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ng in prejudice. To the wise man y climate and every soil is pleasing; na parterre of flowers is the famous of gold; to him a little brook the ain of the young peach-trees; to such the melody of birds is more ravishing the harmony of a full concert; and facture of the cloud preferable to the of the finest pencil.

the life of man is a journey; a journey must be travelled, however bad the or the accommodation. If in the jing it is found dangerous, narrow, cult, it must either grow better in ad, or we shall by custom learn to its inequality.

though I see you incapable of peneinto grand principles, attend at to a simile, adapted to every appreI am mounted upon a wretched see another man before me upon a dy horse, at which I find some unI look behind me, and see ers on foot, stooping under heavy rs; let me learn to pity their estate, #rank Heaven for my own. *gfu, when under misfortunes, would beginning weep like a child; but ca recovered his former tranquillity. indulging grief for a few days, he ad become, as usual, the most merry han in all the province of Shansi. the time that his wife died, his sions were all consumed by fire, and nly son sold into captivity; Shingfu el for one day, and the next went to at a mandarine's door for his dinner. company were surprised to see the old o merry, when suffering such great ; and the mandarine himself coming asked him, how he, who had grieved inch, and given way to calamity the before, could now be so cheerful? ou ask me one question," cries the old n:"let me answer by asking another: ich is the most durable, a hard thing, a soft thing; that which resists, or that ich makes no resistance?"-"A hard ng. to be sure," replied the mandarine.There you are wrong," returned Shingfu. am now four score years old; and, it a look in my mouth, you will find that ave lost all my teeth, but not a bit of tongue."-Adieu.

LETTER XCVI.

From Lien Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China.

THE manner of grieving for our departed friends in China is very different from that of Europe. The mourning colour of Europe is black; that of China white. When a parent or relation dies here-for they seldom mourn for friends-it is only clapping on a suit of sables, grimacing it for a few days, and all, soon forgotten, goes on as before; not a single creature missing the deceased, except perhaps a favourite housekeeper or a favourite cat.

On the contrary, with us in China it is a very serious affair. The piety with which I have seen you behave, on one of these occasions, should never be forgotten. I remember it was upon the death of thy grandmother's maiden sister. The coffin was exposed in the principal hall, in public view. Before it were placed the figures of eunuchs, horses, tortoises, and other animals, in attitudes of grief and respect. The more distant relations of the old lady, and I among the number, came to pay our compliments of condolence, and to salute the deceased after the manner of our country. We had scarce presented our wax candles and perfumes, and given the howl of departure, when, crawling on his belly from under a curtain, out came the reverend Fum Hoam himself, in all the dismal solemnity of distress. Your looks were set for sorrow; your clothing consisted in a hempen bag tied round the neck with a string. For two long months did this mourning continue. By night you lay stretched on a single mat, and sat on the stool of discontent by day. Pious man! who could thus set an example of sorrow and decorum to our country. Pious country! where, if we do not grieve at the departure of our friends for their sakes, at least we are taught to regret them for our own.

All is very different here; amazement all! What sort of people am I got amongst? Fum, thou son of Fo, what sort of people am I got amongst? No crawling round the coffin; no dressing up in hempen bags; no lying on mats, or sitting on stools! Gentlemen here shall put on first mourning

with as sprightly an air as if preparing for a birthnight; and widows shall actually | dress for another husband in their weeds for the former. The best jest of all is, that our merry mourners clap bits of muslin on their sleeves, and these are called weepers. Weeping muslin! alas, alas, very sorrowful truly! These weepers, then, it seems, are to bear the whole burden of the distress.

But I have had the strongest instance of this contrast, this tragi-comical behaviour in distress, upon a recent occasion. Their king, whose departure though sudden was not unexpected, died after a reign of many years. His age and uncertain state of health served, in some measure, to diminish the sorrow of his subjects; and their expectations from his successor seemed to balance their minds between uneasiness and satisfaction. But how ought they to have behaved on such an occasion? Surely, they ought rather to have endeavoured to testify their gratitude to their deceased friend, than to proclaim their hopes of the future! Sure, even the successor must suppose their love to wear the face of adulation, which so quickly changed the object! However, the very same day on which the old king died they made rejoicings for the new.

