her deliverer only, even though he had lost an arm, { We now see Catharina, from the low mud-walland was otherwise disfigured by wounds in the ed cottage, empress of the greatest kingdom upon service. earth. The poor solitary wanderer is now sur In order therefore to prevent further solicitations rounded by thousands, who find happiness in her from others, as soon as the officer came to town smile. She, who formerly wanted a meal, is now upon duty, she offered him her person, which he capable of diffusing plenty upon whole nations. accepted with transport, and their nuptials were To her fortune she owed a part of this pre-emisolemnized as usual. But all the lines of her for- nence, but to her virtues more. tune were to be striking: the very day on which She ever after retained those great qualities they were married, the Russians laid siege to which first placed her on a throne; and, while the Marienburgh. The unhappy soldier had now no extraordinary prince, her husband, laboured for time to enjoy the well-earned pleasures of matri- the reformation of his male subjects, she studied mony; he was called off, before consummation, to an in her turn the improvement of her own sex. She attack, from which he was never after seen to return. altered their dresses, introduced mixed assemblies, In the mean time the siege went on with fury, instituted an order of female knighthood; and at aggravated on one side by obstinacy, on the other length, when she had greatly filled all the stations by revenge. This war between the two northern of empress, friend, wife, and mother, bravely died powers at that time was truly barbarous; the in- without regret, regretted by all. Adieu. LETTER LXIII. Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China. nocent peasant, and the harmless virgin, often shared the fate of the soldier in arms. Marienburgh was taken by assault; and such was the fury of the assailants, that not only the garrison, but almost all the inhabitants, men, women, and child- From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the ren, were put to the sword: at length, when the carnage was pretty well over, Catharina was found In every letter I expect accounts of some new hid in an oven. revolutions in China, some strange occurrence in She had been hitherto poor, but still was free; the state, or disaster among my private acquaintshe was now to conform to her hard fate, and learn ance. I open every packet with tremulous expecwhat it was to be a slave: in this situation, how-tation, and am agreeably disappointed when I find ever, she behaved with piety and humility; and my friends and my country continuing in felicity. though misfortunes had abated her vivacity, yet I wander, but they are at rest; they suffer few she was cheerful. The fame of her merit and re- changes but what pass in my own restless imaginasignation reached even Prince Menzikoff, the tion: it is only the rapidity of my own motion Russian general; he desired to see her, was struck gives an imaginary swiftness te objects which are with her beauty, bought her from the soldier her in some measure immoveable. master, and placed her under the direction of his own sister. Here she was treated with all the respect which her merit deserved, while her beauty every day improved with her good fortune. Yet believe me, my friend, that even China itself is imperceptibly degenerating from her ancient greatness: her laws are now more venal, and her merchants are more deceitful than formerly; the She had not been long in this situation, when very arts and sciences have run to decay. Observe Peter the Great paying the prince a visit, Cathari- the carvings on our ancient bridges, figures that na happened to come in with some dry fruits, add grace even to nature: there is not an artist now which she served round with peculiar modesty. in all the empire that can imitate their beauty. Our The mighty monarch saw, and was struck with manufactures in porcelain, too, are inferior to what her beauty. He returned the next day, called for the beautiful slave, asked her several questions, and found her understanding even more perfect than her person. we once were famous for; and even Europe now begins to excel us. There was a time when China was the receptacle for strangers; when all were welcome who either came to improve the state, or admire its greatness; now the empire is shut up from every foreign improvement, and the very in He had been forced when young to marry from motives of interest; he was now resolved to marry pursuant to his own inclinations. He immediate- habitants discourage each other from prosecuting their own internal advantages. ly inquired the history of the fair Livonian, who was not yet eighteen. He traced her through the Whence this degeneracy in a state so little subvale of obscurity, through all the vicissitudes of her ject to external revolutions? how happens it that fortune, and found her truly great in them all. The China, which is now more powerful than ever, meanness of her birth was no obstruction to his which is less subject to foreign invasions, and even design: their nuptials were solemnized in private; assisted in some discoveries by her connexions with the Prince assuring his courtiers, that virtue alone Europe; whence comes it, I say, that the empire is was the properest ladder to a throne. thus declining so fast into barbarity? This decay