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to characterise this people than hiftories of their public treaties, courts, minifters, negotiations, and ambaffadors.

Adieu.

LETTER XXX:

FROM THE SAME.

THE English have not yet brought the art of gardening to the fame perfection with the Chinese, but have lately begun to imitate them; Nature is now followed with greater affiduity than formerly; the trees are fuffered to fhoot out into the utmost luxuriance; the ftreams no longer forced from their native beds, are permitted to wind along the vallies: fpontaneous flowers take place of the finished parterre, and the enamelled meadow of the fhaven green.

Yet ftill the English are far behind us in this charming art; their defigners have not yet attained. a power of uniting inftruction with beauty. An European will scarcely conceive my meaning, when I fay that there is fcarcely a garden in China which does not contain fome fine moral, couched under the general defign, where one is not taught wildom as he walks, and feels the force of fome noble truth, or delicate precept refulting from the difpofition of the groves, ftreams or grottos. Permit me to illuftrate what I mean by a defcription of my gardens at Quamfi. My heart ftill hovers round thote fcenes of former happiness with pleafure; and I find a fatisfaction in enjoying them at this diftance, though but in imagination.

You defcended from the house between two

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groves of trees, planted in fuch a manner, that they were impenetrable to the eye; while on each hand the way was adorned with all that was beautiful in porcelaine, ftatuary, and painting. This paffage from the house opened into an area furrounded with rocks, flowers, trees and fhrubs, but all so disposed as if each was the fpontaneous production of Nature. As you proceeded forward on this lawn, to your right and left hand were two gates, oppofite each other, of very different architecture and defign; and before you lay a temple built rather with minute elegance than oftentation.

The right hand gate was planned with the utmoft fimplicity, or rather rudeness; ivy clafped round the pillars, the baleful cyprus hung over it; time feemed to have deftroyed all the smoothness and regularity of the ftone: two champions with lifted clubs appeared in the act of guarding its accefs; dragons and ferpents were feen in the moft hideous attitudes, to deter the fpectator from approaching; and the perfpective view that lay behind, feemed dark and gloomy to the laft degree; the stranger was tempted to enter only from the motto: PERVIA VIRTUTI.

The oppofite gate was formed in a very different manner; the architecture was light, elegant, and inviting; flowers hung in wreaths round the pillars; all was finished in the moft exact and mafterly manner; the very stone of which it was built, ftill preferved its polish; nymphs, wrought by the hand of a mafter, in the most alluring attitudes, beckoned the stranger to approach; while all that lay behind, as far as the eye could reach, feemed gay, luxuriant, and capable of affording endless pleasure. The motto itself contributed to invite him; for over the gate were written these words, FACILIS DESCENSUS.

By this time I fancy you begin to perceive that the gloomy gate was defigned to reprefent the road

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to Virtue; the oppofite, the more agreeable paffage to Vice. It is but natural to fuppofe, that the fpectator was always tempted to enter by the gate which offered him fo many allurements. I always in these cafes left him to his choice; but generally found that he took to the left, which promised most entertainment.

Immediately upon his entering the gate of Vice, the trees and flowers were difpofed in fuch a manner as to make the moft pleafing impreffion; but as he walked farther on, he infenfibly found the garden affume the air of a wildernefs, the landfcapes began to darken, the paths grew more intricate, he appeared to go downwards, frightful rocks feemed to hang over his head, gloomy caverns, unexpected precipices, awful ruins, heaps of unburied bones, and terrifying founds, caufed by unfeen waters, began to take place of what at first appeared fo lovely; it was in vain to attempt returning, the labyrinth was too much perplexed for any but myfelf to find the way back. In fhort, when fufficiently impreffed with the horrors of what he faw, and the imprudence of his choice, I brought him by an hidden door a fhorter way back into the area from whence at first he had ftrayed.

The gloomy gate now prefented itfelf before the ftranger; and though there feemed little in its appearance to tempt his curiofity, yet encouraged by the motto, he generally proceeded. The darknefs of the entrance, the frightful figures that feemed to obftruct his way, the trees of a mournful green, confpired at first to difguft him: as he went forward, however, all began to open and wear a more pleafing appearance, beautiful cafcades, beds of flowers, trees loaded with fruit or bloffoms, and unexpected brooks, improved the fcene; he now found that he was afcending, and, as he proceeded, all Nature grew more beautiful, the profpect widened

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dened as he went higher, even the air itself feemed to become more pure. Thus pleased, and happy from unexpected beauties, I at laft led him to an arbour, from whence he could view the garden, and the whole country around, and where he might own, that the road to Virtue terminated in Happinefs.

Though from this defcription you may imagine, that a vast tract of ground was neceffary to exhibit fuch a pleasing variety in, yet be affured I have feen feveral gardens in England take up ten times the space which mine did, without half the beauty. A very fmall extent of ground is enough for an elegant tafte; the greater room is required if magnificence is in view. There is no fpot, though ever fo little, which a skilful defigner might not thus improve, fo as to convey a delicate allegory, and imprefs the mind with truths the moft ufeful and neceffary. Adieu.

LETTER XXXI.

FROM THE SAME.

IN a late excurfion with my friend into the country, a gentleman with a blue ribbon tied round his fhoulder, and in a chariot drawn by fix horfes paffed fwiftly by us, attended with a numerous train of captains, lacquies, and coaches filled with women. When we were recovered from the duft raised by this cavalcade, and could continue our difcourfe without danger of fuffocation, I obferved to my companion, that all this ftate and equipage, which he seemed to despise, would in China be regarded with the utmoft reverence, becaufe fuch dif

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tinctions were always the reward of merit; the greatness of a mandarine's retinue being a most certain mark of the fuperiority of his abilities or virtue.

The gentleman who has now paffed us, replied my companion, has no claims from his own merit to diftinction; he is poffeffed neither of abilities, nor virtue it is enough for him that one of his ancestors was poffeffed of thefe qualities two hundred years before him. There was a time, indeed, when his family deferved their title, but they are long fince degenerated, and his ancestors for more than a century have been more and more folicitous to keep up the breed of their dogs and horfes, than that of their children. This very nobleman, fimple as he seems, is defcended from a race of statesmen and heroes; but unluckily his great-grandfather marrying a cook-maid, and fhe having a trifling paffion for his lordship's groom, they fome how croffed the ftrain, and produced an heir, who took after his mother in his great love to good eating, and his father in a violent affection for horfe flesh. Thefe paffions have for fome generations paffed on from father to fon, and are now become the characteriftics of the family, his prefent lordship being equally remarkable for his kitchen and his stable.

But fuch a nobleman, cried I, deferves our pity, thus placed in so high a sphere of life, which only the more expofes to contempt. A king may confer titles, but it is perfonal merit alone that infures refpect. I fuppofe, added I, that fuch men are defpifed by their equals, neglected by their inferiors, and condemned to live among involuntary dependants in irkfome folitude.

You are still under a mistake, replied my companion, for though this nobleman is a ftranger to generofity; though he takes twenty opportunities in a day of letting his guefts know how much he

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defpifes

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