For my part, I have no conception of this new manner of mourning and rejoicing in a breath; of being merry and sad; of mixing a funeral procession with a jig and a bonfire. At least, it would have been just, that they who flattered the king while living for virtues which he had not should lament him dead for those he really had.

In this universal cause for national distress, as I had no interest myself, so it is but natural to suppose I felt no real affliction. "In all the losses of our friends,' says an European philosopher, "we first I consider how much our own welfare is affected by their departure, and moderate our real grief just in the same proportion." Now, as I had neither received, nor expected to receive, favours from kings or their flatterers; as I had no acquaintance in particular with their late monarch; as I know that the place of a king is soon supplied; and as the Chinese proverb has

that though the world may sometimes

want cobblers to mend their shoes, is no danger of its wanting emper rule their kingdoms: from such consi tions, I could bear the loss of a king the most philosophic resignation. ] ever, I thought it my duty at least to at sorrowful, to put on a melancholy a or to set my face by that of the peop The first company I came am after the news became general, was of jolly companions, who were dri prosperity to the ensuing reign. Iet the room with looks of despair, and expected applause for the superlativen of my countenance. Instead of that, universally condemned by the com for a grimacing son of a whore, and de to take away my penitential phiz to other quarter. I now corrected my fe mistake, and, with the most spright imaginable, entered a company they were talking over the ceremoni the approaching funeral. Here I sa some time with an air of pert viva when one of the chief mourners in diately observing my good humour, de me, if I pleased, to go and grin somew else; they wanted no disaffected scound there. Leaving this company, there I was resolved to assume a look perfe neutral; and have ever since been stud the fashionable air; something betw jest and earnest: a complete virginity face, uncontaminated with the smal symptom of meaning.

But though grief be a very slight al here, the mourning, my friend, is a y important concern. When an empt

dies in China, the whole expense of solemnities is defrayed from the ro coffers. When the great die here, m darines are ready enough to order mon ing; but I do not see they are so ready pay for it. If they send me down court the gray undress frock, or the bla coat without pocket-holes, I am will enough to comply with their comman and wear both; but, by the head of Cầ fucius! to be obliged to wear black, buy it into the bargain, is more than tranquillity of temper can bear. Wha order me to wear mourning before thi know whether I can buy it or no! F thou son of Fo, what sort of a people as

amongst; where being out of black is rtain symptom of poverty; where those o have miserable faces cannot have uning, and those who have mourning I not wear a miserable face!

LETTER XCVII.

To the same.

is usual for the booksellers here, when ook has given universal pleasure upon e subject, to bring out several more on the same plan; which are sure to ve purchasers and readers, from that sire which all men have to view a pleas gobject on every side. The first perrence serves rather to awaken than tisfy attention; and when that is once , the slightest effort serves to conits progression; the merit of the first ses a light sufficient to illuminate the ing efforts; and no other subject A be relished, till that is exhausted. work coming thus immediately in train of an applauded performance es the mind from the object of its aure, and resembles the sponge thrust the mouth of a discharged culverin, der to adapt it for a new explosion. is manner, however, of drawing off ject, or a peculiar mode of writing dregs, effectually precludes a revival Fat subject or manner for some time he future; the sated reader turns from ith a kind of literary nausea; and, gh the titles of books are the part of most read, yet he has scarce perrance enough to wade through the -page.

this number I own myself one: I now grown callous to several sub5, and different kinds of composition. ether such originally pleased I will take upon me to determine; but at sent I spurn a new book, merely upon ting its name in an advertisement; nor we the smallest curiosity to look beyond e first leaf, even though in the second e author promises his own face neatly graved on copper.

lic. For this reason there are a hundred
very wise, learned, virtuous, well-intended
productions, that have no charms for me.
Thus, for the soul of me, I could never find
courage nor grace enough to wade above
God
two pages deep into "Thoughts upon
and Nature;" or "Thoughts upon Provi-
dence;" or "Thoughts upon Free Grace;"
or, indeed, into thoughts upon anything
I can no longer meditate with
at all.
meditations for every day in the year.
Essays upon divers subjects cannot allure
me, though never so interesting; and as
for funeral sermons, or even thanksgiving
sermons, I can neither weep with the one
nor rejoice with the other.

