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temple, who, hated and shunned by the great while alive, have come here, fully resolved to keep them company now they are dead.

must pay first. I was surprised at such a demand; and asked the man, whether the people of England kept a show? whether the paltry sum he demanded As we walked along to a particular part of the was not a national reproach? whether it was not temple, There, says the gentleman, pointing with more to the honour of the country to let their maghis finger, that is the poet's corner; there you see nificence or their antiquities be openly seen, than the monuments of Shakspeare, and Milton, and thus meanly to tax a curiosity which tended to Prior, and Drayton. Drayton! I replied; I never their own honour? As for your questions, replied heard of him before: but I have been told of one the gate-keeper, to be sure they may be very right, Pope; is he there? It is time enough, replied my because I don't understand them; but, as for that guide, these hundred years; he is not long dead; there threepence, I farm it from one,-who rents people have not done hating him yet. Strange, it from another,—who hires it from a third,—who cried I, can any be found to hate a man, whose Jife leases it from the guardians of the temple, and we was wholly spent in entertaining and instructing all must live. I expected, upon paying here, to see his fellow-creatures? Yes, says my guide, they something extraordinary, since what I had seen for hate him for that very reason. There are a set of nothing filled me with so much surprise: but in men called answerers of books, who take upon them this I was disappointed; there was little more to watch the republic of letters, and distribute re- within than black coffins, rusty armour, tattered putation by the sheet; they somewhat resemble the standards, and some few slovenly figures in wax. eunuchs in a seraglio, who are incapable of giving I was sorry I had paid, but I comforted myself by pleasure themselves, and hinder those that would. considering it would be my last payment. A perThese answerers have no other employment but son attended us, who, without once blushing, told to cry out Dunce, and Scribbler; to praise the a hundred lies: he talked of a lady who died by dead, and revile the living; to grant a man of con- pricking her finger; of a king with a golden head, fessed abilities some small share of merit ; to ap- and twenty such pieces of absurdity. Look ye plaud twenty blockheads in order to gain the repu- there, gentlemen, says he, pointing to an old oak tion of candour; and to revile the moral character chair, there's a curiosity for ye; in that chair the of the man whose writings they can not injure. kings of England were crowned: you see also a Such wretches are kept in pay by some mercenary stone underneath, and that stone is Jacob's pillow. bookseller, or more frequently the bookseller him- I could see no curiosity either in the oak chair or self takes this dirty work off their hands, as all that the stone: could I, indeed, behold one of the old is required is to be very abusive and very dull. kings of England seated in this, or Jacob's head Every poet of any genius is sure to find such ene- laid upon the other, there might be something cu mies; he feels, though he seems to despise, their malice; they make him miserable here, and in the pursuit of empty fame, at last he gains solid anxiety.

Has this been the case with every poet I see here? cried I.-Yes, with every mother's son of them, replied he, except he happened to be born a mandarine. If he has much money, he may buy reputation from your book-answerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of the temple.

But are there not some men of distinguished taste, as in China, who are willing to patronise men of merit, and soften the rancour of malevolent dulness?

rious in the sight; but in the present case there was no more reason for my surprise, than if I should pick a stone from their streets, and call it a curiosity, merely because one of the kings happened to tread upon it as he passed in a procession.

From hence our conductor led us through several dark walks and winding ways, uttering lies, talking to himself, and flourishing a wand which he held in his hand. He reminded me of the black magicians of Kobi. After we had been almost fatigued with a variety of objects, he at last desired me to consider attentively a certain suit of armour, which seemed to show nothing remarkable. This armour, said he, belonged to General Monk. Very surprising that a general should wear armow:. And pray, added he, observe this cap, this is General Monk's cap. Very strange indeed, very strange, that a general should have a cap also! Pray, friend, what might this cap have cost originally? That, sir, says he, I don't know; but this Leaving this part of the temple, we made up to cap is all the wages I have for my trouble. A very an iron gate, through which my companion told small recompense truly, said I. Not so very small, me we were to pass in order to see the monuments replied he, for every gentleman puts some money of the kings. Accordingly I marched up without into it, and I spend the money. What, more mofurther ceremony, and was going to enter, when a ney! still more money! Every gentleman gives person, who held the gate in his hand, told me I something, sir. I'll give thee nothing, returned I;

