accounts, who is defirous of understanding the human heart, who feeks to know the men of every country, who delires to difcover thofe differences which refult from climar, religion, education, prejudice, and partiality. I fhould think my time very ill beflowed, were the only fruits of my adventures to confift in being able to tell, that a tradesman of London lives in an houfe three times as high as that of our great Emperor. That the ladies wear langer cloaths than the men, that the prietts are drefted in colours which we are taught to deteft, and that their foldiers wear fcarlet, which is with us the fymbol of peace and innocence. How many travellers are there, who confine their relations to fuch minute and ufelefs particulars: for one who enters into the genius of thofe nations with whom he has converfed, who difclofes their morals, their opinions, the ideas which they entertain of religious worship, the intrigues of their minifters, and their fkill in fciences; there are twenty, who only mention fome idle particulars, which can be of no real ule to a true philofopher. All their remarks tend, neither to make themfelves nor others more happy; they no way contribute to controul their paffions, to bear adverfity, to infpire true virtue, or raise a deteftation of vice. Men may be very learned, and yet very miferable; it is eafy to be a deep geometrician, or a fublime aftronomer, but very difficult to be a good man; I efteem, therefore, the traveller who inftructs the heart, but defpife him who only indulges the imagination: a man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philofopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulfe of curiofity, is only a vagabond. From Zerdusht down to him of Tyanea, I honour all thofe great names who endeavoured to unite the world by their travels; fuch men grew wifer as well as better, the farther they departed from home; and feemed like rivers, whose freams are not only increased, but refined, as they travel from their fource. For my own part, my greatest glory is, that travelling has not more steeled my conftitution against all the viciffitudes of climate, and all the depreflions of fatigue, than it has my mind against the accidents of fortune, or the acceffes of defpair. Farewell. LETTER VIII. FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI, TO FUM HOAM, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CEREMONIAL ACADEMY AT PEKIN, IN CHINA. WOW infupportable! O thou pof Hfellur of heavenly wisdom, would be this feperation, this immeasureable diftance from my friend, were I not able thus to delineate my heart upon paper, and to fend thee daily a map of my mind, I am every day better reconciled to the people among whom I refide, and begin to fancy that in time I fhall find them more opulent, more charitable, and more hofpitable than I at firft imagined. I begin to learn fomewhat of their manners and cuftoms, and to fee reafons for feveral deviations which they make from us, from whom all other nations derive their politenefs as well as their original. In spite of taste, in fpite of prejudice, I now begin to think their women tolerable; I can now look on a languishing blue eye without difgut, and pardon a fet of teeth, even though whiter than ivory. I now begin to fancy there is no univerfal standard for beauty. The truth is, the manners of the ladies in this city are so very open, and so vaftly engaging, that I am inclined to pass over the more glaring defects of their perfons, fince compenfated by the more folid, yet latent beauties of the mind: what though they want black teeth, or are deprived of the allurements of feet no bigger than their thumbs, yet ftill they have fouls, my friend, fuch fouls, fo free, fo preffing, fo hofpitable, and to engaging -I have received more invitations in the streets of London from the fex in one night, than I have met with at Pekin in twelve revolutions of the moon. Every evening as I return home from my ufual folitary excurfions, I am met . by feveral of thofe well difpofed daughters of hofpitality, at different times and in different treets, richly dreffed, and with minds not lefs noble than their appearance. You know that nature has indulged indulged me with a perfon by no means agreeable; yet are they too generous to object to my homely appearance; they feel no repugnance at my broad face and flat nofe; they perceive me to be a ftranger, and that alone is a fufficient recommendation. They even feem to think it their duty to do the honours of the country by every act of complaifance in their power. One takes me under the arm, and in a manner forces me along; another catches me round the neck, and defires to partake in this office of hofpitality; while a third kinder ftill, invites me to refresh my spirits with wine. Wine is in England referved only for the rich, yet here even wine is given away to the stranger! A few nights ago, one of thefe generous creatures, dreffed all in white, and flaunting like a meteor by my fide, forcibly attended me home to my own apartment. She feemed charmed with the elegance of the furniture, and the convenience of my fituation. And