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Sir. Then they are the moft cumbrous and clumfy furniture in the world, as nothing is truly elegant but what unites ule with beauty.'-' I proteft,' fays the lady, I fhall begin to fufpect thee of being an actual barbarian. I fuppofe you hold my two beautiful pagods in contempt?'-What!' cried I, has Fohi fpread his grofs fuperftitions here allo? Pagods of all kinds are my averfion. A

Chinese, a traveller, and want taite! it furprises me. Pray, Sir, examine the beauties of that Chincfe temple which you fee at the end of the garden. Is there any thing in China more beautiful? Where I stand, I fee nothing, Madam, at the end of the garden, that may not as well be called an Egyptian pyramid as a Chinefe temple; for that little building in view is as like the one as t'other.'What! Sir, is not that a Chinele temple? You muft furely be mistaken. Mr. Freeze, who defigned it, calls it one, and nobody difputes his pretenfions to taste.' I now found it vain to contradict the lady in any thing the thought fit to advance; fo was refolved rather to act the difciple than the inftructor. Sie took me through feveral rooms all furnished, as he told me, in the Chinefe manner; fprawling dragons, fquatting pagods, and clumiy mendarines, were fuck upon every fhelf: in turning round one must have used cau

TH

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tion not to demolish a part of the precarious furniture.

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In a houfe like this,' thought I, one 'must live continually upon the watch; the inhabitant must refemble a knight in an enchanted caftle, who expects to " meet an adventure at every turning.But, Madam,' faid I, do no accidents ever happen to all this finery?''Man, Sir,' replied the lady, is born to misfortunes, and it is but fit I 'fhould have a flare. Three weeks ago, a carelefs fervant fnapped off the head of a favourite mandarine: I had fcarce done grieving for that, when a 'monkey broke a beautiful jar; this I took the more to heart, as the injury was done me by a friend: however, I furvived the calamity, when yefterday crash went half a dozen dragons upon the marble hearth ftone; and yet I live; I furvive it all: you can't conceive what comfort I find under af'flictions from philofophy. There is Seneca, and Bolingbroke, and fome others, who guide me through life, and teach me to support it's calaraities. I could not but finile at a woman who makes her own misfortunes, and then deplores the miferies of her fituation. Wherefore, tired of acting with diffimulation, and willing to indulge my meditations in folitude, I took leave juft as the fervant was bringing in a plate of beef, pursuant to the direc tions of his miftrefs. Adieu.

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LETTER XV.

FROM THE SAME..

"HE better fort here pretend to the utmolt compaflion for animals of every kind. Tohear them fpeak, a franger would be apt to imagine they could hardly hurt the gnat that ftung them; they feem fo tender, and fo full of pity, that one would take them for the harmJefs friends of the whole creation; the protectors of the meanest infot or reptile that was privileged with exilence. And yet, would you believe it? I lave feen the very men who have thus beafted of their ten lerncfs, at the fame time devouring the fleth of fix difcrent animals toffed up in a fricate. Strange contrariety of conduct! they pity and they eat the obje&ts of their compilion. The lion roars with terror over it's cap

tive; the tiger fends forth it's hideous fhriek to intimidate it's prey; no creature fhews any fondness for it's fhort-lived prifoner, except a man and a cat.

Man was born to live with innocence and fimplicity, but he has deviated from nature; he was born to fhare the bounties of Heaven, but he has monopolized them; he was born to govern the brute creation, but he has become their tyrant. If an epicure now fhall happen to furfeit on his last night's feaft, twenty animals the next day are to undergo the mot exquifite tortures in order to provoke his appetite to another guilty meal. Hail, O ye fimple, honeft bramins of the Eaft! ye inoffenfive friends of all that were born to happinefs as well as you!

you

you never fought a short-lived pleasure from the miferies of other creatures. You never ftudied the tormenting arts of ingenious refinement; you never furfeited upon a guilty meal. How much more purified and refined are all your fenfations than ours: you diftinguith every element with the utmoft pi ecifion; a ftream untafted before is new luxury, a change of air is a new banquet, too refined for western imaginations to conceive.