I own there are many, replied the man in black; but, alas! sir, the book-answerers crowd about them, and call themselves the writers of books; and the patron is too indolent to distinguish: thus poets are kept at a distance, while their enemies eat up all their rewards at the mandarine's table.

the guardians of the temple should pay you your Pray speak a little Chinese: I have learned some wages, friend, and not permit you to squeeze thus of the language myself. Lord! have you nothing from every spectator. When we pay our money pretty from China about you; something that one at the door to see a show, we never give more as does not know what to do with? I have got twenty we are going out. Sure, the guardians of the tem- things from China that are of no use in the world. ple can never think they get enough. Show me Look at those jars, they are of the right pea-green. the gate; if I stay longer, I may probably meet with these are the furniture." Dear madam, said I, more of those ecclesiastical beggars.

Thus leaving the temple precipitately, I returned to my lodgings, in order to ruminate over what was great, and to despise what was mean in the occurrences of the day.

LETTER XIV.

From the Same.

these, though they may appear fine in your eyes
are but paltry to a Chinese; but, as they are use
ful utensils, it is proper they should have a place
in every apartment. Useful! sir, replied the lady;
sure you mistake, they are of no use in the world.
What! are they not filled with an infusion of tea
as in China? replied I. Quite empty and useless,
upon my honour, sir.
Then they are the most

cumbrous and clumsy furniture in the world, as
nothing is truly elegant but what unites use with
beauty. I protest, says the lady, I shall begin to

I was some days ago agreeably surprised by a suspect thee of being an actual barbarian. I supmessage from a lady of distinction, who sent me pose you hold my two beautiful pagods in conword, that she most passionately desired the plea-tempt. What! cried I, has Fohi spread his gross sure of my acquaintance; and, with the utmost superstitions here also! Pagods of all kinds are impatience, expected an interview. I will not deny, my arersion. A Chinese traveller, and want taste! my dear Fum Hoam, but that my vanity was raised it surprises me. Pray, sir, examine the beauties at such an invitation: I flattered myself that she of that Chinese temple which you see at the end had seen me in some public place, and had con- of the garden. Is there any thing in China more ceived an affection for my person, which thus in- beautiful? Where I stand, I see nothing, madam, duced her to deviate from the usual decorums of the sex. My imagination painted her in all the bloom of youth and beauty. I fancied her attended by the Loves and Graces; and I set out with the most pleasing expectations of seeing the conquest I had made.

at the end of the garden, that may not as well be called an Egyptian pyramid as a Chinese temple; for that little building in view is as like the one as t'other. What! sir, is not that a Chinese temple? you must surely be mistaken. Mr. Freeze, who designed it, calls it one, and nobody disputes When I was introduced into her apartment, my his pretensions to taste. I now found it vain to expectations were quickly at an end; I perceived contradict the lady in any thing she thought fit to a little shrivelled figure indolently reclined on a advance; so was resolved rather to act the disciple sofa, who nodded by way of approbation at my ap- than the instructor. She took me through several proach. This, as I was afterwards informed, was rooms all furnished, as she told me, in the Chinese the lady herself, a woman equally distinguished for manner; sprawling dragons, squatting pagods, and rank, politeness, taste, and understanding. As I clumsy mandarines, were stuck upon every shelf: was dressed after the fashion of Europe, she had in turning round, one must have used caution not taken me for an Englishman, and consequently sa- to demolish a part of the precarious furniture. luted me in her ordinary manner: but when the In a house like this, thought I, one must live footman informed her grace that I was the gentle- continually upon the watch; the inhabitant must reman from China, she instantly lifted herself from semble a knight in an enchanted castle, who ex the couch, while her eyes sparkled with unusual pects to meet an adventure at every turning. But, vivacity. "Bless me! can this be the gentleman madam, said I, do not accidents ever happen to all that was born so far from home? What an unu- this finery? Man, sir, replied the lady, is born to sual share of somethingness in his whole appear-misfortunes, and it is but fit I should have a share. ance! Lord, how I am charmed with the outlandish Three weeks ago, a careless servant snapped off cut of his face! how bewitching the exotic breadth the head of a favourite mandarine: I had scarce of his forehead! I would give the world to see him done grieving for that, when a monkey broke a in his own country dress. Pray turn about, sir, beautiful jar; this I took the more to heart, as the and let me see you behind. There, there's a tra- injury was done me by a friend! However, I survell'd air for you! You that attend there, bring up vived the calamity; when yesterday crash went a plate of beef cut into small pieces; I have a violent half a dozen dragons upon the marble hearthstone. passion to see him eat. Pray, sir, have you got and yet I live; I survive it all: you can't conceive your chop-sticks about you? It will be so pretty to what comfort I find under afflictions from philososee the meat carried to the mouth with a jerk. phy. There is Seneca and Bolingbroke, and some