well indeed the might, for I have hired an apartment for not lefs than two fhillings of their money every week. But her civility did not reft here; for at parting, 6 being defirous to know the hour, and perceiving my watch out of order, the kindly took it to be repaired by a relation of her own, which you may imagine will fave fome expence, and the allures me that it will cot her nothing. I thall have it back in a few days when mended, and am preparing a proper fpeech expreffive of my gratitude on the occafion: Celestial excellence,' I intend to fay, happy I am in having found out, after many painful adventures, a laud of innocence, and a people of humanity: I may rove into other climes, and converfe with nations yet unknown, but where shall I meet a foul of fuch purity as that which refides in thy breat! Sure 'thou hatt been nurtured by the bill of the Shin Shin, or fucked the breafts of the provident Gin Hiung. The melody of thy voice could rob the Chong Fou of her whelps, or inveigle the Boh that lives in the midft of the ⚫ waters. Thy fervant shall ever retain a fenfe of thy favours; and one day boat of thy virtue, fincerity, and truth, among the daughters of China.' Adieu. LETTER IX. TO THE SAME. fhe whom I whofe allows him two wires, I have been deteive of a die has takes net half the liberties of the Eng proved to be one of the infamous difciples of Han! I have loft a trifle, I have gained the confolation of having difcovered a deceiver. I once more, therefore, relax, into my former indifference with regard to the English ladies, they once more begin to appear dilagreeable in my eyes: thus is my whole time paffed in forming conclutions which the next minute's experience may probably deftroy; the prefent moment becomes a comment on the past, and I improve rather in humility than wifdom. Their laws and religion forbid the English to keep more than one woman, I therefore concluded that prostitutes were banished from fociety; I was deceived; every man here keeps as many wives as he can maintain; the laws are cemented with blood, praised and difregarded. The very Chinefe, lifh in this particular. Their laws may be compared to the books of the Sybils, they are held in great veneration, but feldom read, or feldomer understood; even thofe who pretend to be their guardians difpute about the meaning of many of them, and confefs their ignorance of others. The law therefore which commands them to have but one wife, is ftri&tly obferved only by those for whom one is more than fufficient, or by fuch as have not money to buy two. As for the reft, they violate it publicly, and fome glory in it's violation. They feem to think like the Perfans, that they give evident marks of manhood by encreafing their feraglio. A mandarine therefore here generally keeps four wives, a gentleman three, and a ftage-player two. magiftrates, the country juftices, and As for the Squires, fquires, they are employed first in debauching young virgins, and then punishing the tranfgreffion. From fuch a picture you will be apt to conclude, that be who employs four ladies for his amufement, has four times as much conftitution to fpare as he who is contented with one; that a mandarine is much cleverer than a gentleman, and a gentleman than a player, and yet it is quite the reverfe; a mandarine is fre-, quently fupported on fpindle thanks, appears emaciated by luxury, and is obliged to have recourfe to variety, merely from the weakness, not the vigour of his conftitution, the number of his wives being the most equivocal fymptom of his virility. Befide the country fquire, there is also another fet of men, whose whole employment confifts in corrupting beauty; thefe the filly part of the fair fex call amiable; the more fenfible part of them, however, give them the title of abominable. You will probably demand what are the talents of a man thus caressed by the majority of the oppofite fex; what talents, or what beauty is he poffeffed of fuperior to the reft of his fellows. To answer you directly, he has neither talents nor beauty, but then he is poffeffed of impudence and affiduity. With affiduity and impudence, men of all ages, and all figures, may commence admirers. I have even been told of fome who made profeflions of expiring for love, when all the world could perceive they were going to die of old age: and what is more furprifing ftill, fuch battered beaus are generally most infamously successful. A fellow of this kind employs three hours every morning in dreffing his head, by which is understood only his hair. He is a profeffed admirer, not of any particular lady, but of the whole fex. He is to fuppofe every lady has caught cold every night, which gives him an opportunity of calling to fee how the does the next morning. He is upon all occafions to fhew himfelf in very great pain for the ladies; if a lady even drops a pin, he is to fly in order to prefent it. He never speaks to a lady without advancing his mouth to her ear, by which he frequently addresses more senses than one. Upon proper occafions he looks exceilively tender. This is performed by laying his hand upon his heart, fhutting his eyes, and