lady of distinction, who it seems had collected all her knowledge of Eastern manner from fictions every day propagated here, under the titles of Eastern tales and Oriental histories; she received me very politely, but seemed to wonder that I neglected bringing opium and a tobacco-box; when chairs were drawn for the rest of the company, I was assigned my place on a cushion on the floor. It was in vain that I protested the Chinese used chairs as in Europe: she understood decorum too well to entertain me with the ordinary civilities. I had scarcely been seated according to her directions, when the footman was ordered to pin a napkin under my chin; this I protested against, as being no way Chinese; however, the whole company, who it seems were a club of connoisseurs, gave it unanimously against me, and the napkin was pinned accordingly. persuaded the rest of the company to be of his opinion. was insisted that I had nothing of the true I was going to expose his mistakes, when it Eastern manner in my delivery. This gentleman's conversation (says one of the ladies, who was a reader) is like our own, mere chitchat and common sense: there is nothing like sense in the true Eastern style, where nothing more is required but sublimity. Oh! for a history of Aboulfaouris, the grand voyager, of genii, magicians, rocks, bags of bullets, giants, and enchanters where all is great, obscure, magnificent, and unintelligible.-I have written many a sheet of Eastern tale myself, interrupts the author, and I defy the severest critic to say but that I have stuck close to the true manner. I have compared a lady's chin to the snow upon the mountains of Romek; a soldier's sword, to the clouds that obscure the face of heaven. If riches are mentioned, I compare them to the flocks that graze the verdant Tefflis; if poverty, to the mists that veil the brow of mount Baku. I have used thee and thou upon all occasions; I have described fallen stars and splitting mountains, not forgetting the little Houries, who make a pretty figure in every description. But you should hear how I generally begin: "Eben-ben-bolo, who was the son of Ban, was born on the foggy summits of Benderabassi. His beard was whiter than the feathers which veil the breasts of the PenAguin; his eyes were like the eyes of doves when washed by the dews of the morning; his bair, which hung like the willow weeping over the glassy stream, was so beautiful that it seemed to reflect its own brightness; and his feet were as the feet of a wild deer which fleeth to the tops of the mountains." There, there is the true Eastern taste for you; every advance made towards sense, is only a deviation from sound. Eastern tales should always be sonorous, lofty, musical, and unmeaning. It was impossible to be angry with people, who seemed to err only from an excess of politeness, and I sat contented, expecting their importunities were now at an end; but as soon as ever dinner was served, the lady demanded, whether I was for a plate of Bears' claws, or a slice of Birds' nests? As these were dishes with which I was utterly unacquainted, I was desirous of eating only what I knew, and therefore begged to be helped from a piece of beef that lay on the side-table; my request at once disconcerted the whole company. Chinese eat beef! that could never be! there was no local propriety in Chinese beef, whatever there might be in Chinese pheasant. Sir, said my entertainer, I think I have some reason to fancy myself a judge of these matters in short, the Chinese never eat beef; so that I must be permitted to recommend the Pilaw. There was never better dressed at Pekin; the saffron and rice are well-boiled, and the spices in perfection. Then I had no sooner begun to eat what was laid before me, than I found the whole company I could not avoid smiling, to hear a native as much astonished as before; it seems I of England attempt to instruct me in the true made no use of my chop-sticks. A grave Eastern idiom; and after he looked round gentleman, whom I take to be an author, ha- some time for applause, I presumed to ask him, rangued very learnedly (as the company seem- whether he had ever travelled into the East, to ed to think, upon the use which was made of which he replied in the negative. I demand them in China. He entered into a long argued whether he understood Chinese or Arabic; ment with himself about their first introduc- to which also he answered as before. tion, without once appealing to me, who might how, Sir, said I, can you pretend to determine be supposed best capable of silencing the in- upon the Eastern style, who are entirely unaequiry. As the gentleman therefore took my quainted with the Eastern writings? Take, silence for a mark of his own superior sagacity, Sir, the word of one who is professedly a he was resolved to pursue the triumph; he Chinese, and who is actually acquainted with talked of our cities, mountains, and animals, as the Arabian writers, that what is palmed upon familiarly as if he had been born in Quamsi, you daily for an imitation of Eastern writing, but as erroneously as if a native of the moon. no way resembles their manner, either in sentiHe attempted to prove that I had nothing of ment or diction. In the East, similes are the true Chinese cut in my visage; showed seldom used, and metaphors almost wholly unthat my cheek-bones should have been higher, known; but in China particularly, the very reand my forehead broader. In short, he almost verse of what you allude to takes place : a