others, who guide me through life, and teach me to punishment; but are previously condemned to sufsupport its calamities.—I could not but smile at a fer all the pains and hardships inflicted upon them woman who makes her own misfortunes, and then deplores the miseries of her situation. Wherefore, tired of acting with dissimulation, and willing to indulge my meditations in solitude, I took leave just as the servant was bringing in a plate of beef, pursuant to the directions of his mistress. Adieu.

LETTER XV

From the same.

by man, or by each other, here. If this be the case, it may frequently happen, that while we whip pigs to death, or boil live lobsters, we are putting some old acquaintance, some near relation, to excruciating tortures, and are serving him up to the very table where he was once the most welcome companion.

hundred different ways of dressing it, to solicit even satiety.

"Kabul," says the Zendevesta, "was born on the rushy banks of the river Mawra; his possessions were great, and his luxuries kept pace with the affluence of his fortune; he hated the harmless brahmins, and despised their holy religion; every day his table was decked out with the flesh of a THE better sort here pretend to the utmost com- hundred different animals, and his cooks had a passion for animals of every kind: to hear them speak, a stranger would be apt to imagine they could hardly hurt the gnat that stung them; they "Notwithstanding all his eating, he did not arseem so tender and so full of pity, that one would rive at old age; he died of a surfeit, caused by intake them for the harmless friends of the whole temperance: upon this, his soul was carried off, in creation; the protectors of the meanest insect or order to take its trial before a select assembly of reptile that was privileged with existence. And the souls of those animals which his gluttony had yet (would you believe it?) I have seen the very caused to be slain, and who were now appointed men who have thus boasted of their tenderness, at his judges. the same time devouring the flesh of six different

"He trembled before a tribunal, to every memanimals tossed up in a fricassee. Strange contra- ber of which he had formerly acted as an unmerriety of conduct! they pity, and they eat the ob- ciful tyrant; he sought for pity, but found none jects of their compassion! The lion roars with ter- disposed to grant it. Does he not remember, cries ror over its captive; the tiger sends forth its hideous the angry boar, to what agonies I was put, not to shriek to intimidate its prey; no creature shows satisfy his hunger, but his vanity? I was first any fondness for its short-lived prisoner, except a man and a cat.

hunted to death, and my flesh scarce thought worthy of coming once to his table. Were my advice followed, he should do penance in the shape of a hog, which in life he most resembled.

Man was born to live with innocence and simplicity, but he has deviated from nature; he was born to share the bounties of heaven, but he has "I am rather, cries a sheep upon the bench, for monopolized them; he was born to govern the brute having him suffer under the appearance of a lamb; creation, but he is become their tyrant. If an epi- we may then send him through four or five transcure now shall happen to surfeit on his last night's migrations in the space of a month. Were my feast, twenty animals the next day are to undergo voice of any weight in the assembly, cries a calf, the most exquisite tortures, in order to provoke his he should rather assume such a form as mine; 1 appetite to another guilty meal. Hail, O ye simple, was bled every day, in order to make my flesh honest brahmins of the East; ye inoffensive friends white, and at last killed without mercy. Would it of all that were born to happiness as well as you; not be wiser, cries a hen, to cram him in the shape you never sought a short-lived pleasure from the of a fowl, and then smother him in his own blood, miseries of other creatures! You never studied the as I was served? The majority of the assembly tormenting arts of ingenious refinement; you never were pleased with this punishment, and were gosurfeited upon a guilty meal! How much more purifi- ing to condemn him without further delay, when ed and refined are all your sensations than ours! you the ox rose up to give his opinion: I am informed, distinguish every element with the utmost precision; says this counsellor, that the prisoner at the bar a stream untasted before is new luxury, a change has left a wife with child behind him. By my knowof air is a new banquet, too refined for Western ledge in divination, I foresee that this child will be imaginations to conceive. a son, decrepit, feeble, sickly, a plague to himself,

