ing them to the public in the form and manner they deserve. You must know that this Catcott is a pewterer, and, though very fond of fcribbling, efpecially fince he has got Rowley's works, is extremely ignorant and illiterate. He is, however, very vain, and fancies himself almost as great a genius as the great Rowley himself. I am not without hopes of feeing London this winter; if I am so fortunate, my first refpects fhall be paid at Doctors Commons. I am, with great fincerity, dear Sir, your obliged and affectionate fervant, J. CHAPMAN. A MAN that is reduced to the ne ceffity of being without books, after a certain time finds the want of them more and more tolerable, and at length determines to fet up for himself, and to live on his own ftock. Reading is, to numbers of people, no more than an elegant idleness; and the moft intelligent of mankind are not thofe that have perufed the most books. There are hiftories that we must have read; there are discoveries of our contemporaries that we ought to be informed of: other things we may find out of ourfelves, if we have time for reflection. What a man has himself investigated remains in his mind, influences his conduct, and regulates his notions: whereas what he reads he is contented to admire, treasures up a thought or two for adorning his converfation, and acquires a high opinion of his learning; while neither his perfpicacity is improved, nor his manners amended. In this animadverfion I include not the Sared Writings; though they may be read too much and ftudied too little. They come to us under the fanction of fuch high authority, they contain fuch a purity of doctrine, they hold out to our imitation fo fplendid a character, they give us fuch grand expectations, they glow with fuch unexampled fentiment, they fo captivate all the nobleft faculties of the heart and foul, and are fo congenial to the best part of our being, that he must be a fool who can neglect to confider them, and an unfeeling creature who does not lay them to heart. Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini. Beati qui feru tantur teftimonia ejus: in toto corde ex quirunt eum. He that reads merely for amusement may as well be employed at push-pin. Both are equally inimical to the exercife and cultivation of the mind; both equally repugnant to the profecution of that most important knowledge, the knowledge of ourfelves and others; which is only to be obtained by unremitted obfervation and intense reflection. He that thoroughly and practically knows himself, will foon be the mafter of his own paffions and affections; will easily develop the characters of others, underftand the motives of their actions and difcourfes, and enter the most fecret replications of the human heart. This is knowledge, and learning, and wisdom. I have heard it obferved, that the ftudy of character is much more culti vated by fome other nations than the English. If this obfervation be true, it may lead us to difcover the reafon of our being fo frequently over-reached in political difcuffions. Foreigners reproach us as talkers of fentences, and eternal quoters of Horace and Virgil. Whether or not the reproach' be juft, my acquaintance is not large enough to enable me to determine. That there may be a fault in our public feminaries of learning, I will not allow myself to fufpec. Be this as it may, it would be no unprofitable labour to perambulate our ifland for picking up characters. There is no city, no town, no village, but produces fome; and, while it has been fo diligently fearched for antiquities, for all forts of curiofities both of nature and art, the track I fpeak of has been hitherto in a manner unexplored. We have feen a biographical history of England too attended with good fuccefs; why fhould not a perfonal or characte riftical hiftory of England be at least no worfe received? For, conceiving my meaning, a man need only look into Clarendon, Sully, or Cardinal de Retz; Bishop Burnet is likewife in general good at a character. A gentleman of competent fortune, and acute inveftigation, who fhould fet out on fuch a plan, would thortly find his papers fwell into volumes, and the rifing generation would be indebted to his labours. His reader would naturally be led to compare the individuals of his acquaintance with the characters defcribed; and, when he should find that not 548 Original Correfpondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiflory. not one in ten thousand would fuit, he would habitually improve in delineating characters for himfelf. The utility of this is apparent to every creature. As to the entertainment arifing from fuch a work, let any one but read the account of Sir Philip Cravenleigh, lately published, and that of Mr. Matthews, in Sheridan's Life of Swift, and he will fee no reason to suppose it will be cenfured as dull. It is almoft excufively in Great-Britain and Ireland, that ftriking exhibitions of the human character abound. The clergy, above all men, I am fure, will thank me for this fuggeftion. For, before we can fuccefsfully indicate remedies to mental aberrations, we must have inveftigated their fource in the conftitution of the patient; and, by the means recommended, a minifler will have a plan of his parishioners in his nind as accurate as that of his parish. As the two great duties of a pastor are vigilance and charity-but ftop, my Mufe, this is no bufinefs of ours. And now, Mr. Urban, you may ask what has provoked me to all this? I will tell you immediately. It is the vexatious want of character throughout the regions I am doomed to traverfe. However, as I can only work on fuch materials as I have, I proceed to give you all I can gather of the manners and cuftoms of the Kofacs. The Kofacs of the Don are defcend. ed from a Rufian ancestry, who fettled fome centuries ago in the habitation's abandoned by the Tartar Kofacs. They fpeak no other language than the Ruffian, which the people of diftinction ufe in all its purity. It is only among the common fort that a mixture of the Maloruflian is perceived. The phyfiognomy of the Kofacs is likewife Ruilian, though a good deal of the Tartarian is often difcernible. Their country having formerly been inhabited by a race of that people, the mixture of the two, which muft naturally influence the features of the face, is confpicuous in many refpects. Even at this time it is no This is certainly a very indeterminate account of time, but it is the exactest I can procure; and I doubt whether the fageft of your Antiquarian correfpondents, if he were with me, would be able to investigate one more precife. Here are no parith regifters, or old chronicles, to confelt. This circumftance, however, faves one a world of trouble, and one must learn to do without them. rare thing to meet with a phyfiognomy half Kalmuc and half Kofac. And amongst the complaints exhibited