Though the Europeans do not hold the tranfmigration of fouls, yet one of their doctors has, with great force of argument, and great plausibility of reafoning, endeavoured to prove that the bodies of animals are the habitations of dæmons and wicked fpirits, which are obliged to refide in thefe prifons till the refurrection pronounces their everlasting punishment; but are previously condemned to fuffer all the pains and hardfhips inflicted upon them by man, or by each other here. If this be the cafe, it may frequently happen, that while we whip pigs to death, or boil live lobsters, we are putting fome old acquaintance, fome near relation, to excruciating tortures, and are ferving him up to the very fame table where he was once the most welcome companion..

Kabul,' fays the Zendavefta,' was ⚫ born on the ruthy banks of the river Mawra; his poffeffions were great, and his luxuries kept pace with the 'affluence of his fortune; he hated the harmless bramins, and defpifed their holy religion; every day his table was decked out with the fleth of an hundred different animals, and his cooks ⚫ had an hundred different ways of dreff⚫ing it, to folicit even fatiety.

Notwithstanding all his eating, he did not arrive at old age, he died of a furfeit, caused by intemperance: upon this, his foul was carried off, in ⚫ order to take it's trial before a felect affembly of the fouls of thofe animals which his gluttony had caused to be flain, and who were now appointed his judges.

He trembled before a tribunal, to

every member of which he had formerly acted as an unmerciful tyrant: he fought for pity, but found none difpofed to grant it. "Does he not "remember," cries the angry boar, "to what agonies I was put, not to "fatisfy his hunger, but his vanity? I was firft hunted to death, and my "flesh scarce thought worthy of com"ing once to his table. Were my ad"vice followed, he fhould do penance "in the shape of an hog, which in life "he most refembled."

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"I am rather," cries a fheep upon the bench," for having him fuffer "under the appearance of a lamb; we

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may then fend him through four or "five tranfmigrations in the space of a "month."-"Were my voice of any "weight in the affembly," cries a calf, "he fhould rather affume fuch a form as mine: I was bled every day, in "order to make my flesh white, and at "laft killed without mercy."-"Would "it not be wifer," cries a hen, "to "cram him in the shape of a fowl, and "then fmother him in his own blood as "I was ferved?" The majority of the affembly were pleased with this pu nishment, and were going to condemn him without further delay, when the ox rofe up to give his opinion: "I

am informed," fays this counsellor, "that the prifoner at the bar has left a "wife with child behind him. By my "knowledge in divination, I fore

fee that this child will be a fon, "decrepid, feeble, fickly; a plague to "himfelf and all about him. What "fay you, then, my companions, if we "condemn the father to animate the "body of his own fon; and by this

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LETTER XVI.

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FROM THE SAME.

ed to the Chinese miffionaries for the instruction I have received from them, or prejudiced by the falfhoods they have made me believe. By them I was told that the Pope was univerfally allowed to be a man, and placed at the head of the church; in England, however, they plainly prove him to be an whore in man's cloaths, and often burn him in effigy as an impoftor. A thousand books have been written on either fide of the question; priefts are eternally difputing against each other; and thofe mouths that want argument are filled with abufe. Which party muft I believe, or fhall I give credit to neither? When I furvey the abfurdities and falfehoods with which the books of the Europeans are filled, I thank Heaven for having been born in China, and that I have fagacity enough to detect impof

ture.

The Europeans reproach us with falfe history and fabulous chronology; how fhould they blush to see their own books, many of which are written by the doctors of their religion, filled with the most mondrous fables, and attefted with the utmoft folemnity. The bounds of a letter do not permit me to mention all the abfurdities of this kind, which in my reading I have met with. I fhall confine myself to the accounts which fome of their lettered men give of the perfons of fome of the inhabitants on our globe. And not fatisfied with the molt folemn affeverations, they fometimes pretend to have been eye-witneffes of what they defcribe.

A Christian doctor, in one of his principal performances, fays, that it was not impoffible for a whole nation to have but one eye in the middle of the forehead. He is not fatisfied with leaving

⚫ other fervants of Chrift, in order to preach the gospel there; I beheld in the fouthern provinces of the country a nation which had only one eye in the midft of their foreheads.'