Though the Europeans do not hold the transmi- and all about him. What say you, then, my comgration of souls, yet one of their doctors has, with panions, if we condemn the father to animate the great force of argument, and great plausibility of body of his own son; and by this means make him reasoning, endeavoured to prove, that the bodies feel in himself those miseries his intemperance must of animals are the habitations of demons and wicked otherwise have entailed upon his posterity? The spirits, which are obliged to reside in these prisons whole court applauded the ingenuity of his torture; till the resurrection pronounces their everlasting they thanked him for his advice. Kabul was

driven once more to revisit the earth; and his soul creates another nation of Cyclops, the Arimaspians in the body of his own son, passed a period of thirty who inhabit those countries that border on the vears, loaded with misery, anxiety, and disease." Caspian Sea. This author goes on to tell us of a

LETTER XVI.

From the same.

I KNOW not whether I am more obliged to the Chinese missionaries for the instruction I have

received from them, or prejudiced by the falsehoods they have made me believe. By them I was told that the Pope was universally allowed to be a man, and placed at the head of the church; in England, however, they plainly prove him to be a whore in man's clothes, and often burn him in effigy as an impostor. A thousand books have been written on either side of the question: priests are eternally disputing against each other; and those mouths that want argument are filled with abuse. Which party must I believe, or shall I give credit to neither? When I survey the absurdities and falsehoods with which the books of the Europeans are filled, I thank Heaven for having been born in China, and that I have sagacity enough to detect imposture.

The Europeans reproach us with false history and fabulous chronology: how should they blush to see their own books, many of which are written by the doctors of their religion, filled with the most monstrous fables, and attested with the utmost solemnity. The bounds of a letter do not permit

me to mention all the absurdities of this kind,

scribe.

people of India, who have but one leg and one eye, and yet are extremely active, run with great swiftness, and live by hunting. These people we scarcely know how to pity or admire: but the men whom Pliny calls Cynamolci, who have got the heads of dogs, really deserve our compassion; instead of language, they express their sentiments

by barking. Solinus confirms what Pliny men

tions; and Simon Mayole, a French bishop, talks
of them as of particular and familiar acquaintances.
After passing the deserts of Egypt, says he, we

meet with the Kunokephaloi, who inhabit those
regions that border on Ethiopia; they live by
hunting; they can not speak, but whistle; their
chins resemble a serpent's head; their hands are
armed with long sharp claws; their breast resem-
bles that of a greyhound; and they excel in swift-
ness and agility. Would you think it, my friend,
that these odd kind of people are, notwithstanding
man's wife, or Chinese mandarine, can excel them
their figure, excessively delicate; not even an alder-
faithful bishop, never refuse wine; love roast and
in this particular. These people, continues our
ing their meat well dressed, and spurn at it if in
|boiled meat: they are particularly curious in hav-
the least tainted. When the Ptolemies reigned
in Egypt (says he a little farther on) those men
For men who had no voices to teach music, and
with dogs' heads taught grammar and music.
who could not speak, to teach grammar, is, I con-
of Fohi broach any thing more ridiculous?
fess, a little extraordinary. Did ever the disciples

which in my reading I have met with. I shall
confine myself to the accounts which some of their
Hitherto we have seen men with heads strange-
lettered men give of the persons of some of the in-
ly deformed, and with dogs' heads; but what would
habitants on our globe: and not satisfied with the
you say if you heard of men without any heads at all?
most solemn asseverations, they sometimes pre-Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Aulus Gellius, de-
tend to have been cye-witnesses of what they describe them to our hand: "The Blemia have a
A Christian doctor, in one of his principal per-will have it, placed on their shoulders."
nose, eyes, and mouth on their breasts; or, as others
formances, says, that it was not impossible for a
One would think that these authors had an an-
whole nation to have but one eye in the middle of
the forehead. He is not satisfied with leaving it make a new figure of their own: but let us do them
tipathy to the human form, and were resolved to
in doubt; but in another work, assures us, that justice. Though they sometimes deprive us of a
the fact was certain, and that he himself was an | leg, an arm, a head, or some such trifling part of
eye-witness of it. When, says he, I took a journey the body, they often as liberally bestow upon us
into Ethiopia, in company with several other ser-
vants of Christ, in order to preach the gospel there, seems our particular friend in this respect; if he has
something that we wanted before. Simon Mayole
I beheld, in the southern provinces of that country, denied heads to one part of mankind, he has given
a nation which had only one eye in the midst of tails to another. He describes many of the Eng-
their foreheads.
lish of his time, which is not more than a hundred
years ago, as having tails. His own words are as
follow: In England there are some families which
have tails, as a punishment for deriding an Au-
gustin friar sent by St. Gregory, and who preach-
ed in Dorsetshire. They sewed the tails of differ-
ent animals to his clothes; but soon they found