But it is chiefly in gentle poetry, where
I seldom look farther than the title. The
truth is, I take up books to be told some.
thing new; but here, as it is now managed,
the reader is told nothing. He opens the
book, and there finds very good words
truly, and much exactness of rhyme, but
no information. A parcel of gaudy images
pass on before his imagination like the
figures in a dream; but curiosity, induc-
tion, reason, and the whole train of affec-
tions, are fast asleep. The jucunda et
idonea vita-those sallies which mend the
heart, while they amuse the fancy-are
quite forgotten; so that a reader who
would take up some modern applauded
performances of this kind must, in order
to be pleased, first leave his good sense
behind him, take for his recompense and
guide bloated and compound epithet, and
dwell on paintings, just indeed, because
laboured with minute exactness.

If we examine, however, our internal sensations, we shall find ourselves but little pleased with such laboured vanities; we shall find that our applause rather proceeds from a kind of contagion caught up from others, and which we contribute to diffuse, than from what we privately feel. There are some subjects of which almost all the world perceive the futility; But yet all combine in imposing them upon each other, as worthy of praise.

am become a perfect epicure in read-chiefly this imposition obtains in literature, ; plain beef or solid mutton will never where men publicly contemn what they I am for a Chinese dish of bears' relish with rapture in private, and approve I am for sauce abroad what has given disgust at home. aws and birds' nests. ong with asafoetida, or fuming with gar- The truth is, we deliver those criticisms

R

in public which are supposed to be best calculated, not to do justice to the author, but to impress others with an opinion of our superior discernment. But let works of this kind, which have already come off with such applause, enjoy it all. It is not my wish to diminish, as I was never considerable enough to add to, their fame; but, for the future, I fear there are many poems of which I shall find spirits to read but the title. In the first place, all odes upon Winter, or Summer, or Autumn; in short, all odes, epodes, and monodies whatsoever, shall hereafter be deemed too polite, classical, obscure, and refined, to be read, and entirely above human comprehension. Pastorals are pretty enough -for those that like them: but to me Thyrsis is one of the most insipid fellows I ever conversed with; and as for Corydon, I do not choose his company. Elegies and epistles are very fine-to those to whom they are addressed; and as for epic poems, I am generally able to discover the whole plan in reading the two first pages.

Tragedies, however, as they are now made, are good instructive moral sermons enough; and it would be a fault not to be pleased with good things. There I learn several great truths: as, that it is impossible to see into the ways of futurity; that punishment always attends the villain; that love is the fond soother of the human breast; that we should not resist Heaven's will, for in resisting Heaven's will, Heaven's will is resisted; with several other sentiments equally new, delicate, and striking. Every new tragedy, there fore, I shall go to see; for reflections of this nature make a tolerable harmony, when mixed up with a proper quantity of drum, trumpet, thunder, lightning, or the scene-shifter's whistle.-Adieu.

LETTER XCVIII.

To the same.

I HAD some intentions lately of going to visit Bedlam, the place where those who go mad are confined. I went to wait upon the Man in Black to be my conductor, but I found him preparing to go to Westminster Hall, where the English hold their courts of justice. It gave me some

surprise to find my friend engaged lawsuit, but more so when he info me that it had been depending for s years. "How is it possible," cri "for a man who knows the world t to law? I am well acquainted wit courts of justice in China: they rest rat-traps every one of them; nothing easy than to get in, but to get out is attended with some difficulty, and cunning than rats are generally four possess !"