reasoned me out of my country, and effectually cool phlegmatic method of writing prevails there. The writers of that country, ever | who had invited me, with the most mortifying more assiduous to instruct than to please, ad- insensibility, saw me seize my hat, and rise dress rather the judgment than the fancy. Un- from my cushion; nor was I invited to repeat like many authors of Europe, who have no my visit, because it was found that I aimed at consideration of the reader's time, they gene- appearing rather a reasonable creature, than an rally leave more to be understood than they outlandish idiot. Adieu. express. * 66 Besides, Sir, you must not expect from an inhabitant of China the same ignorance, the same unlettered simplicity, that you find in a Turk, a Persian, or native of Peru. The Chinese are versed in the sciences as well as you, and are masters of several arts unknown to the people of Europe. Many of them are instructed not only in their own national learning, but are perfectly well acquainted with the languages and learning of the West. If my word in such a case is not to be taken, consult your own travellers on this head, who affirm, that the scholars of Pekin and Siam sustain theological theses in Latin. "The college of Masprend, which is but a league from Siam," says one of your travellers,* came in a body to salute our ambassador. Nothing gave me more sincere pleasure, than to behold a number of priests, venerable both from age and modesty, followed by a number of youths of all nations, Chinese, Japanese, Tonquinese, off Cochin China, Pegu, and Siam, all willing to pay their respects in the most polite manner imaginable. A Cochin Chinese made an excellent Latin oration upon this occasion; he was succeeded and even outdone by a student of Tonquin, who was as well skilled in the Western learning as any scholar of Paris." Now, Sir, if youths, who never stirred from home, are so perfectly skilled in your laws and learning, surely more must be expected from one like me, who have travelled so many thousand miles; who have conversed familiarly for several years with the English factors established at Canton, and the missionaries sent us from every part of Europe. The unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and a page of our Confucius and of your Tillotson, have scarcely any material difference. Paltry affectation, strained allusions and disgusting finery, are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; and they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance, or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavour to please. I was proceeding in my discourse, when, looking round, I perceived the company no way attentive to what I attempted, with so much earnestness to enforce. One lady was whispering her that sat next, another was studying the merits of a fan, a third began to yawn, and the author himself fell fast asleep. I thought it, therefore, high time to make a retreat; nor did the company seem to show any regret at my preparations for departure: even the lady Journal ou suite de Voyage de Siam, en forme de Lettres familieres, fait eu 1685 et 1686, par N. L. D. C. p. 174. Amstelod. 1686. LETTER XXXIII. TO THE SAME. THE polite arts are in this country subject to as many revolutions as its laws or politics: not only the objects of fancy and dress, but even of delicacy and taste, are directed by the capricious influence of fashion. I am told there has been a time when poetry was universally encouraged by the great; when men of the first rank not only patronized the poet, but produced the finest models for his imitation. It was then the English sent forth those glowing rhapsodies, which we have so often read over together with rapture; poems big with all the sublimity of Mentius, and supported by reasoning as strong as that of Zimpo. The nobility are fond of wisdom, but they are also fond of having it without study; to read poetry required thought; and the English nobility were not fond of thinking: they soon therefore placed their affections upon music, because in this they might indulge a happy vacancy, and yet still have pretensions to delicacy and taste as before. They soon brought their numerous dependents into an approbation of their pleasures; who in turn led their thousand imitators to feel or feign similitude of passion. Colonies of singers were now imported from abroad at a vast expense; and it was expected the English would soon be able to set examples to Europe. All these expectations, however, were soon dissipated. In spite of the zeal which fired the great, the ignorant vulgar refused to be taught to sing; refused to undergo the ceremonies which were to imitate them in the singing fraternity: thus the colony from abroad dwindled by degrees; for they were of themselves unfortunately incapable of propagating the breed. Music having thus lost its splendour, painting is now become the sole object of fashionable care. The title of connoisseur in that art is at present the safest passport in every fashionable society; a well-timed shrug, an admiring attitude, and one or two exotic tones of exclamation, are sufficient qualifications for men of low circumstances to curry favour. Even some of the young nobility are themselves early instructed in handling the pencil, while their happy parents, big with expectation, foresee the walls of every apartment covered with the manufactures of their posterity. But many of the English are not content with giving all their time to