fhewing his teeth. He is exceffively fond of dancing a minuet with the ladies, by which is only meant walking round the floor eight or ten times with his hat on, affecting great gravity, and fometimes looking tenderly on his partner. He never affronts any man himself, and never resents an affront from another. He has an infinite variety of finall talk upon all occafions, and laughs when he has nothing more to say. Such is the killing creature who proftrates himfelf to the fex till he has undone them; all whofe fubmiffions are the effects of design, and who to please the ladies almolt becomes himself a lady. LETTER X. TO THE SAME. I Have hitherto given you no account of my journey from China to Eu rope, of my travels through countries, where Nature ports in primeval rude. nefs, where the pours forth her wonders in folitude; countries, from whence the rigorous climate, the weeping inundation, the drifted defart, the howling foreft, and mountains of immeafurable height, banish the husbandman, and fpread extensive defolation; countries where the brown Tatar wanders for a precarious fubfitence, with an heart that never felt pity, him'elf more hideous than the wildernets he makes. You will eafily conceive the fatigue of crofling vast tracts of land, either defolate, or fill more dangerous by it's inhabitants. The retreat of men, who feem driven from fociety, in order to make war upon all the human race; nominally profeting a fubjection to Mofcovy or China, but without any refemblance to the countries on which they depend. After I had croffed the great wall, the firft object that prefented were the remains of defolated cities, and all the magnificence of venerable ruin. There were to be feen temples of beautiful ftructure, ftructure, ftatues wrought by the hand of a master, and around a country of luxuriant plenty; but not one single inhabitant to reap the bounties of nature. Thefe were profpects that might humble the pride of kings, and reprefs human vanity. I asked my guide the caufe of fuch defolation. Thefe countries, fays he, were once the dominions of a Tartar prince; and these ruins the 'feat of arts, elegance, and ease. This prince waped an unfuccefsful war with one of the emperors of China; he was conquered, his cities plunder ed, and all his fubjects carried into captivity. Such are the effects of the ambition of Kings! "Ten Dervifes," fays the Indian proverb, "fhall fleep "in peace upon a single carpet, while "two kings fhall quarrel, though they "have kingdoms to divide them." Sure, my friend, the cruelty and the pride of man have made more defarts than Nature ever made! he is kind, but man is ungrateful!' Proceeding in my journey through this penfive fcene of defolated beauty, in a few days I arrived among the Daures, a nation till dependent on China. Xaizigar is their principal city, which, compared with thofe of Europe, fcarcely deferves the name. The go vernors and other officers, who are fent yearly from Pekin, abufe their authority, and often take the wives and daughters of the inhabitants to themfelves. The Daures, accustomed to bafe fubiniffion, feel no relentment at thofe injuries, or trifle what they feel. Custom and neceffity teach even barbarians the fame art of diffimulation that ambition and intrigue inspire in the breasts of the polite. Upon beholding fuch unlicenfed ftretches of power-Alas!' thought I, how little does our wife and good emperor know of thefe intolerable, ex⚫ actions! these provinces are too distant for complaint, and too infignificant to expect redrefs. The more dutant the government, the honefter fhould be the governor to whom it is entrusted; for hope of impunity is a strong inducement to violation.' The religion of the Doures is more abfurd than even that of the fectaries of Fohi. How would you be furprized, O fage difciple and follower of Confucius! you who believe one eternal intelligent Caufe of all, fhould you be prefent at the barbarous ceremonies of this infatuated people! How would you deplore the blindness and folly of mankind! His boatted reafon feems only to light him afray, and brutal inftin& more regularly points out the path to happinefs. Could you think it? They adore a wicked divinity; they fear him, and they worship him; they imagine him a malicious being, ready to injure and ready to be appealed. The men and women affemble at midnight in a hut, which ferves for a temple. A priest ftretches himfelf on the ground, and all the people pour forth the most horrid cries, while drums and timbreis fwell the infernal concert. After this diffonance, mifcalled mufic, has continued about two hours, the priest rifts from the ground, affines an air of infpiration, grows big with the infpiring dæ mon, and pretends to fill in futurity. In every country, my friend, the bonzes, the brachmans, and the priests, deceive the people; all reformations begin from the las; the prifte point us out the way to heaven with their fingers, but ftand till themfcives, nor feem to travel towards the country in view. The customs of this people correspond to their religion; they keep their dead for three days on the fime bel where the perfon