furrounding friends, and your master's esteem, it has reduced thee to want, perfecution; and, ftill worfe, to our mighty monarch's displeasure. Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty. As I fhall endeavour to guard thee from the one, fo guard thyfelf from the other; and ftill think of me with affection and efteem. Farewell.

From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, first prefident of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China.

The Editor thinks proper to acquaint the reader, that the greatest part of the following letter feems to him to be little more than a rhapsody of fentences borrowed from Confucius, the Chinese philofopher.

A WIFE, a daughter, carried into captivity to expiate my offence, a fon fcarce yet arrived at maturity, refolving to encounter every danger in the pious pursuit of one who has undone him, these indeed are circumstances of diftrefs; though my tears were more precious than the gem of Golconda, yet would they fall upon fuch an occafion.

But I fubmit to the ftroke of heaven, I hold the volume of Confucius in my hand, and as I read, grow humble, and patient, and wife. We fhould feel forrow, fays he, but not fink under its oppreffion; the heart of a wife man fhould resemble a mirrour, which reflects every object without being fullied by any. The wheel of fortune turns inceffantly

round;

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round; and who can fay within himself I fhall today be uppermoft? We should hold the immutable mean that lies between infenfibility and anguish; our attempts should not be to extinguish nature, but to reprefs it; not to ftand unmoved at diftrefs, but endeavour to turn every difafter to our own advantage. Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rifing every time we fall.

I fancy myself at prefent, O thou reverend difciple of Tao, more than a match for all that can happen; the chief business of my life has been to procure wifdom, and the chief object of that wisdom was to be happy. My attendance on your lectures, my conferences with the miffionaries of Europe, and all my fubfequent adventures upon quitting China, were calculated to encrease the sphere of my happiness, not my curiofity. Let European travellers crofs feas and defarts merely to measure the height of a mountain, to describe the cataract of a river, or tell the commodities which every country may produce; merchants or geographers, perhaps, may find profit by such discoveries; but what advantage can accrue to a philofopher from fuch accounts, who is defirous of understanding the human heart, who feeks to know the men of every country, who defires to difcover thofe differences which refult from climate, religion, education, prejudice, and partiality?

I fhould think my time very ill-beftowed, were the only fruits of my adventures to confift in being able to tell, that a tradefman of London lives in an house three times as high as that of our great Emperor. That the ladies wear longer cloaths than the men, that the priests are dreffed in colours which we are taught to deteft, and that their foldiers wear fcarlet, which is with us the fymbol of peace and innocence. How many travellers are there, who confine their relations to fuch minute and useless particulars! for one who enters into the genius of thofe nations with

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with whom he has converfed, who difclofes their morals, their opinions, the ideas which they entertain of religious worship, the intrigues of their minifters, and their skill in fciences; there are twenty, who only mention fome idle particulars, which can be of no real ufe to a true philofopher. All their remarks tend neither to make themselves nor others more happy; they no way contribute to control their paffions, to bear adverfity, to infpire true virtue, or raise a deteftation of vice.

Men may be very learned, and yet very miferable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a fublime aftronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I efteem, therefore, the traveller who inftructs the heart, but defpife him who only indulges the imagination; a man who leaves home to mend himself and others, is a philofopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulfe of curiofity, is only a vagabond. From Zerdufht down to him of Tyanea, I honour all thofe great names who endeavoured to unite the world by their travels; fuch men grew wifer as well as better, the farther they departed from home, and feemed like rivers, whofe ftreams are not only encreased, but refined, as they travel from their fource.

For my own part, my greateft glory is, that tra velling has not more fteeled my conftitution against all the viciffitudes of climate, and all the depreffions of fatigue, than it has my mind againft, the accidents of fortune, or the acceffes of defpair. Farewell.

LETTER

LETTER VIII.

TO THE SAME.

How infupportable! oh thou poffeffor of heavenly wifdom, would be this feparation, this immeasurable distance from my friend, were I not able thus to delineate my heart upon paper, and to fend thee daily a map of my mind!

I am every day better reconciled to the people among whom I refide, and begin to fancy, that in time I fhall find them more opulent, more charitable, and more hofpitable, than I at first imagined. I begin to learn somewhat of their manners and cuftoms, and to fee reafons for feveral deviations which they make from us, from whom all other nations derive their politenefs as well as their original.

In fpite of tafte, in fpite of prejudice, I now begin to think their women tolerable; I can now look on a languishing blue eye without difguft, and pardon a fet of teeth, even though whiter than ivory. I now begin to fancy there is no univerfal ftandard for beauty. The truth is, the manners of the ladies in this city are fo very open, and fo vaftly engaging, that I am inclined to pafs over the more glaring defects of their perfons, fince compenfated by the more folid, yet latent beauties of the mind; what though they want black teeth, or are deprived of the allurements of feet no bigger than their thumbs, yet ftill they have fouls, my friend; fuch fouls, fo free, fo preffing, fo hofpitable, and fo engaging-I have received more invitations in the ftreets of London from the fex in one night, than I have met with at Pekin in twelve revolutions of the moon.

Every evening, as I return home from my ufual folitary excurfions, I am met by feveral of those well-difpofed daughters of hofpitality, at different times, and in different ftreets, richly dreffed, and with minds not lefs noble than their appearance. You know that nature has indulged me with a perfon by no means agreeable; yet are they too generous to object to my homely appearance; they feel no repugnance at my broad face and flat nofe; they perceive me to be a ftranger, and that alone is a fufficient recommendation. They even feem to think it their duty to do the honours of the country by every act of complaifance in their power. One takes me under the arm, and in a manner forces me along; another catches me round the neck, and defires to partake in this office of hofpitality; while a third, kinder ftill, invites me to refresh my fpirits with wine. Wine is in England referved only for the rich; yet here even wine is given away to the ftranger!

A few nights ago, one of these generous creatures, dreffed all in white, and flaunting like a meteor by my fide, forcibly attended me home to my own apartment. She feemed charmed with the elegance of the furniture, and the convenience of my fituation and well indeed the might, for I have hired an apartment for not lefs than two fhillings of their money every week. But her civility did not reft here; for at parting, being defirous to know the hour, and perceiving my watch out of order, she kindly took it to be repaired by a relation of her own, which you may imagine will fave fome expence; and the affures me that it will coft her nothing. I fhall have it back in a few days, when mended, and am preparing a proper fpeech, expreffive of my gratitude on the occafion: Celestial excellence, I intend to fay, happy I am in having found out, after many painful adventures, a land of innocence,

and