is surely from nature, and not the past; and such probably it will ever be. China, I result of voluntary degeneracy. In a period of have observed, has evidently begun to degenerate two or three thousand years she seems at proper from its former politeness; and were the learning intervals to produce great minds, with an effort of the Europeans at present candidly considered, resembling that which introduces the vicissitudes the decline would perhaps appear to have already of seasons. They rise up at once, continue for taken place. We should find among the natives an age, enlighten the world, fall like ripened of the West, the study of morality displaced for corn, and mankind again gradually relapse into mathematical disquisition, or metaphysical subtlepristine barbarity. We little ones look around, ties; we should find learning begin to separate from are amazed at the decline, seek after the causes the useful duties and concerns of life, while none of this invisible decay, attribute to want of en- ventured to aspire after that character, but they couragement what really proceeds from want of who know much more than is truly amusing or power, are astonished to find every art and every useful. We should find every great attempt supscience in the decline, not considering that autumn is over, and fatigued nature again begins to repose for some succeeding effort. pressed by prudence, and the rapturous sublimity in writing cooled by a cautious fear of offence. We should find few of those daring spirits, who bravely ventured to be wrong, and who are willing to hazard much for the sake of great acquisitions. Providence Some periods have been remarkable for the production of men of extraordinary stature; others for producing some particular animals in great has indulged the world with a period of almost four abundance; some for excessive plenty; and others hundred years' refinement; does it not now by deagain for seemingly causeless famine. Nature, grees sink us into our former ignorance, leaving us which shows herself so very different in her visible only the love of wisdom, while it deprives us of its productions, must surely differ also from herself in advantages? Adieu. the production of minds, and while she astonishes one age with the strength and stature of a Milo or a Maximin, may bless another with the wisdom of a Plato, or the goodness of an Antonine. Let us not then attribute to accident the falling off of every nation, but to the natural revolution of things. Often in the darkest ages there has ap-| peared some one man of surprising abilities, who, with all his understanding, failed to bring his barbarous age into refinement: all mankind seemed to sleep, till nature gave the general call, and then the whole world seemed at once roused at the voice; science triumphed in every country, and the brightness of a single genius seemed lost in a galaxy of contiguous glory. LETTER LXIV. From the Same. THE princes of Europe have found out a manner of rewarding their subjects who have behaved well, by presenting them with about two yards of blue riband, which is worn about the shoulder. They who are honoured with this mark of distinction are called knights, and the king himself is always the head of the order. This is a very frugal method of recompensing the most important services: and it is very fortunate for kings that Thus the enlightened periods in every age have their subjects are satisfied with such trifling rebeen universal. At the time when China first be-wards. Should a nobleman happen to lose his gan to emerge from barbarity, the Western world leg in a battle, the king presents him with two was equally rising into refinement; when we had yards of riband, and he is paid for the loss of his our Yau, they had their Sesostris. In succeeding limb. Should an ambassador spend all his paterages, Confucius and Pythagoras seem born nearly nal fortune in supporting the honour of his countogether, and a train of philosophers then sprung try abroad, the king presents him with two yards up as well in Greece as in China. The period of of riband, which is to be considered as an equivarenewed barbarity began to have a universal spread much about the same time, and continued for several centuries, till in the year of the Christian era 1400, the Emperor Yonglo arose to revive the learning of the East; while about the same time, the Me- I can not sufficiently admire those kingdoms in dicean family laboured in Italy to raise infant genius which men with large patrimonial estates are wilfrom the cradle: thus we see politeness spreading ling thus to undergo real hardships for empty faover every part of the world in one age, and bar-vours. A person, already possessed of a compebarity succeeding in another; at one period a blaze tent fortune, who undertakes to enter the career of of light diffusing itself over the whole world, and at another all mankind wrapped up in the profoundest ignorance. lent to his estate. In short, while a European king has a yard of blue or green riband left he need be under no apprehensions of wanting statesmen, generals, and soldiers. ambition, feels many real inconveniences from his station, while it procures him no real happiness that he was not possessed of before. He could eat, Such has been the situation of things in times drink, and sleep, before he became a courtier, as well, perhaps better, than when