You will, no doubt, be surprized, reverend Fum, with this author's effrontery; but, alas! he is not alone in this ftory; he has only borrowed it from feveral others who wrote before him. Solinus creates another nation of Cyclops, the Arimafpians who inhabit thofe countries that border on the Cafpian sea. This author goes on to tell us of a people of India, who have but one leg and one eye, and yet are extremely active, run with great swiftness, and live by hunting. These people we scarce know how to pity or admire; but the men whom Pliny calls Cynamolci, who have got the heads of dogs, really deferve our compaffion. Inftead of language they exprefs their fentiments by barking. Solinus confirms what Pliny mentions; and Simon Mayole, a French bishop, talks of them as of particular and familiar acquaintances. After passing the

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defarts of Egypt,' fays he, we meet with the Kunokephaloi, who inhabiť thofe regions that border on Ethiopia; they live by hunting; they cannot fpeak, but whistle; their chins refem⚫ble a ferpent's head; their hands are armed with long fharp claws; their 'breast resembles that of a greyhound; and they excel in fwiftnefs and agi

lity. Would you think it, my fr end, that thefe odd kind of people are, not. withftanding their figure, excefïively delicate? Not even an alderman's wife, or Chinese mandarine, can excel them in this particular. Thefe people,'con

tinues our faithful bishop, never re、 fule wine; love roaft and boiled meat; they are particularly curious in hav

it in doubt; but in another work† afing their meat well dreffed, and spurn fures us, that the fact was certain, and that he himself was an eye-witnefs of it. • When,' fays he, I took a journey into Ethiopia in company with feveral

at it if in the leaft ta nted. When the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt,' fays he, a little farther on, thofe men with dogs heads taught grammar and music."

Auguftin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. p. 422. + Id. ad fratres in Eremo, Serm. xxxvii.

For

For men who had no voices to teach mufic, and who could not speak to teach grammar, is, I confefs a little extraordinary. Did ever the difciples of Fohi broach any thing more ridiculous?

Hitherto we have feen men with heads ftrangely deformed, and with dogs heads; but what would you say if you heard of men without any heads at all? Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Aulus Gellius, defcribe them to our handThe Blemiæ have a nofe, eyes, and mouth on their breasts; or, as others will have it, placed on their fhoulders.' One would think that these authors had an antipathy to the human form, and were refolved to make a new figure of their own: but let us do them juftice; though they fometimes deprive us of a leg, an arm, an head, or some such trifling part of the body, they often as liberally bestow upon us fomething that we wanted before. Simon Mayole feems our particular friend in this respect: if he has denied heads to one part of mankind, he has given tails to another. He defcribes many of the English of his time, which is not more than an hundred years ago, as having tails. His own

words are as follow: In England there are fome families which have tails, as a punishment for deriding an Auguftine Friar fent by St. Gregory, and 'who preached in Dorfetfhire. They fewed the tails of different animals to

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his cloaths; but foon they found that ⚫ thofe tails entailed on them and their pofterity for ever. It is certain that the author had some ground for this defcription; many of the English wear tails to their wigs to this very day, as a mark, I fuppose, of the antiquity of their families, and perhaps as a fymbol of thofe tails with which they were formerly diftinguished by nature.

You fee, my friend, there is nothing fo ridiculous that has not at fome time been faid by fome philofopher. The writers of books in Europe seem to think themselves authorised to say what they pleafe; and an ingenious philofopher among them has openly asserted, that he would undertake to perfuade the whole republic of readers to believe that the fun was neither the cause of light nor heat; if he could only get fix philofophers on his fide. Farewell.

LETTER XVII.

FROM THE SAME.

WERE an Afiatic politician to

read the treaties of peace and friendship that have been annually making for more than an hundred years among the inhabitants of Europe, he would probably be furprized how it fhould ever happen that Christian princes could quarrel among each other. Their compacts for peace are drawn up with the utmost precifion, and ratified with the greatest folemnity; to thefe each party promifes a fincere and inviolable obedience, and all wears the appearance of open friendship and unreferved reconciliation.

Yet, notwithstanding those treaties, the people of Europe are almoft continually at war. There is nothing more eafy than to break a treaty ratified in all the ufual forms, and yet neither party be the aggreffor. One fide, for instance, breaks a trifling article by mistake; the

oppofite party upon this makes a small

but premeditated reprifal; this brings on a return of greater from the other; both fides complain of injuries and infractions; war is declared; they beat, are beaten; fome two or three hundred thousand men are killed; they grow tired, leave off just where they began; and fo fit coolly down to make new treaties.

