gallant; if I talk my griefs aloud like a tragedy hero, I am laughed at by the whole world. The courfe then I would take would be, whenever I went out, to tell my wife where I was going, left I fhould unexpectedly meet her abroad in company with fome dear deceiver. Whenever I returned, I would ufe a peculiar rap at the door, and give four loud hems as I walked deliberately up the stair-cafe. I would never inquifitively peep under her bed, or look behind the curtains. And even though I knew the captain was there, I would calmly take a dish of my wife's cool tea,. and talk of the army with reverence.

Of all nations, the Ruffians feem to me to behave molt wifely in fuch circumftances. The wife promifes her hutband never to let him fee her tranf greffions of this nature; and he as punc.. tually promifes, whenever the is fo detected, without the leaft anger, to beats her without mercy: fo they both know what each has to expect; the lady tranf, greffes, is beaten, taken again into favour, and all goes on as before.

When a Ruffian young lady, therefore, is to be married, her father, with a cudgel in his hand, afks the bridegroom whether he chufes this virgin for his bride? to which the other replies in the affirmative, Upon this, the father turning the lady three times round, and giving her three ftrokes with his

cudgel on the back- My dear,' cries he, thefe are the lait blows you are ever to receive from your tender father; I refign my authority, and my cudgel, to your husband; he knows better than me the ute of either.' The bridegroom knows decorums too well to accept of the cudgel abruptly; he af fures the father that the lady will never want it, and that he would not for the world make any use of it. But the father, who knows what the lady may want better than he, intitts upon his acceptance. Upon this, there follows a fcene of Ruflian politeness, while one refufes, and the other offers, the cudgela The whole, however, ends with the bridegroom's taking it, upon which the lady drops a curtiey in token of obedience, and the ceremony proceeds as ufual.

There is fomething exceffively fair and open in this method of courtship. By this, both fides are prepared for all, the matrimonial adventures that are to follow. Marriage has been compared to a game of fkill for life; it is generous, thus in both parties to declare they are fharpers in the beginning. In England, I am told, both fides ufe every art to con ceal their defects from each other before, marriage, and the rest of their lives may, be regarded as doing penance for their former diffimulation. Farewell.

THE HE Republic of Letters is a very common expreflion among the Europeans; and yet, when applied to the learned of Europe, is the most abfurd that can be imagined, fince nothing is more unlike a republic than the fociety, which goes by that name. From this expreffion one would be apt to imagine, that the learned were united into a fingle body, joining their interefts, and con, curring in the fame defign. From this one might be apt to compare them to our literary focieties in China, where each acknowledges a juft fubordination; and all contribute to build the temple of fcience, without attempting from ignorance or envy to obftruct each other.

But very different is the ftate of learn

ing here; every member of this fancied republic is defirous of governing, and none willing to obey; each looks upon his fellow as a rival, not an affiftant, in the fame purfuit. They calumniate, they injure, they defpife, they ridicule each other: if one man writes a book that pleafes, others thall write books to fhew that he might have given ftill greater pleafure, or fhould not have pleafed. If one happens to hit upon fome hing new, there are numbers ready to affure the public that all this was na novelty to them or the learned; that Cardanus or Brunus, or fome other author too dull to be generally read, had an ticipated the difcovery. Thus, inftead of uniting like the members of common.

wealth,

wealth, they are divided into almost as many factions as there are men; and their jarring conftitution, instead of being ftiled a republic of letters, should be entitled, an anarchy of literature.

It is true, there are some of superior abilities who reverence and esteem each other; but their mutual admiration is not fufficient to fhield off the contempt of the crowd. The wife are but few, and they praise with a feeble voice; the vulgar are many, and roar in reproaches. The truly great feldom unite in focieties, have few meetings, no cabals; the dunces hunt in full cry till they have run down a reputation, and then fnarl and fight with each other about dividing the spoil. Here you may fee the compilers, and the book-answerers of every month, when they have cut up some refpectable name, moft frequently reproaching each other with ftupidity and dullness: refembling the wolves of the Ruffian forest, who prey upon venifon, or horse flesh when they can get it; but in cafes of neceffity, lying in wait to devour each other. While they have new books to cut up, they make a hearty meal; but if this resource should unhappily fail, then it is that critics eat up critics, and compilers rob from compilations.