invested with his els." What real good then does an addition to a fortune already sufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man, by having his fortune increased, increase also his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement. "No," replied the other; "but you have let me look at them, and that is all the use you can make of them yourself; so there is no difference between us, except that you have the trouble of watching them, and that is an employment I don't much desire." Adieu. LETTER LXV. From the Same. Was he, by having his one thousand made two, thus enabled to enjoy two wives, or eat two dinners; then, indeed, he might be excused for un- THOUGH not very fond of seeing a pageant mydergoing some pain, in order to extend the sphere self, yet I am generally pleased with being in the of his enjoyments. But, on the contrary, he finds crowd which sees it: it is amusing to observe the his desire for pleasure often lessen, as he takes effect which such a spectacle has upon the variety pains to be able to improve it; and his capacity of of faces; the pleasure it excites in some, the envy enjoyment diminishes as his fortune happens to in others, and the wishes it raises in all. With increase. this design, I lately went to see the entry of a Instead, therefore, of regarding the great with foreign ambassador, resolved to make one in the envy, I generally consider them with some share mob, to shout as they shouted, to fix with earnestof compassion. I look upon them as a set of good-ness upon the same frivolous objects, and particinatured, misguided people, who are indebted to us pate for a while in the pleasures and the wishes and not to themselves, for all the happiness they of the vulgar. enjoy. For our pleasure, and not their own, they Struggling here for some time, in order to be sweat under a cumbrous heap of finery; for our first to see the cavalcade as it passed, some one of pleasure the lackeyed train, the slow parading pa- the crowd unluckily happened to tread upon my geant, with all the gravity of grandeur, moves in shoe, and tore it in such a manner, that I was ut review: a single coat, or a single footman, answers terly unqualified to march forward with the main all the purposes of the most indolent refinement as body, and obliged to fall back in the rear. Thus well; and those who have twenty may be said to rendered incapable of being a spectator of the show keep one for their own pleasure, and the other myself, I was at least willing to observe the spec nineteen merely for ours. So true is the observa- tators, and limped behind like one of the invalids tion of Confucius, that we take greater pains to who follow the march of an army. persuade others that we are happy, than endeavouring to think so ourselves. In this plight, as I was considering the eager ness that appeared on every face; how some bustled But though this desire of being seen, of being to get foremost, and others contented themselves made the subject of discourse, and of supporting with taking a transient peep when they could: the dignities of an an exalted station, be trouble- how some praised the four black servants that were some enough to the ambitious; yet it is well for stuck behind one of the equipages, and some the society that there are men thus willing to exchange ribands that decorated the horses' necks in another; ease and safety for danger and a riband. We lose my attention was called off to an object more exnothing by their vanity, and it would be unkind to traordinary than any I had yet seen; a poor cobbler endeavour to deprive a child of its rattle. Ifa duke sat in his stall by the way side, and continued to or a duchess are willing to carry a long train for work while the crowd passed by, without testifying our entertainment, so much the worse for them the smallest share of curiosity. I own his want of selves; if they choose to exhibit in public, with a attention excited mine: and as I stood in need of hundred lackeys and mamelukes in their equipage, his assistance, I thought it best to employ a philofor our entertainment, still so much the worse for sophic cobbler on this occasion. Perceiving my themselves: it is the spectators alone who give and business, therefore, he desired me to enter and sit receive the pleasure; they only are the sweating down, took my shoe in his lap, and began to mend figures that swell the pageant. it with his usual indifference and taciturnity. A mandarine, who took much pride in appear- "How, my friend," said I to him, "can you ing with a number of jewels on every part of his continue to work, while all those fine things are robe, was once accosted by an old sly Bonze, who, passing by your door?" "Very fine they are, following him through several streets, and bowing master," returned the cobbler, "for those that like often to the ground, thanked him for his jewels. them, to be sure; but what are all those fine things "What does the man mean?" cried the manda- to me? You don't know what it is to be a colrine: "Friend, I never gave thee any of my jew-bler, and so much the better for yourself. Your bread is baked, you may go and see sights the "The first three years we used to quarrel about whole day, and eat a warm supper when you come this every day, and I always got the better; but home at night; but for me, if I should run hunt- she had a hard spirit, and still continued