ther uneafy nor dull. I had not the least care for future days. I waited the anfwers Mifs du Châtelet was to receive, lodging in the open air, and fleeping ftretched on the earth, or on a bench, with the fame ease as on a bed of down. I remember to have paffed even a delightful night out of the city, on a road which borders the Rhône or the Saône, I don't recollect which of the two. Gar. dens forming terraces, bordered the road on the oppofite fide. It had been extremely hot that day; the evening was charming; the dew moittened the drooping grafs; no wind, a ftill night; the air was fresh, but not cold; the fun being fet had left red vapours in the heavens, whofe reflection gave to the water the colour of a rofe; the trees on the terrace were covered with nightingales, who antwered each other's notes. I walked about in a fort of ecftafy, giving up my feelings and heart to the enjoyment of the whole, and fighing a little with grief at enjoying it alone. Abforbed in delightful meditation, the night was far advanced before I perceived my lengthened walk had tired my weary limbs. I perceived it at last. I laid myself luxuriously on the step of a fort of niche or falfe door in the terrace-walk: the canopy of my bed was formed by the tops of trees; a nightingale was prec fely over my head; his music lulled me afleep my lumbers were foft, my awaking was more fo. It was broad day my eyes, on opening, faw water, verdure, and an admirable landicape. I got up, fhook myfelf, hunger feized me. 1 made, gayly, the best of my way towards town, refolved to I ex fpend on a good breakfast the laft two pieces I had left. I was in fo ex ellent a humour as to go finging along all the way, and, I alto remember, I fung a cantata of Batiffin I had by heart, intitled the Baths of Thomery. God blefs the good Batiflin and his good cantata, which brought me a better breakfast than what I pected, and still a better dinner, which I did not expect at all. In the height of my walking and finging, I heard fome one behind me. I look round, I see an Antonine following me, and feeming to listen to me with pleasure. He accofts me, bids me good-morn ing, and afks if I know mufic? I answered, a little, to make it believed a great deal. He continues to question me: I tell a part of my story. He asks me whether I ever copied mufic? Often, fay I, which was true; my best method of learning was by copying. Well, fays he, come with me; I can employ you a few days, during which time you fhall want nothing, provided you confent to not going out of the room. I willingly acquiefced, and followed him." This Antonine was named Ro lichon, was fond of mufic, underflood it, and fung in little concerts he gave his friends. There was nothing in this but innocence and decency; but this taffe degenerated, no doubt, into paffion, of which he was obliged to conceal a part. He conducted me to a little room I occupied, where I found a deal of mufic he had copied. He gave me more to copy, particularly the cantata I fung, and which he intended to fing in a little time. I ftaid there three three or four days, copying the whole time I did not eat; for in my life I never was fo hungry or better fed. He brought my meals himself from the kitchen: they must have had a good one, if their living was equal to mine. In my days I have not eat with fo much pleafure; and I must own thefe bits came in the nick of time, for I was as dry as wood. I work with nearly as good a heart as I eat, which is not faying a little. It is true I was not fo correct as diligent. Some days after, M. Rolichon, whom I met in the ftreet, told me my parts could not be performed on account of omiffions, duplications, and tranfpofitions. I must own I have, in chufing that, chofe the only fcience in the world for which I was leaft calculated. Not but that my notes were good, and that I copied very clean; but the tedioufnefs of a long job distracts me fo much, that I fpend more time in fcratching out than in noting; and if I do not use the greatest attention in comparing my parts, they always caufe the performance to fail. I therefore, in endeavour ing to do well, did very ill, and to get on quickly, I went crofs. This did not prevent M. Rolichon from treating me well the whole time, and giving me, on leaving him, half-a-crown I little deferved, but which fet me quite on foot again; for in a few days after, I received news from mamma, who was at Chambery, and money to carry me to her: this journey I made with transport. Since these times my finances have been very low; but never fo as to go without bread. I mention this period with a heart fenfible of the attention of Providence. It was the last time of my life I felt hunger and mifery. Some Account of the Brahmins of India. From the Author of Travels in Europe, Afia, and Africa, &c. A LTHOUGH we are not fo well acquainted with the hiftory of the modern Brahmins of India as might be expected, from the enlarged knowledge, commerce, and curiofity of the prefent times, yet we know enough of this