Confucius obferves that it is the duty of the learned to unite fociety more clofely, and to perfuade men to become citizens of the world; but the authors I refer to, are not only for difuniting fociety, but kingdoms alfo; if the Englifh are at war with France, the dunces of France think it their duty to be at war with those of England. Thus Freron, one of their first-rate fcribblers, thinks proper to characterise all the English writers in the grofs. Their whole ✦ merit,' fays he, consists in exaggera⚫tion, and often in extravagance; correct their pieces as you please, there still ⚫ remains a leaven which corrupts the whole. They fometimes difcover genius, but not the fmalleft fhare of tafte; England is not a foil for the ⚫ plants of genius to thrive in. This is open enough, with not the least adulation in the picture; but hear what a Frenchman of acknowledged abilities fays upon the fame fubject- I am at a lofs to determine in what we excel the • English, or where they excel us; when I compare the merits of both in any ⚫one fpecies of literary compofition, fo

many reputable and pleafing writers prefent themselves from either country, that my judgment retts in fufpence: I am pleased with the difquifition, without finding the object of my enquiry." But left you should think the French alone are faulty in this refpect, hear how an English journalist delivers his fentiments of them. We are amazed,' fays he, to find fo many works tranf⚫lated from the French, while we have 'fuch numbers neglected of our own. In our opinion, notwithstanding their fame throughout the rest of Europe, the French are the most contemptible reafoners (we had almoft faid writers) that can be imagined. However, nevertheless, excepting, &c. Another English writer, Shaftsbury, if I remember, on the contrary, fays, that the French authors are pleafing and judicious, more clear, more methodical, and entertaining, than those of his own country.

From thefe oppofite pictures, you perceive that the good authors of either country praise, and the bad revile each other; and yet, perhaps, you will be surprized that indifferent writers should thus be the moft apt to cenfure, as they have the most to apprehend from recrimination; you may, perhaps, imagine, that fuch as are poffeffed of fame themfelves fhould be most ready to declare their opinions, fince what they fay might pafs for decifion. But the truth happens to be, that the great are folicitous only of raifing their own reputations, while the oppofite clafs, alas! are folicitous of bringing every reputation down to a level with their own.

But let us acquit them of malice and envy; a critic is often guided by the fame motives that direct his author. The author endeavours to perfuade us, that he has written a good book: the critic is equally folicitous to fhew that he could write a better, had he thought proper. A critic is a being poffeffed of all the vanity, but not the genius, of a fcholar: incapable, from his native weaknefs, of lifting himself from the ground, he applies to contiguous merit for support, makes the fportive fallies of another's imagination his ferious employment, pretends to take our feelings under his care, teaches where to condemn, where to lay the emphafis of praife, and may with as much juftice be called a man of tafte, as the Chinese who mea

E

fures

fures his wifdom by the length of his nails.

If then a book, fpirited or humourous, happens to appear in the republic of letters, feveral critics are in waiting to bid the public not to laugh at a fingle line of it, for themfelves had read it; and they know what is moft proper to to excite laughter. Other critics contradict the fulminations of this tribunal, call them all fpiders, and affure the public, that they ought to laugh without restraint. Another fet are in the mean time quietly employed in writ

THE

ing notes to the book, intended to fhew the particular paffages to be laughed at; when thefe are out, others ftill there are who write notes upon notes. Thus a fingle new book employs not only the paper-makers the printers, the preffmen, the book-binders, the hawkers, but twenty critics, and as many com. pilers. In fhort, the body of the learn ed may be compared to a Perfian army, where there are many pioneers, feveral futlers, numberlefs fervants, women and children in abundance, and but few foldiers. Adieu.

HE English are as fond of fee ing plays acted as the Chinese; but there is a vaft difference in the manner of conducting them. We play our pieces in the open air, the Englith theirs under cover; we act by day light, they by the blaze of torches. One of our plays continues eight or ten days fucceffively; an English piece feldom takes up above four hours in the reprefenta

tion.

My companion in black, with whom I am now beginning to contract an intimacy, introduced me a few nights ago to the play-houfe, where we placed our felves conveniently at the foot of the ftage. As the curtain was not drawn before my arrival, I had an opportunity of obferving the behaviour of the spectators, and indulging thofe reflections which novelty generally infpires.

The rich in general were placed in the lowest feats, and the poor rofe above them in degrees proportioned to their poverty. The order of precedence feemed here inverted; thofe who were under moft all the day, now enjoyed a temporary eminence, and became masters of the ceremonies. It was they who called for the mufic, indulging every noify freedom, and teftifying all the infolence of beggary in exaltation.