The English and French feem to place themfelves foremost among the champion states of Europe. Though parted by a narrow fea, yet are they entirely of oppofite characters; and from their vicinity are taught to fear and admire each other. They are at prefent engaged in a very deftructive war, have already fpilled much blood, are exceffively irritated; and all upon account of one fide's defiring to wear greater quantities of furs than the other,

The pretext of the war is about fome

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lands a thousand leagues off; a country of late difpoffeffed them of the whole cold, defolate, and hideous; a country country in difpute. Think not, howbelonging to a people who were in pof- ever, that fuccefs on one fide is the harfeffion for time immemorial. The fa- hinger of peace: on the contrary, both vages of Canada claim a property in the parties must be heartily tired to effect country in difpute; they have all the even a temporary reconciliation. pretentions which long poffeffion can fhould feem the bufinefs of the victoriconfer. Here they had reigned for ages ous party to offer terms of peace; but without rivals in dominion; and knew there are many in England, who, enno enemies but the prowling bear or in-couraged by fuccefs, are for ftill profidious tiger; their native forefts pro- tracting the war. duced all the neceffaries of life, and they found ample luxury in the enjoyment. In this manner they might have continued to live to eternity, had not the English been informed that thofe countries produced furs in great abundance. From that moment the country became an object of defire; it was found that furs were things very much wanted in England; the ladies edge ! fome of their clothes with furs, and muffs were worn both by gentlemen and ladies. In short, furs were found indifpenfably neceffary for the happ nefs of the state: and the king was confequently petitioned to grant not only the country of Canada, but all the favages belonging to it to the fubjects of England, in order to have the people fuppled with proper quantities of this neceffary commodity.

So very reasonable a request was immediately complied with, and large colonies were fent abroad to procure furs, and take poffeffion. The French, who were equally in want of furs, (for they were as fond of muffs and tippets as the English) made the very fame request to their monarch, and met with the fame gracious reception from their king who generously granted what was not his to give. Wherever the French landed, they called the country their own; and the English took poffeffion wherever they came upon the fame equitable pretentions. The harmlefs favages made no oppofition; and could the intruders have agreed together, they might peaceably have flared this defolate country between then. But they quarrelled

about the boundaries of their fettlements, about grounds and rivers to which neither fide could fhew any other right than that of power, and which neither could occupy but by ufurpation. Such is the conteft, that no honelt man can heartily with fuccefs to either party.

The war has continued for fome time with various fuccefs. A first the French feemed victorious; but the English have

The best English politicians, however, are fenfible, that to keep their prefent conquefts would be rather a burthen than an advantage to them, rather a diminution of their ftrength than an increase of power. It is in the politic as in the human conftitution; if the limbs grow too large for the body, their fize, inftead of improving, will diminish the vigour of the whole. The colonies fhould always bear an exact proportion to the mother country; when they grow populous, they grow powerful; and by becoming powerful, they become independent allo; thus fubordination is de troved, and a country wallowed up in the extent of it's own dominions. The Turkish empire would be more formi dable, were it lefs extenfive; were it not for thofe countries, which it can neither command, nor give entirely away; which it is obliged to protect, but from which it has no power to exact obedi.

en e.

Yet, obvious as thefe truths are, there are many Englishmen who are for transplanting new colonies into this late acquifition, for peopling the defarts of America with the refule of their countrymen, and, (as they exprefs it) with the wafte of an exuberant nation. But who are thofe unhappy creatures who are to be thus drained away? Not the fickly, for they are unwelcome gurts abroad as well as at home; nor the die, for they would tarve as well behind the Aoplachian mountains as in the streets of London. Tais refule is computed of the laborious and enterprizing, of

fuch men as can be ferviceable to their country at home, of men who ought to be regarded as the finews of the people, and cherished with every degree of political indulgence. And what are the commodities which this colony, when eftablished, are to produce in return? Why, raw fik, hemp, and tobacco. England, therefore, mut make an exchange of her best and brave.t .ubjects

for

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