this art at home; some young men of distinction are found to travel I through Europe, with no other intent than [ies! I am almost induced to pity the English, that of understanding and collecting pictures, who have none of those exquisite pieces among studying seals, and describing statues. On they them. As we were willing to let slip no op travel from this cabinet of curiosities to that portunity of doing business, we immediately gallery of pictures; waste the prime of after went to wait on Mr Hogendorp, whom life in wonder; skilful in pictures, ignorant in you have so frequently commended for his men; yet impossible to be reclaimed, because judicious collection. His cameos are indeed their follies take shelter under the names of beyond price; his intaglios not so good. He delicacy and taste. showed us one of an officiating flamen, which It is true, painting should have due encou- he thought to be an antique; but my governor, ragement; as the painter can undoubtedly fit who is not to be deceived in these particulars, up our apartments in a much more elegant soon found it to be an arrant cinque cento. manner than the upholsterer; but I should could not, however, sufficiently admire the think a man of fashion makes but an indiffer-genius of Mr Hogendorp, who has been able ent exchange, who lays out all that time in to collect, from all parts of the world, a thoufurnishing his house, which he should have sand things which nobody knows the use of. employed in the furniture of his head. A Except your lordship and my governor, I do person who shows no other symptoms of taste not know any body I admire so much. He is than his cabinet or gallery, might as well boast indeed a surprising genius. The next morn. to me of the furniture of his kitchen. ing early, as we were resolved to take the whole day before us, we sent our compliments to Mr Van Sprokken, desiring to see his gallery, which request he very politely complied with. His gallery measures fifty feet by twenty, and is well filled; but what surprised me most of all, was to see a holy family just like your lordship's, which this ingenious gentleman assures me is the true original. I own this gave me inexpressible uneasiness, and I fear it will to your lordship, as I had flattered myself that the only original was in your lordship's possession: I would advise you, however, to take your's down, till its merit can be ascertained, my governor assuring me, that he intends to write a long dissertation to prove its originality. One might study in this city for ages, and still find something new: We went from this to view the cardinal's statues, which are really very fine; there were three spintria executed in a very masterly manner, all arm in arm: the torse which I heard you talk so much of, is at last discovered to be a Hercules spinning, and not a Cleopatra bathing, as your lordship had conjectured: there has been a treatise written to prove it, I know no other mctive but vanity, that induces the great to testify such an inordinate passion for pictures. After the piece is bought and gazed at eight or ten days successively, the purchaser's pleasure must surely be over; all the satisfaction he can then have is to show it to others; he may be considered as the guardian of a treasure of which he makes no man. ner of use his gallery is furnished not for himself but the connoisseur, who is generally some humble flatterer, ready to feign a rapture he does not feel, and as necessary to the happiness of a picture buyer, as gazers are to the magnificence of an Asiatic procession. : I have inclosed a letter from a youth of distinction, on his travels to his father in England, in which he appears addicted to no vice, seems obedient to his governor, of a good natural disposition, and fond of improvement: but at the same time early taught to regard cabinets and galleries as the only proper schools for improvement, and to consider a skill in pictures as the properest knowledge for a man of quality. "MY LORD, "We have been but two days at Antwerp; wherefore I have sat down as soon as possible, to give you some account of what we have seen since our arrival, desirous of letting no opportunity pass without writing to so good a father. Immediately upon alighting from our Rotterdam machine, my governor, who is immoderately fond of paintings and at the same time an excellent judge, would let no time pass till we paid our respects to the church of the virgin-mother, which contains treasure beyond estimation. We took an infinity of pains in knowing its exact dimensions, and differed half a foot in our calculation; so I leave that to some succeeding information. I really believe my governor and I could have lived and died there. There is scarce a pillar in the whole church that is not adorned by a Reubens, a Vander Meuylen, a Vandyke, or a WoverWhat attitudes, carnations, and draper man. "My Lord Firmly is certainly a Goth, a Vandal, no taste in the world for painting. I wonder how any call him a man of taste: Passing through the streets of Antwerp a few days ago, and observing the nakedness of the inhabitants, he was so barbarous as to observe, that he thought the best method the Flemings could take, was to sell their pictures, and buy clothes. Ah, Cogline! We shall go to-morrow to Mr Carwarden's cabinet, and the next day we shall see the curiosities collected by Van Rau, and the day after we shall pay a visit to Mount Calvary, and after thatbut I find my paper finished; so, with the most sincere