testifying their friendship by actions, ad leaves me only words to express the cerity of mine. I am perfectly sensible of the delicacy ith which you endeavour to lessen your wn merit and my obligations. By calling Our late instances of friendship only a etura for former favours you would inLuce me to impute to your justice what ove to your generosity. The services I did you at Canton justice, manity, and my office bade me perform; hose you have done me since my arrival at Amsterdam no laws obliged you to, no justice required. Even half your favours would have been greater than my most sangue expectations. The sum of money, therefore, which you privately conveyed into my baggage, when I was leaving Holland, and which I was ignorant of till my arrival in London, I rust beg leave to return. You have been bend a merchant, and I a scholar; you conserently love money better than I. You ca find pleasure in superfluity; I am perfectly content with what is sufficient. Tike therefore what is yours: it may give you some pleasure, even though you have occasion to use it; my happiness it canna improve, for I have already all that I My passage by sea from Rotterdam to Eland was more painful to me than all the journeys I ever made on land. I have taversed the immeasurable wilds of Mogul Tartary; felt all the rigours of Siberian ties: I have had my repose a hundred ts disturbed by invading savages, and Save seen, without shrinking, the desert Mods rise like a troubled ocean all around Be Against these calamities I was armed with resolution; but in my passage to Engod, though nothing occurred that gave the mariners any uneasiness, to one who was frer at sea before all was a subject of aishment and terror. To find the land dappear to see our ship mount the aves, swift as an arrow from the Tartar w-to hear the wind howling through the cordage-to feel a sickness which depresses even the spirits of the brave, these were unexpected distresses, and Ensequently assaulted me, unprepared Dreceive them. You men of Europe think nothing of a voyage by sea. With us of China a man who has been from sight of land is regarded upon his return with admiration. I have known some provinces where there is not even a name for the ocean. What a strange people, therefore, am I got amongst, who have founded an empire on this unstable element, who build cities upon billows that rise higher than the mountains of Tipartala, and make the deep more formidable than the wildest tempest ! Such accounts as these, I must confess, were my first motives for seeing England. These induced me to undertake a journey of seven hundred painful days, in order to examine its opulence, buildings, sciences, arts, and manufactures, on the spot. Judge, then, my disappointment on entering London, to see no signs of that opulence so much talked of abroad: wherever I turn I am presented with a gloomy solemnity in the houses, the streets, and the inhabitants; none of that beautiful gilding which makes a principal ornament in Chinese architecture. The streets of Nankin are sometimes strewed with gold leaf: very different are those of London: in the midst of their pavement a great lazy puddle moves muddily along; heavy-laden machines, with wheels of unwieldy thickness, crowd up every passage: so that a stranger, instead of finding time for observation, is often happy if he has time to escape from being crushed to pieces. The houses borrow very few ornaments from architecture; their chief decoration seems to be a paltry piece of painting hung out at their doors or windows, at once a proof of their indigence and vanity: their vanity, in each having one of those pictures exposed to public view; and their indigence, in being unable to get them better painted. In this respect the fancy of their painters is also deplorable. Could you believe it? I have seen five black lions and three blue boars in less than the circuit of half a mile; and yet you know that animals of these colours are nowhere to be found, except in the wild imaginations of Europe. From these circumstances in their buildings, and from the dismal looks of the inhabitants, I am induced to conclude that the nation is actually poor; and that, like the Persians, they make a splendid figure everywhere but at home. The proverb of Xixofou is, that a man's riches may be seen in his eyes: if we judge of the English by this rule, there is not a poorer nation under the sun. I have been here but two days, so will not be hasty in my decisions. Such letters as I shall write to Fipsihi in Moscow I beg you'll endeavour to forward with all diligence; I shall send them open, in order that you may take copies or translations, as you are equally versed in the Dutch and Chinese languages. Dear friend, think of my absence with regret, as I sincerely regret yours; even while I write, I lament our separation.