to hide as ing after all these fine folk, what should I get by usual: so that I was at last tired of quarrelling and my journey but an appetite, and, God help me! getting the better, and she scraped and scraped at I have too much of that at home already, without pleasure, till I was almost starved to death. Her stirring out for it. Your people, who may eat four conduct drove me at last in despair to the ale-house; meals a-day, and a supper at night, are but a bad here I used to sit with people who hated home like example to such a one as I. No, master, as God myself, drank while I had money left, and run in has called me into this world in order to mend old score when any body would trust me; till at last shoes, I have no business with fine folk, and they the landlady, coming one day with a long bill when no business with me." I here interrupted him I was from home, and putting it into my wife's with a smile. "See this last, master," continues hands, the length of it effectually broke her heart. he, "and this hammer; this last and hammer are I searched the whole stall after she was dead for the two best friends I have in this world; nobody money, but she had hidden it so effectually, that else will be my friend, because I want a friend. with all my pains I could never find a farthing." The great folks you saw pass by just now have By this time my shoe was mended, and satisfyfive hundred friends, because they have no occasion ing the poor artist for his trouble, and rewarding for them: now, while I stick to my good friends him besides for his information, I took my leave, here, I am very contented; but when I ever so and returned home to lengthen out the amusement little run after sights and fine things, I begin to his conversation afforded, by communicating it to hate my work, I grow sad, and have no heart to my friend. Adieu. mend shoes any longer." LETTER LXVI. From Lien Chi Altangi to Hingpo, by the way of Moscow. This discourse only served to raise my curiosity to know more of a man whom nature had thus formed into a philosopher. I therefore insensibly led him into a history of his adventures: "I have lived," said he, "a wandering sort of a life now five-and-fifty years, here to-day, and gone to-mor- GENEROSITY properly applied will supply every row; for it was my misfortune, when I was young, other external advantage in life, but the love of to be fond of changing." "You have been a tra- those we converse with: it will procure esteem, and veller, then, I presume," interrupted I. "I can not a conduct resembling real affection; but actual boast much of travelling," continued he, "for love is the spontaneous production of the mind; no have never left the parish in which I was born but generosity can purchase, no rewards increase, nor three times in my life, that I can remember; but no liberality continue it: the very person who is then there is not a street in the whole neighbour-obliged, has it not in his power to force his linhood that I have not lived in, at some time or gering affections upon the object he should love, another. When I began to settle and to take to my business in one street, some unforeseen mis- Imparted fortune, and well-placed liberality, may fortune, or a desire of trying my luck elsewhere, procure the benefactor good-will, may load the perhas removed me, perhaps a whole mile away from son obliged with the sense of the duty he lies under my former customers, while some more lucky cob- to retaliate; this is gratitude: and simple gratitude, bler would come into my place, and make a hand- untinctured with love, is all the return an ingenusome fortune among friends of my making: there ous mind can bestow for former benefits. was one who actually died in a stall that I had left, and voluntarily mix passion with gratitude. But gratitude and love are almost opposite affecworth seven pounds seven shillings, all in hard tions; love is often an involuntary passion, placed gold, which he had quilted into the waistband of upon our companions without our consent, and his breeches." frequently conferred without our previous esteem. I could not but smile at these migrations of a We love some men, we know not why; our tenman by the fire-side, and continued to ask if he had derness is naturally excited in all their concerns; ever been married. "Ay, that I have, master," we excuse their faults with the same indulgence, replied he, "for sixteen long years; and a weary and approve their virtues with the same applause life I had of it, Heaven knows. My wife took it with which we consider our own. While we eninto her head, that the only way to thrive in this tertain the passion, it pleases us, we cherish it with world was to save money, so, though our comings- delight, and give it up with reluctance; and love in was but about three shillings a-week, all that ever for love is all the reward we expect or desire. she could lay her hands upon she used to hide away from me, though we were obliged to starve the whole week after for it. Gratitude, on the contrary, is never conferred, but where there have been previous endeavours to excite it; we consider it as a debt, and our spirits wear a load till we have discharged the obligation. wisdom. "Mention not the name of man," cries Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circum- the hermit with indignation; "here let me live restance of humiliation; and some are found to sub- tired from a base ungrateful world; here among mit to frequent mortifications of this kind, pro- the beasts of the forest I shall find no flatterers: claiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some measure cancels the debt. the lion is a generous enemy, and the dog a faithful friend; but man, base man, can poison the bowl, and smile while he presents it!"