirely disregarded; though some undergo more real hardships in one day, than the great in their whole lives. It is indeed inconceivable what difficulties the meanest English sailor or soldier endures without murmuring or regret. Every day to him is a day of misery, and yet he bears his hard fate without repining. With what indignation do I hear the heroes of tragedy complain of misfortunes and hardships, whose greatest calamity is founded in arrogance and pride! Their severest distresses are pleasures, compared to what many of the adventuring poor every day sustain, without murmuring. These may eat, drink, and sleep; have slaves to attend them, and are sure of subsistence for life; while many of their fel |