--Farewell. LETTER III. From Lien Chi Altangi to the care of Fipsihi, resident in Moscow, to be forwarded by the Russian caravan to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China. THINK not, O thou guide of my youth! that absence can impair my respect, or interposing trackless deserts blot your reverend figure from my memory. The farther I travel I feel the pain of separation with stronger force; those ties that bind me to my native country and you are still unbroken. By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain. Could I find ought worth transmitting from so remote a region as this to which I have wandered, I should gladly send it; but, instead of this, you must be content with a renewal of my former professions, and an imperfect account of a people with whom I am as yet but superficially acquainted. The remarks of a man who has been but three days in the country can only be those obvious circumstances which force themselves upon the imagination. I consider myself here as a newly created being introduced into a new world. Every object strikes with wonder and surprise. The imagination, still unsated, seems the only active principle of the mind. The most trifling occurrences give pleasure, till the gloss of novelty is worn away. When I have ceased to wonder, I may possibly grow wise; I may then call the reasoning principle to my aid, and compare those objects with each other, which were before examined without reflection. Behold me, then, in London, gazing the strangers, and they at me. It seen they find somewhat absurd in my figur and had I never been from home, it possible I might find an infinite fund ridicule in theirs: but by long travellin I am taught to laugh at folly alone, and find nothing truly ridiculous but villai and vice. When I had just quitted my nati country, and crossed the Chinese wall. fancied every deviation from the custo and manners of China was a departing fro nature. I smiled at the blue lips and r foreheads of the Tonguese; and cou hardly contain when I saw the Dau dress their heads with horns: the Osti muck beauties, tricked out in all the fin powdered with red earth; and the C of sheepskin, appeared highly ridiculo But I soon perceived that the ridicule not in them, but in me; that I falsely c demned others for absurdity, because th happened to differ from a standard ginally founded in prejudice or partiali I find no pleasure, therefore, in tax the English with departing from nature their external appearance, which is al yet know of their character: it is possi they only endeavour to improve her sim plan, since every extravagance in di proceeds from a desire of becoming m beautiful than nature made us; and is so harmless a vanity, that I not pardon, but approve it. A desire to more excellent than others is what actu makes us so; and as thousands find a i lihood in society by such appetites, n but the ignorant inveigh against them. You are not insensible, most rever Fum Hoam, what numberless trades, among the Chinese, subsist by the h less pride of each other. Your nose-bo feet-swathers, teeth-stainers, eyeb pluckers, would all want bread, st their neighbours want vanity. T vanities, however, employ much f hands in China than in England; a fine gentleman or a fine lady here, dr up to the fashion, seems scarcely to a single limb that does not suffer distortions from art. To make a fine gentleman several trades e required, but chiefly a barber. You ve undoubtedly heard of the Jewish ampion, whose strength lay in his hair. ne would think that the English were for acing all wisdom there. To appear wise thing more is requisite here than for a aan to borrow hair from the heads of all is neighbours, and clap it like a bush on is own. The distributors of law and phyic stick on such quantities, that it is almost Impossible, even in idea, to distinguish between the head and the hair. broad their faces! how very short their noses! how very little their eyes! how very thin their lips! how very black their teeth! the snow on the tops of Bao is not fairer than their cheeks; and their eyebrows are small as the line by the pencil of Quamsi. Here a lady with such perfections would be frightful. Dutch and Chinese beauties, indeed, have some resemblance, but English women are entirely different: red cheeks, big eyes, and teeth of a most odious whiteness, are not only seen here, but wished for; and then they have such masculine feet, as actually serve some for walking ↓ Yet, uncivil as nature has been, they seem resolved to outdo her in unkindness: they use white powder, blue powder, and black powder for their hair, and a red powder for the face on some particular occasions. They like to have the face of various colours, as among the Tartars of Koreki, frequently sticking on, with spittle, little black patches on every part of it, except on the tip of the nose, which I have never seen with a patch. You'll have a better idea of their manner of placing these spots when I have finished a map of an English face patched up to the fashion, which shall shortly be sent to increase your curious collection of paintings, medals, and monsters. Those whom I have now been describing affect the gravity of the lion; those I am going to describe more resemble the pert vivacity of smaller animals. The barber, who is still master of the ceremonies, cuts their hair close to the crown; and