They who held the middle region feemed not fo riotous as thofe above, them, nor yet fo tame as thofe below; to judge by their looks, many of them feemed ftrangers there as well as myfelf. They were chiefly employed during this period of expectation in eating oranges,

reading the ftory of the play, or making affignations.

Those who fat in the lowest rows, which are called the pit, feemed to confider themselves as judges of the merit of the poet and the performers; they were affembled partly to be amused, and part, ly to fhew their tafte; appearing to labour under that restraint which an affectation of fuperior difcernment generally produces. My companion, however, informed me, that not one in an hundred of them knew even the first principles of criticifm; that they affumed the right of being cenfors because there was none to contradict their pretentions; and that every man who now called himself a connoiffeur, became such to all intents and purposes.

Those who fat in the boxes appeared in the most unhappy fituation of all. The rest of the audience came merely for their own amufement; these rather to furnish out a part of the entertain. ment themselves. I could not avoid confidering them as acting parts in dumb fhew; not a curtfey or nod, that was not the refult of art; not a look nor a smile that was not designed for murder. Gentlemen and ladies ogled each other through fpectacles; for my companion obferved, that blindnefs was of late become fashionable, all affected indifference and cafe, while their hearts at the fame time burned for conquelt. Upon the whole, the lights, the mufic, the la dies in their gayett dreffes, the men with chearfulness and expectation in their looks, all confpired to make a moft agree

able

fort of jumping and croffing; and 'tis a cant word among them, that the de⚫ serves most who fhews higheft. But the fourth act is begun, let us be ❝ attentive.'

was killed, or the queen was drowned, or the fon was poisoned, I have abfolutely forgotten.

When the play was over, I could not avoid obferving, that the perfons of the drama appeared in as much distress in the first act as the laft. How is it pof

tions; wherefore the wifely confiders that the crown will fit his head better than that of her husband, whom the knows to be a driveler. The king difcovers her defign, and here comes on the deep diftrefs; he loves the queen, and he loves the kingdom; he refolves therefore, in order to poffefs both, that her fon must die. The queen exclaims at his barbarity; is frantic with rage, and at length overcome with forrow, falls into a fit; upon which the curtain drops, and the act is concluded.

Obferve the art of the poet,' cries, my companion; when the queen can. fay no more, the falls into a fit. While thus her eyes are fhut, while fhe is fupported in the arms of Abigal, what horrors do we not fancy, we feel it in every nerve; take my word for it, that fits are the true apofiopefis of modern ⚫ tragedy.'

The fifth act began, and a busy piece it was. Scenes fhifting, trumpets founding, mobs hallooing, carpets fpreading, guards bustling from one door to another; gods, dæmons, daggers, racks, and ratibane. But whether the king

them through five long acts; pity is but a fhort-lived paffion; I hate to ⚫ hear an actor mouthing trifles, neither ftartings, ftrainings, nor attitudes, af'fect me unless there be caufe: after I ⚫ have been once or twice deceived by thofe unmeaning alarms, my heart fleeps in peace, probably unaffected by the principal distress. There should be one great paffion aimed at by the actor as well as the poet, all the reft 'fhould be fubordinate, and only con⚫ tribute to make that the greater; if the actor therefore exclaims upon every occafion in the tones of despair, he attempts to move us too foon; he anticipates the blow, he ceafes to affect, though he gains our applaufe.'

I fcarce perceived that the audience were almost all departed; wherefore, mixing with the crowd, my companion and I got into the street; where effaying an hundred obftacles from coach wheels and palanquin poles, like birds in their flight through the branches of a foreft, after various turnings, we both at length got home in fafety. Adieu.

HE letter which came by the way

me unopened, was from my fon. As I have permitted you to take copies of all thofe I fend to China, you might have made no ceremony in opening those directed to me. Either in joy or forrow, my friend fhould participate in my feelings. It would give pleasure to see a good man pleafed at my fuccefs; it would give almoft equal pleasure to fee • him sympathize at my difappointment.' Every account I receive from the Eaft feems to come loaded with fome new affliction. My wife and daughter were taken from me, and yet I fuftained the lofs with intrepidity; my son is made a

flave among the barbarians, which was reached

my heart: yes, I will indulge the tranfports of nature for a little, in order to fhew I can overcome them in the end.

True magnanimity confifts not in NEVER falling, but in RISING every time we fall.'

When our mighty emperor had publifhed his difpleasure at my departure, and feized upon all that was mine, my fon was privately fecreted from his refentment. Under the protection and guardianship of Fum Hoam, the best and wifeft of all the inhabitants of China, he was for fome time instructed in the learning of the miffionaries, and the

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