by the Kofacs against their neighbours, they reproach them, not without foundation, it must be confeffed, that they feduce their women to illicit connections with them, and by that means corrupt the blood of the Kofacs *; to which likewife it cannot be denied, that their volatile females difcover no great repugnance or dislike. Nor does it unfrequently happen that the Kalmucs of either fex, who have fubmitted to the Ruffian government, contract marriages in due form with the Kofacs. The people of the Don are, for the moft part, of a strong and robust make, of a middling ftature, but with large fhoulders. The common people wear a long beard, and hold it in great veneration; but perfons of diftinction fhave themselves, and keep only muftachios. The cloathing of the men, when at home, differs in nothing from the garb of the Maloruffians. Their caps are garnished in fummer and winter with theep-fkin. The married women wear on both fides of their headdrefs a long upright horn, generally more than a foot high, fomewhat bent forwards at the upper extremity. Others wear a fquare cap of unequal fides. The colour of the head-drefs varies; but the most common are red or brown. The girls wear nothing on their heads, or, if they do, it is only a broad ribbon of two or three different colours, fet off with coral, beads, small pieces of filver money, or copper copeeks, according to the means of the wearer. On each fide of this band is a pendant narrow ribbon, furnished with La Motraye, a traveller of much efti mation, evinces great furprize at having found, nearly under the fame meridian, and in the fame air, the Circaffians, the most beautiful people of the world, in the midft of Nogayians and Kalmucs, who are very beauty of nature which appears even in the monsters in uglinefs. That perfection and horfes of the Circaffians, exactly the reverte of the fame animals amongst the Nogayians and Kalmucs, added much to the wonder and aftonishment of the fagacious traveller. This obfervation, which appeared to me very Atriking, feems to prove, on one hand, how Inttle share the climate has in influencing the figure; and, on the other, the conftancy wherewith beauty or deformity is perpetuated in certain races, no lefs among mankind than the inferior animals. fimilar Original Correspondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiftory. 549 - fimilar ornaments. When they walk, thefe ftrings put in motion make such a noife as to announce at a good diftance the approach of a Kofac girl. The long open robes of the women in general only differ from the others in that respect, and in being faftened to the waift by a linen girdle or a ribbon. The breeches that all the women wear are very large and ample, reach down to their very heels, and are ordinarily of fome coloured linen. Their necks are adorned with a necklace of four, fix, or more rows of coral beads, or little fhells, with filver money, or bits of tin before, and terminated by two or more croffes. It is on holidays and Sundays that they difplay their greateft finery; at other times they are moft commonly very badly cloathed, go barefoot, and the head covered with coarfe cloths. The Kofacs have no other religion than that of the Greek church, which they obferve even to the minuteft parts of the ritual. Their burials and marriages only differ from thofe of the Ruffians in certain practices which feem peculiar to them. The young man goes to his betrothed, mounted on a horfe, with little bells affixed to the harness, the noife of which gives notice to the fair-one of the approach of her future fpouse. These bells are afterwards carefully preferved by the relations of the wife, or by herfelf, in memory of the folemnity. The bride not only brings no portion to her husband, but he is even obliged to cloath her from head to foot completely. The political conftitution of the Ko. facs is entirely military. They are always ready for the field of battle, and know no greater joy than when they are fummoned to a new campaign. The number of fighting men they are ca pable of raising amounts, as it is faid, to 50,000. Their arms confift of lances, arrows, good fire-arms, and excellent fabres. They know how to handle all thefe with great dexterity, and have acquired the reputation of valiant foldiers. Every Kofac receives, befides a certain quantity of victuals, while he is on actual fervice, an annual pay of 12 rubles; an enfign is paid 15; a colonel, 100; and the chef-du-corps, 200. There is annually diftributed to the Kofacs of the Don, as well as to all the others, a certain quantity of ftores, tranfmitted to them by the college of GENT. MAG. July, 1786. war at Petersburg; and thefe are depofited at Tfcherkafk. On their arrival they are received with particular ho'nours. As foon as the train has ap. peared upon the Don, the inhabitants of every ftanitza are obliged to march to meet it, affembling on horseback in their warlike caparifons. On fight of the baggage they make a discharge of their fire-arms, and falute it with their colours, and then fet to work by all imaginable means for facilitating and expediting the tranfport of it; for the Don is fo fhallow in certain places, that even very fmall barks proceed along with difficulty. The care of his horfe is what a Kofac has moft at heart; fince it is from their agility the greatest advantages in war are to be expected, and on their fleetnefs depends the whole confidence of their riders in cafes of flight. They crofs over rivers on their backs with the greateft fecurity and cafe, lying along on their bellies, and intercrocheting their feet across the crupper. When at home, they are continually exercifing them felves and horfes in running races for trifling bets; fo that there are no better horfemen in the world. A horfe that will run a verft in four minutes. is reckoned tolerably good, but by no means one of the beft. Their horfes are of different kinds, the greatest part being bought of the Maloruffians or the Kalmucs. Yours, &c. M. M. M. MR. URBAN, Azof, Nov. 5, Q.S.1785. firft of my communications came fafe to hand; and as your note upon that letter difcovers no cogent Jeafon for my difcontinuing the plan I propofed to myfelf, I proceed in my account of the Kofacs of the Don. The ftyle of bare defcription is the only one adapted to fuch a fubject, and the only one I ufe with any kind of ennui. For what is there to animate the intellect, or invigorate the genius, in the manners of nations fcarcely civilized, and the actions of men without the improvements of induftry, or the rudiments of knowledge? A Kofac is two different perfons, when viewed at home in his habitation, and when confidered as in war. But his real element is the latter. There he lives and acts as his ancestors used to do at the time they feparated from their * Sec vol. LV. p. 256. brethren |