then, with a composition of meal and hog's-lard, plasters the whole in such a manner as to Take it impossible to distinguish whether the patient wears a cap or a plaster: but, tomake the picture more perfectly striking, ceive the tail of some beast, a greyhand's tail, or a pig's tail, for instance, appended to the back of the head, and reching down to the place where tails in aber animals are generally seen to begin: ties betailed and bepowdered, the man of tate fancies he improves in beauty, dresses his hard-featured face in smiles, and empts to look hideously tender. Thus But what surprises more than all the epped, he is qualified to make love, rest is what I have just now been credibly hopes for success more from the pow-informed of by one of this country. "Most der on the outside of his head than the ladies here," says he, "have two faces; timents within. one face to sleep in, and another to show in company. The first is generally reserved for the husband and family at home; the other put on to please strangers abroad : the family face is often indifferent enough, but the out-door one looks something better; this is always made at the toilet, where the looking-glass and toad-eater sit in council, and settle the complexion of the day.” Yet when I consider what sort of a creathe the fine lady is to whom he is supposed pay his addresses, it is not strange to find thus equipped in order to please. She herself every whit as fond of powder, and , and hog's-lard, as he. To speak my ret sentiments, most reverend Fum, the Ades here are horribly ugly; I can hardly dare the sight of them; they no way semble the beauties of China: Europeans have a quite different idea of baty from us. When I reflect on the all-footed perfections of an Eastern beauty, how is it possible I should have es for a woman whose feet are ten inches ong? I shall never forget the beauties of my native city of Nangfew. How very the I cannot ascertain the truth of this remark: however, it is actually certain, that they wear more clothes within doors than without; and I have seen a lady, who seemed to shudder at a breeze in her own apartment, appear half naked in the streets.-Farewell. LETTER IV. To the same. our freedom; if the French should conq what would become of English liber My dear friends, liberty is the Englishm prerogative; we must preserve that at expense of our lives; of that the Fre shall never deprive us. It is not to be would preserve our freedom should t happen to conquer."-" Ay, slaves," c the porter, "they are all slaves, fit only carry burdens, every one of them. Be I would stoop to slavery may this be poison! (and he held the goblet in hand,) may this be my poison!-bu would sooner list for a soldier." THE English seem as silent as the Japanese, yet vainer than the inhabitants of Siam. Upon my arrival I attributed that reserve to modesty, which, I now find, has its ori-pected that men who are slaves themse gin in pride. Condescend to address them first, and you are sure of their acquaintance; stoop to flattery, and you conciliate their friendship and esteem. They bear hunger, cold, fatigue, and all the miseries of life, without shrinking; danger only calls forth their fortitude; they even exult in calamity: but contempt is what they cannot bear. An Englishman fears contempt more than death; he often flies to death as a refuge from its pressure; and dies when he fancies the world has ceased to esteem him. Pride seems the source not only of their national vices, but of their national virtues also. An Englishman is taught to love his king as his friend, but to acknowledge no other master than the laws which himself has contributed to enact. He despises those nations who, that one may be free, are all content to be slaves; who first lift a tyrant into terror, and then shrink under his power as if delegated from Heaven. Liberty is echoed in all their assemblies: and thousands might be found ready to offer up their lives for the sound, though perhaps not one of all the number understands its meaning. The lowest mechanic, however, looks upon it as his duty to be a watchful guardian of his country's freedom, and often uses a language that might seem haughty even in the mouth of the great emperor who traces his ancestry to the Moon. A few days ago, passing by one of their prisons, I could not avoid stopping, in order to listen to a dialogue which I thought might afford me some entertainment. The conversation was carried on between a debtor through the grate of his prison, a porter, who had stopped to rest his burden, and a soldier at the window. The subject was upon a threatened invasion from France, and each seemed extremely anxious to rescue his country from the impending danger. "For my part," cries the prisoner, "the greatest of my apprehensions is for The soldier, taking the goblet from friend with much awe, fervently cried c "It is not so much our liberties, as our ligion, that would suffer by such a chan ay, our religion, my lads. May the de sink me into flames, (such was the sole nity of his adjuration,) if the French sho come over, but our religion would utterly undone !"