wishes for your lordship's happiness, and with hopes, after having seen Italy, that centre of pleasure, to return home worthy the care and expense which has been generously laid out in my improvement, I remain, my Lord, yours," &c. LETTER XXXIV. FROM HINGPO, A SLAVE IN PERSIA, TO ALTANGI, A TRAVELLING PHILOSOPHER OF CHINA, BY THE WAY OF MOSCOW. FORTUNE has made me the Slave of another, but nature and inclination render me entirely subservient to you; a tyrant commands my body, but you are master of my heart. And yet let not thy inflexible nature condemn me when I confess, that I find my soul shrink with my circumstances. I feel my mind not less than my body bend beneath the rigours of servitude; the master whom I serve grows every day more formidable. In spite of reason, which should teach me to despise him, his hideous image fills even my dreams with horror. A few days ago, a Christian slave, who wrought in the gardens, happening to enter an arbour where the tyrant was entertaining the ladies of his Haram with coffee, the unhappy captive was instantly stabbed to the heart for his intrusion. I have been preferred to his place, which, though less laborious than my former station, is yet more ungrateful, as it brings me nearer him whose presence excites sensations at once of disgust and apprehension. Into what a state of misery are the modern Persians fallen! A nation famous for setting the world an example of freedom, is now become a land of tyrants, and a den of slaves. The houseless Tartar of Kamtschatka, who enjoys his herbs and his fish in unmolested freedom, may be envied, if compared to the thousands who pine here in hopeless servitude, and curse the day that gave them being. Is this just dealing, Heaven! to render millions wretched to swell up the happiness of a few? cannot the powerful of this earth be happy with. out our sighs and tears? must every luxury of the great be woven from the calamities of the poor? It must, it must surely be, that this jarring discordant life is but the prelude to some future harmony: the soul attuned to virtue here shall go from hence to fill up the universal choir where Tien presides in person, where there shall be no tyrants to frown, no shackles to bind, nor no whips to threaten; where I shall once more meet my father with rapture, and give a loose to filial piety; where I shall hang on his neck, and hear the wisdom of his lips, and thank him for all the happiness to which he has introduced me. The wretch whom fortune has made my master, has lately purchased several slaves of both sexes; among the rest I hear a Christian captive talked of with admiration. The eunuch licitations of her haughty lord: he has even offered to make her one of his four wives upon changing her religion, and conforming to his. It is probable she cannot refuse such extraordinary offers, and her delay is perhaps intended to enhance her favours. I have just now seen her; she inadvertently approached the place without a veil, where I sat writing. She seemed to regard the beavens alone with fixed attention; there her most ardent gaze was directed. Genius of the sun! what unexpected softness! what animated grace! her beauty seemed the transparent covering of virtue. Celestial beings could not wear a look of more perfection, while sorrow humanized her form, and mixed my admiration with pity. I rose from the bank on which I sat, and she retired; happy that none observed us; for such an interview might have been fatal. I have regarded, till now, the opulence and the power of my tyrant without envy. I saw him with a mind capable of enjoying the gifts of fortune, and consequently regarded him as one loaded, rather then enriched, with its favours; but at present, when I think that so much beauty is reserved only for him; that so many charms should be lavished on a wretch incapable of feeling the greatness of the blessing, I own I feel a reluctance to which I have hitherto been a stranger. But let not my father impute those uneasy sensations to so trifling a cause as love. No, never let it be thought that your son, and the pupil of the wise Fum Hoam, could stoop to so degrading a passion; I am only displeased at seeing so much excellence so unjustly disposed of. The uneasiness which I feel is not for myself, but for the beautiful Christian. When I reflect on the barbarity of him for whom she is designed, I pity, indeed I pity her; when I think that she must only share one heart, who deserves to command a thousand, excuse me if I feel an emotion, which universal benevolence extorts from me. As I am convinced that you take a pleasure in those sallies of humanity, and are particularly pleased with compassion, I could not avoid discovering the sensibility with which I felt this beautiful stranger's distress. I have for a while forgot, in her's, the miseries of my own hopeless situation: the tyrant grows every day more severe; and love, which softens all other minds into tenderness, seems only to have increased his severity. LETTER XXXV. FROM THE SAME. Adieu. THE Whole Harem is filled with a tumultuous who bought her, and who is accustomed to joy; Zelis, the beautiful captive, has consented survey beauty with indifference, speaks of her to embrace the religion of Mahomet, and bewith emotion! Her pride, however, astonish-come one of the wives of the fastidious Persian. es her attendant slaves not less than her beauty. It is impossible to describe the transport that It is reported that she refuses the warmest so-aits on every