died; after which they bury him in a grave moderately deep, but with the head still uncovered. Here for feveral days they prefent him with differert forts of meats; which, when they perceive he does not confume, they fill up the grave, and defit from defiring him to eat for the future. How, how can mankind be guilty of fuch strange abfurdity, to entreat a dead body, already putrid, to partake of the banquet! Where, I again repeat it, is human reafon! not only fome men, but whole nations, feem divested of it's illumination. Here we obferve a whole country adoring a divinity through fear, and attempting to feed the dead. Thefe are their most ferious and molt religious occupations; are thefe men rational, or are not the apes of Borneo more wife? Certain I am, O thou inftrutor of my youth! that without philofophers, without fome few virtuous men, who feem to be of a differe) t nature from the rest of mankind, without fuch as thefe, the worfaip of a wicked divinity would furely be eftablished over every part of the earth. Fear guides more to their duty than gratitude: for one man who C is is virtuous from the love of virtue, from the obligation which he thinks he lies under to the Giver of all; there are ten thoufand who are good only from their apprehenfions of punishment. Could thefe laft be perfuaded, as the Epicu FR reans were, that heaven had no thunders in ftore for the villain, they would no longer continue to acknowledge fubordination, or thank that Being whe gave them existence. Adieu. LETTER XI. TO THE SAME. ROM fuch a picture of Nature in primeval fimplicity, tell me, my much refpected friend, are you in love with fatigue and folitude? Do you figh for the fevere frugality of the wandering Tartar, or regret being born amidst the luxury and diffimulation of the polite? Rather tell me, has not every kind of life vices peculiarly it's own? Is it not a truth, that refined countries have more vices, but those not so terrible, barbarous nations few, and they of the moft hideous complexion? Perfidy and fraud are the vices of civilized nations, credulity and violence thofe of the inhabitants of the defart. Does the luxury of the one produce half the evils of the inhumanity of the other? Certainly thofe philofophers who declaim against luxury have but little understood it's benefits; they feem infenfible, that to luxury we owe not only the greatest part of our knowledge, but even of our virtues. It may found fine in the mouth of a declaimer, when he talks of fubduing our appetites, of teaching every fenfe to be content with a bare fufficiency, and of fupplying only the wants of nature; but is there not more fatisfaction in indulging thofe appetites, if with innocence and fafety, than in reft, aining them? An not I better pleafed in enjoyment than in the fullen fatisfaction of thinking that I can live without enjoyment? The more various our artificial neceffities, the wider is our circle of pleafure; for all pleasure confifts in obviating neceflities as they rife; luxury, therefore, as it encreafes our wants, encreates our capacity for happiness. Examine the hiftory of any country remarkable for opulence and wifdom, you will find they would never have been wife had they not been firit luxurious; you will find poets, philofophers, and even patriots, marching in Luxury's train. The reafon is obvious; we then only are curious after knowledge, when we find it connected with fenfual happinefs. The fenfes ever point out the way, and reflection comments upon the difcovery. Inform a native of the defart of Kobi, of the exact measure of the parallax of the moon, he finds no fatisfaction at all in the information; he wonders how any could take fuch pains, and lay out fuch treasures in order to folve fo useless a difficulty; but connect it with his happinefs, by fhewing that it improves navigation, that by fuch an investigation he may have a warmer coat, a better gun, or a finer knife, and he is inftantly in raptures at fo great an improvement. In fhort, we only defire to know what we defire to poffefs; and whatever we may talk against it, luxury adds the fpur to curiofity, and gives us a defire of becoming more wife. But not our knowledge only, but our virtues, are improved by luxury. Obferve the brown favage of Thibet, to whom the fruits of the spreading pome granate fupply food, and it's branches an habitation. Such a character has few vices I grant, but thofe he has are of the most hideous nature; rapine and cruelty are fearce crimes in his eye; neither pity nor tenderness, which ennoble every virtue, have any place in his heart; he hates his enemies, and kills thofe he fubdues. On the other hand, the polite Chinefe and civilized European feem even to love their enemies. I have just now feen an instance where the English have fuccoured those enemies whom their own countrymen actually refufed to relieve. The greater the luxuries of every country, the more clofely, politically fpeaking, is that country united. Luxu ry is the child of fociety alone, the luxurious man stands in need of a thoufand different artists to furnish out his happinefs; it is more likely, therefore, that |