-"You have been used ill by mankind," interrupted the philosopher shrewdly. "Yes," returned the hermit, "on man Thus love is the most easy and agreeable, and gratitude the most humiliating affection of the mind: we never reflect on the man we love, with- kind I have exhausted my whole fortune, and this out exulting in our choice, while he who has bound staff, and that cup, and those roots, are all that I us to him by benefits alone, rises to our idea as a have in return."—"Did you bestow your fortune, person to whom we have in some measure forfeited or did you only lend it?" returned Mencius. "I our freedom. Love and gratitude are seldom there- bestowed it undoubtedly," replied the other, "for fore found in the same breast without impairing where were the merit of being a money-lender?"— each other; we may tender the one or the other "Did they ever own that they received it?" still singly to those we converse with, but can not com- adds the philosopher. "A thousand times,” cries mand both together. By attempting to increase, the hermit; "they every day loaded me with prowe diminish them; the mind becomes bankrupt fessions of gratitude for obligations received, and under too large obligations; all additional benefits solicitations for future favours."—"If, then," says lessen every hope of future return, and bar up Mencius smiling, "you did not lend your fortune every avenue that leads to tenderness. In all our connexions with society, therefore, it is not only generous, but prudent, to appear insensible of the value of those favours we bestow, and endeavour to make the obligation seem as slight as possible. Love must be taken by stratagem, and not by open force: we should seem ignorant that we oblige, and leave the mind at full liberty to give or refuse its affections; for constraint may indeed leave the receiver still grateful, but it will certainly produce disgust. If to procure gratitude be our only aim, there is no great art in making the acquisition; a benefit conferred demands a just acknowledgment, and we have a right to insist upon our due. But it were much more prudent to forego our right on such an occasion, and exchange it, if we can, for love. We receive but little advantage from repeated protestations of gratitude, but they cost him very much from whom we exact them in return: exacting a grateful acknowledgment, is demanding a debt by which the creditor is not advantaged, and the debtor pays with reluctance. in order to have it returned, it is unjust to accuse them of ingratitude; they owned themselves obliged, you expected no more, and they certainly earned each favour by frequently acknowledging the obligation." The hermit was struck with the reply, and surveying his guest with emotion,—“I have heard of the great Mencius, and you certainly are the man: I am now fourscore years old, but still a child in wisdom; take me back to the school of man, and educate me as one of the most ignorant and the youngest of your disciples!" Indeed, my son, it is better to have friends in our passage through life than grateful dependants; and as love is a more willing, so it is a more lasting tribute than extorted obligation. As we are uneasy when greatly obliged, gratitude once refused can never after be recovered: the mind that is base enough to disallow the just return, instead of feeling any uneasiness upon recollection, triumphs in its new-acquired freedom, and in some measure is pleased with conscious baseness. Very different is the situation of disagreeing friends; their separation produces mutual uneasiAs Mencius the philosopher was travelling in ness: like that divided being in fabulous creation, pursuit of wisdom, night overtook him at the foot their sympathetic souls once more desire their forof a gloomy mountain remote from the habitations mer union; the joys of both are imperfect; their of men. Here, as he was straying, while rain and gayest moments tinctured with uneasiness; each thunder conspired to make solitude still more hide-seeks for the smallest concessions to clear the way ous, he perceived a hermit's cell, and approaching, to a wished-for explanation; the most trifling acasked for shelter: "Enter," cries the hermit, in a knowledgment, the slightest accident, serves to ef severe tone, "men deserve not to be obliged, but it fect a mutual reconciliation. would be imitating their ingratitude to treat them as they deserve. Come in: examples of vice may sometimes strengthen us in the ways of virtue." But instead of pursuing the thought, permit me to soften the severity of advice, by a European story, which will fully illustrate my meaning. After a frugal meal, which consisted of roots and A fiddler and his wife, who had rubbed through tea, Mencius could not repress his curiosity to life, as most couples usually do, sometimes good know why the hermit had retired from mankind, friends, at others not quite so well, one day hapthe actions of whom taught the truest lessons of pened to have a dispute, which was conducted with |