"Faith," replied my friend, "I sł not have gone to law but that I assured of success before I began; t were presented to me in so alluring ai that I thought by barely declaring a candidate for the prize, I had no more to do but to enjoy the fruits o victory. Thus have Í been upon the of an imaginary triumph every term ten years; have travelled forward victory ever in my view, but ever a reach; however, at present I fancy have hampered our antagonist in su manner, that, without some unfore demur, we shall this very day lay fairly on his back."

66

If things be so situated," said I, don't care if I attend you to the cot and partake in the pleasure of your cess. But prithee,' continued I, as set forward, "what reasons have you think an affair at last concluded, wh has given you so many former disappo ments?"

My lawyer tells me, turned he, “that I have Salkeld and V tris strong in my favour, and that th are no less than fifteen cases in point' "I understand," said I; "those are t of your judges who have already decia their opinions."-" Pardon me," re my friend, "Salkeld and Ventris are yers who some hundred years ago their opinions on cases similar to m these opinions which make for me, a lawyer is to cite; and those opin which look another way are cited by lawyer employed by my antagonist:2 observed, I have Salkeld and Ventri me; he has Coke and Hale for him and he that has most opinions is likely to carry his cause." But wh: is the necessity," cried I, "of prolong

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by citing the opinions and reports hers, since the same good sense which mined lawyers in former ages, may to guide your judges at this day? at that time gave their opinions only the light of reason; your judges have same light at present to direct them; e even add, a greater, as informer there were many prejudices from the present is happily free. If ng from authorities be exploded from other branch of learning, why should particularly adhered to in this? I foresee how such a method of ingation must embarrass every suit, even perplex the student; ceremonies be multiplied, formalities must inand more time will thus be spent ing the arts of litigation, than in scovery of right."

see," cries my friend, "that you are speedy administration of justice; but te world will grant, that the more that is taken up in considering any t, the better it will be understood. es, it is the boast of an Englishman, this property is secure, and all the will grant, that a deliberate admition of justice is the best way to sehis property. Why have we so many ers, but to secure our property? so many formalities, but to secure property? Not less than one hundred sand families live in opulence, elee, and ease, merely by securing our perty."

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"A grasshopper, filled with dew, was merrily singing under a shade; a whangam, that eats grasshoppers, had marked it for its prey, and was just stretching forth to devour it ; a serpent, that had for a long time fed only on whangams, was coiled up to fasten on the whangam ; a yellow bird was just upon the wing to dart upon the serpent; a hawk had just stooped from above to seize the yellow bird; all were intent on their prey, and unmindful of their danger: so the whangam ate the grasshopper, the serpent ate the whangam, the yellow bird the serpent, and the hawk the yellow bird; when, sousing from on high, a vulture gobbled up the hawk, grasshopper, whangam, and all in a moment."

I had scarcely finished my fable, when the lawyer came to inform my friend, that his cause was put off till another term, that money was wanting to retain, and that all the world was of opinion, that the very next hearing would bring him off victorious. "If so, then," cries my friend, "I believe it will be my wisest way to continue the cause for another term; and, in the meantime, my friend here and I will go and see Bedlam."Adieu.

LETTER XCIX.
To the same.

To embarrass justice," returned I, a multiplicity of laws, or to hazard a confidence in our judges, are, I nt, the opposite rocks on which legisve wisdom has ever split. In one case, e client resembles that emperor who is d to have been suffocated with the bedothes which were only designed to keep I LATELY received a visit from the little warm; in the other, to that town Beau, who I found had assumed a new hich let the enemy take possession of flow of spirits with a new suit of clothes. walls, in order to show the world how Our discourse happened to turn upon the tle they depended upon aught but different treatment of the fair sex here and Burage for safety. But, bless me! what in Asia, with the influence of beauty in ambers do I see here-all in black!-refining our manners, and improving our ow is it possible that half this multitude conversation. an find employment?"-" Nothing so asily conceived," returned my companion; they live by watching each other.

For

I soon perceived he was strongly prejudiced in favour of the Asiatic method of treating the sex, and that it was impossible

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