You will no doubt be surprised, reverend Fum, with this author's effrontery; but, alas! he is not alone in this story: he has only borrowed it from several others who wrote before him. Solinus

Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. p. 422.
Augustin, ad fratres in Eremo, Serm. xxxvii.

that those tails entailed on them and their posteri- The pretext of the war is about some lands a ty for ever. It is certain that the author had some thousand leagues off: a country cold, desolate, and ground for this description. Many of the English hideous; a country belonging to a people who were wear tails to their wigs to this very day, as a mark, in possession for time immemorial. The savages I suppose, of the antiquity of their families, and of Canada claim a property in the country in disperhaps as a symbol of those tails with which they were formerly distinguished by nature.

You see, my friend, there is nothing so ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. The writers of books in Europe seem to think themselves authorized to say what they please; and an ingenious philosopher among them* has openly asserted, that he would undertake to persuade the whole republic of readers to believe, that the sun was neither the cause of light nor heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side. Farewell.

LETTER XVII.

From the same.

pute; they have all the pretensions which long possession can confer. Here they had reigned for ages without rivals in dominion, and knew no enemies but the prowling bear or insidious tiger; their native forests produced all the necessaries of life, and they found ample luxury in the enjoyment. In this manner they might have continued to live to eternity, had not the English been informed that those countries produced furs in great abundance. From that moment the country became an object of desire: it was found that furs were things very much wanted in England; the ladies edged some of their clothes with furs, and muffs were worn both by gentlemen and ladies. In short, furs were found indispensably necessary for the happiness of the state; and the king was consequently petitioned to grant, not only the country of Canada, but all the savages belonging to it, to the subjects of England, in order to have the people supplied with proper quantities of this necessary commodity.

WERE an Asiatic politician to read the treaties of peace and friendship that have been annually making for more than a hundred years among the So very reasonable a request was immediately inhabitants of Europe, he would probably be sur- complied with, and large colonies were sent abroad prised how it should ever happen that Christian to procure furs, and take possession. The French, princes could quarrel among each other. Their who were equally in want of furs (for they were compacts for peace are drawn up with the utmost as fond of muffs and tippets as the English), made precision, and ratified with the greatest solemnity; the very same request to their monarch, and met to these each party promises a sincere and in- with the same gracious reception from their king, violable obedience, and all wears the appearance of who generously granted what was not his to give. open friendship and unreserved reconciliation. Wherever the French landed they called the counYet, notwithstanding those treaties, the people try their own; and the English took possession of Europe are almost continually at war. There wherever they came, upon the same equitable preis nothing more easy than to break a treaty ratified tensions. The harmless savages made no opposiin all the usual forms, and yet neither party be the tion; and, could the intruders have agreed together, aggressor. One side, for instance, breaks a trifling they might peaceably have shared this desolate article by mistake; the opposite party, upon this, country between them; but they quarrelled about makes a small but premeditated reprisal; this brings the boundaries of their settlements, about grounds on a return of greater from the other; both sides and rivers to which neither side could show any complain of injuries and infractions; war is de- other right than that of power, and which neither clared; they beat; are beaten; some two or three could occupy but by usurpation. Such is the conhundred thousand men are killed; they grow tired; test, that no honest man can heartily wish success leave off just where they began; and so sit coolly to either party. down to make new treaties.

The war has continued for some time with va-
At first the French seemed victo-

The English and French seem to place them-rious success. selves foremost among the champion states of rious; but the English have of late dispossessed Europe. Though parted by a narrow sea, yet are them of the whole country in dispute. Think not, they entirely of opposite characters; and from their however, that success on one side is the harbinger vicinity are taught to fear and admire each other. of peace; on the contrary, both parties must be They are at present engaged in a very destructive heartily tired, to effect even a temporary reconciliawar, have already spilled much blood, are excessive- tion. It should seem the business of the victorious ly irritated, and all upon account of one side's de- party to offer terms of peace; but there are many siring to wear greater quantities of furs than the in England who, encouraged by success, are for other.

• Fontenelle.

still protracting the war.

The best English politicians, however, are sensible, that to keep their present conquests would be

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