tribe to conclude with certainty, that they have degenerated much from the purity of their ancestors. I know not whether fuch calculators as Dr. Price might not be able, from the prefent corrupt ftate of the Brahmins, to compute the time of the first inftitution of that order. All religious fectaries, in the courfe of time, degenerate from the auftere virtues of their first heads or leaders. Chriftians in general, and alfo the particular fects of Chrif tianity, bear witness to the truth of this pofition: with thefe data, I doubt not but an ingenious calculator might inveftigate the age of the order of Brahmins, and confequently that of the Hindoo empire, with which that class of men was no doubt coeval.. I have already given a fhort sketch of what the Indian priests were near two thousand years ago. In the prefent times it is afferted, that European ufurpers fometimes make ufe even of the Brahmins as tools of oppreffion, and as inftruments of plunder. But whatever their lives be, their doctrine is on the whole yet pure and excellent : for, for, among feveral errors, they maintain thofe truths which form the harmony of the world, That there is one fupreme God, and that he is delighted with charity and good works more than by all other facrifices. In general, their religious tenets are very confiftent with the ideas which are entertained of the Divinity in Europe. Many fuperftitious practices have indeed been introduced among the generality of the people. Wooden images are placed in all their temples, and on certain feftivals are exhibited on the high-roads and in the streets of towns. Thefe have impreffed ftrangers with a notion that the Gentoos are idolaters; when in truth the homage they pay to their images is precifely of the fame kind with that which the Roman Catholics yield to the images of our Saviour and the faints, which are only meant to awaken attention, and to give livelier ideas of the objects of their devotion. This I have been repeatedly told by Gentoos, in whofe judgment and veracity I repofe great confidence. The images of which I fpeak, are various, and often monftrous in their forms. They are figures intended to adumbrate the attributes of the Deity by visible reprefentations of their effects, which appear in the works of creation and providence. Thus far only the Gentoos are idolators, that in worthipping the great God of the univerie, they place before their bodily eyes, for the information of their minds, fuch reprefentations as are calculated to recall, in the most vivid manner, to their imaginations, thofe attributes which they believe that Almighty Being only to poffefs. The Hindoos, as well as the Perfians, Tartars, and adjoining nations, who have inhabited Hindeftan fince it was conquered by Tamerlane or Timurbeg, though of different nations, religions, laws, and customs, poffefs nevertheless, in equal degrees, hofpitality, politenefs, and addrefs. In refinement and eafe they are fuperior to any people to the westward of them. In politeness and addrefs, in gracefulness of deport ment and speech, an Indian is as much filperior to a Frenchman of fashion as a French courtier is to a Dutch burgo-master of Dort*. A Frenchman is indeed by no means deficient in ease of carriage; but that eafe is mixed with forward familiarity, with confidence, and felf-conceit. The Hindoos, especially thofe of the higher cafes, are in their de meanour eafy and unconftrained, ftill more than even a French courtier; but their eafe and freedom is referved, modeft, and refpectful. A Frenchman is polite, because he thinks it his honour to be polite an Indian, because he thinks it his duty. The former is polite because he regards himfelf; the latter because he refpects you. Their perfons are ftraight and elegant, their limbs finely proportioned, their fingers long and tapering, their countenances open and pleafant, and their features exhibit the most delicate lines of beauty in the females; and in the males a kind of manly foftness. Their walk and gait, as well as their • The least civilized of all the towns in Holland. whole whole deportment, is in the higheft degree graceful. The drefs of the men is a kind of close-bodied gown, like our womens gowns, and wide trowfers, refembling petticoats, reaching down to their flippers. Such of the women as appear in public, have fhawls over their heads and fhoulders, fhort close jackets, and tight drawers, which come down to their ancles. Hence the drefs of the men gives them in the eyes of Europeans, an appearance of effeminacy; whereas that of the women will appear rather mafculine: fuch is the influence of habit and cuftom on human fentiments; an inAluence which extends not merely to matters of tafte, but, as the ingenious Dr. Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, obferves, to objects of higher importance. Many of the original Hindoo tribes or caftest, most of, or all the defcendants of Moors, as well as the emigrants which pour in great fwarms into India, from Perfia and the adjacent countries, are brave, intrepid, and cool in battle. Having the fame weapons, and under fimilar difcipline, why fhould they not be a match for men of the fame country and complexion with themselves, although thofe men are under the aufpices of foreign nations? The advantage of thefe aufpices may doubtless be counterbalanced by fuperiority of numbers, and other favourable circumftances, which it is needlefs to enumerate. These are serious and important objects of public confideration: a bant. neglect of which has already produced the moft alarming loffes in revenue, and disadvantages in trade, and feems indeed to threaten the extinction of the present Eaft India Company. From the difference of caftes or claffes of the people in Hindoftan, I mean the original inhabitants, there arifes a difference of education and drefs. But even the inferior claffes are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic: the youth are taught, not within doors, but in the open air; and it is a fingular, but not unpleafing spectacle, to behold, in every village, a venerable old man, reclined on a terraced plain, teaching a number of furrounding boys, who regard him with the utmost reverence and attention, like a fhepherd feeding his flock. In those fimple feminaries, where the want of magnificent halls and theatres is divinely compenfated by the fpacious canopy of Heaven, the gentle and tractable fons of the Hin. doos are not only prepared for the bufinefs, but inftructed in the duties of life, a profound veneration for the object or objects of religious worship, reverence of their parents, respect for their feniors, juftice and humanity towards all men, but a particular affection for thofe of their own cafte. The Hindoo language is beautiful, expreffive, and nervous. reading and fpeaking, the Hindoos are very mutical. Their fpeech, like that of the Italians, flows in a kind of numbers. There Somewhat refembling the plaids of N. Britain, and the black veils of Bra+ Cafte is a Portuguese word, importing a clafs or tribe... is a dead language, understood of the antiquity of the Hindoo only by the literati of the country, that is, the priests, called the Sanferit language, in which their facred volumes are written, even as our facred fcriptures are written in Greek and Hebrew. But whether that language was originally different from that of the country, or whether it has only now become unintelligible to the people, through that change which is incident to all living languages, is, I believe, not well known. Having already observed that the genius of the Hindoos is rather imitative than inventive, I need fcarcely add, that they have lefs curiofity in their nature than the European nations have; that they do not vary their fafhions; and that they are not fond of novelty beyond the precincts of their harams. From the temper and tenets of this people, as well as from several hints in ancient hi torians, it appears more than probable that the fame kind of garments, of food, of furniture, of buildings, and of manners, which obtained among their progenitors thousands of years ago, actually prevails among the Hindoo tribes at this day. In like manner, the fame profeffions are adhered to by the fame families with fuperfti. tious exactness. Thofe profeffions are exceedingly numerous. This divifion and fubdivifion of employment and labour, the. vaft variety of caftes, from the Brahmins down to the fifherman, is one proof, among many others, nation, and their progress in the arts. It appears very fingular, that the different caftes are not only prohibited from intermarrying, but alfo from eating with one another, and even from eating of the fame kind of food. Although the Gentoo laws relative to caftes, their education, food, drefs, marriages, and occupations, be held forth as religious tenets, yet, upon investigation, they will be found to have been very wife and falutary political inftitutions, intended to give authority to government; to fecure the fupreme power in the hands of the priesthood; to preferve to the community different races of labourers, artificers, husbandmen, warriors, and priests. The females are betrothed when in a ftate of infancy, and marriages are confummated as foon as the parties arrive at the age of puberty: an inftitution which is neceffary to the population of the country; which, but for this precaution, would be greatly diminifhed by the operation of the Gentoo religion, which admits not of converts from other religions, and eafily rejects offenfive characters from the number of its own profeffors, which is called the Lofs of Cafe. The Gentoos are perfuaded that the water of the three great rivers, Ganges, Kiftna, and Indus, have the facred virtue of purifying thofe who bathe in them, from all pollutions and fins. This religious idea feems alfo to be The profeffion of a fisherman was, of all profeffions, the humbleft amongst the Jews. The Son of God exemplified his divine power in making fishermen inftruments of propagating the gospel. founded |