-So saying, instead a libation, he applied the goblet to lips, and confirmed his sentiments w a ceremony of the most persever devotion. In short, every man here pretends to a politician; even the fair sex are son times found to mix the severity of nation altercation with the blandishments of lo and often become conquerors by m weapons of destruction than their eyes. This universal passion for politics gratified by daily gazettes, as with us China. But as in ours the emperor deavours to instruct his people, in the the people endeavour to instruct t administration. You must not, howev imagine, that they who compile the papers have any actual knowledge of t politics, or the government, of a stat they only collect their materials from t oracle of some coffeehouse, which ora has himself gathered them the night bef from a beau at a gaming-table, who pillaged his knowledge from a great ma porter, who has had his information fr the great man's gentleman, who has vented the whole story for his own amu ment the night preceding. The English, in general, seem fond of gaining the esteem than the love ose they converse with. This gives a rinality to their amusements: their gayt conversations have something too wise r innocent relaxation: though in comny you are seldom disgusted with the >surdity of a fool, you are seldom lifted to rapture by those strokes of vivacity, hich give instant, though not permanent, leasure. What they want, however, in gaiety, hey make up in politeness. You smile t hearing me praise the English for their xoliteness; you who have heard very diferent accounts from the missionaries at Pekin, who have seen such a different behaviour in their merchants and seamen at home. But I must still repeat it, the English see more polite than any of their neighbours: their great art in this respect lies in endeavouring, while they oblige, to lessen the force of the favour. Other countries are fond of obliging a stranger; but sem desirous that he should be sensible of the obligation. The English confer ther kindness with an appearance of inference, and give away benefits with air as if they despised them. Walking, a few days ago, between an English and a French man, into the suburbs e the city, we were overtaken by a heavy shower of rain. I was unprepared; but ey had each large coats, which defended then from what seemed to me a perfect ndation. The Englishman, seeing me ark from the weather, accosted me thus: Pha, man, what dost shrink at? Here, take this coat; I don't want it; I find it way useful to me; I had as lief be hout it." The Frenchman began to Low his politeness in turn. "My dear friend," cries he, "why won't you oblige by making use of my coat? you see w well it defends me from the rain; Istould not choose to part with it to hers, but to such a friend as you I teid even part with my skin to do him ervice." ! From such minute instances as these, most reverend Fum Hoam, I am sensible sagacity will collect instruction. The volume of nature is the book of knowledge; and he becomes most wise who makes the most judicious selection. -Farewell. LETTER V. To the same. I HAVE already informed you of the singular passion of this nation for politics. An Englishman, not satisfied with finding, by his own prosperity, the contending powers of Europe properly balanced, desires also to know the precise value of every weight in either scale. To gratify this curiosity, a leaf of political instruction is served up every morning with tea: when our politician has feasted upon this, he repairs to a coffeehouse, in order to ruminate upon what he has read, and increase his collection; from thence he proceeds to the ordinary, inquires what news, and treasuring up every acquisition there, hunts about all the evening in quest of more, and carefully adds it to the rest. Thus at night he retires home, full of the important advices of the day when lo! awaking next morning, he finds the instructions of yesterday a collection of absurdity or palpable falsehood. This one would think a mortifying repulse in the pursuit of wisdom; yet our politician, no way discouraged, hunts on, in order to collect fresh materials, and in order to be again disappointed. I have often admired the commercial spirit which prevails over Europe; have been surprised to see them carry on a traffic with productions that an Asiatic stranger would deem entirely useless. It is a proverb in China that an European suffers not even his spittle to be lost; the maxim, however, is not sufficiently strong, since they sell even their lies to great advantage. Every nation drives a considerable trade in this commodity with their neighbours. An English dealer in this way, for instance, has only to ascend to his workhouse, and manufacture a turbulent speech averred to be spoken in the senate; or a report supposed to be dropped at court; a piece of scandal that strikes at a popular mandarine; or a secret treaty between two neighbouring powers. When finished, these goods are baled up, and consigned to a factor abroad, who sends in return two battles, three sieges, and a shrewd letter |