face on this occasion. Music and feasting fill every apartment, the most miserable slave seems to forget his chains, and sympathizes with the happiness of Mostadad. The herb we tread beneath our feet is not made more for our use than every slave around him for their imperious master; mere machines of obedience, they wait with silent assiduity, feel his pains, and rejoice in his exultation. Heavens how much is requisite to make one man happy! Twelve of the most beautiful slaves, and I among the number, have got orders to prepare for carrying him in triumph to the bridal apart ment. The blaze of perfumed torches is to imitate the day: the dancers and singers are hired at a vast expense. The nuptials are to be celebrated on the approaching feast of Barboura, when a hundred taels in gold are to be distributed among the barren wives, in order to pray for fertility from the approaching union. What will not riches procure! A hundred domestics, who curse the tyrant in their souls, are commanded to wear a face of joy, and they are joyful. An hundred flatterers are ordered to attend, and they fill his ears with praise. Beauty, all-commanding beauty, sues for admittance, and scarcely receives an answer: even love itself seems to wait upon fortune, or though the passion be only feigned, yet it wears every appearance of sincerity; and what greater pleasure can even true sincerity confer, or what would the rich have more? Nothing can exceed the intended magnificence of the bridegroom but the costly dresses of the bride six eunuchs in the most sumptuous habits are to conduct him to the nuptial couch, and wait his orders. Six ladies, in all the magnificence of Persia, are directed to undress the bride. Their business is to assist, to encourage her, to divest her of every encumbering part of her dress, all but the last covering, which, by an artful complication of ribands, is purposely made difficult to unloose, and with which she is to part reluctantly even to the joyful possessor of her beauty. powers of Heaven ere I would stoop to such an exchange. What! part with philosophy, which teaches me to suppress my passions instead of gratifying them, which teaches me even to divest my soul of passion, which teaches serenity in the midst of tortures! philoso phy, by which even now I am so very serene, and so very much at ease, to be persuaded to part with it for any other enjoyment! Never, never, even though persuasion spoke in the accents of Zelis! A female slave informs me that the bride is to be arrayed in a tissue of silver, and her hair adorned with the largest pearls of Ormus : but why teaze you with particulars, in which we both are so little concerned. The pain I feel in separation throws a gloom over my mind, which in this scene of universal joy f fear may be attributed to some other cause: how wretched are those who are, like me, denied even the last resource of misery, their tears! Adieu. LETTER XXXVI. FROM THE SAME. I BEGIN to have doubts whether wisdom be alone sufficient to make us happy: whether every step we make in refinement is not an inlet into new disquietudes. A mind too vigor ous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined, as the richest jewels are soonest found to wear their settings. : When we rise in knowledge, as the prospect widens, the objects of our regard become more obscure and the unlettered peasant, whose views are only directed to the narrow sphere around him, beholds Nature with a finer relish, and tastes her blessings with a keener appetite, than the philosopher whose mind attempts to grasp an universal system. As I was some days ago pursuing this subject among a circle of my fellow-slaves, an Mostadad, O my father, is no philosopher; ancient Guehre of the number, equally reand yet he seems perfectly contented with ig-markable for his piety and wisdom, seemed norance. Possessed of numberless slaves, ca- touched with my conversation, and desired to ilmels, and women, he desires no greater posses-lustrate what I had been saying with an allegory sion. He never opened the page of Mentius, and yet all the slaves tell me that he is happy. Forgive the weakness of my nature, if I sometimes feel my heart rebellious to the dictates of wisdom, and eager for happiness like his. Yet why wish for his wealth with his ignorance? to be like him, incapable of sentimental pleasures, incapable of feeling the happiness of making others happy, incapable of teaching the beautiful Zelis philosophy? What! shall I in a transport of passion give up the golden mean, the universal harmony, the unchanging essence, for the possession of a hundred camels, as many slaves, thirty-five beautiful horses, and seventy-three fine women? First blast me to the centre! degrade me be neath the most degraded! pare my nails, ye taken from the Zendevesta of Zoroaster: By this we shall be taught, says he, that they who travel in pursuit of wisdom, walk only in a circle; and after all their labour, at last return to their pristine ignorance; and in this also we shall see, that enthusiastic confidence or unsatisfying doubts terminate all our inquiries. In early times, before myriads of nations covered the earth, the whole human race lived together in one valley. The simple inhabitants, surrounded on every side by lofty mountains, knew no other world but the little spot to which they were confined. They fancied the heavens bent down to meet the mountain tops, and formed an impenetrable wall to surround them. None had ever yet ventured to |