one of the benches, and felt the pleafing fympathy which Nature in bloom infpires, a difconfolated figure, who fate on the other end of the feat, seemed no way to enjoy the ferenity of the feafon.

His drefs was miferable beyond defcription; a thread-bare coat of the rudeft materials; a fhirt, though clean, yet extremely coarfe; hair that feemed to have been long unconfcious of the comb; and all the reft of his equipage impreffed with the marks of genuine poverty.

As he continued to figh, and teftify every fymptom of defpair, I was naturally led, from a motive of humanity, to offer comfort and affiftance. You know my heart; and that all who are miferable may claim a place there. The penfive ftranger at first declined my converfation; but at last perceiving a peculiarity in my accent and manner of thinking, he began to unfold himfelf by degrees.

I now found that he was not fo very miserable as he at first appeared; upon my offering him a fmall piece of money, he refufed my favour, yet without appearing difpleafed at my intended generofity. It is true he fometimes interrupted the converfation with a figh, and talked pathetically of neglected merit; ftill I could perceive a ferenity in his countenance, that upon a clofer infpection befpoke inward content.

Upon a paufe in the converfation I was going to take my leave, when he begged I would favour him with my company home to fupper. I was furprized at fuch a demand from a perfon of his appearance, but willing to indulge curiofity, I accepted his invitation; and though I felt fome repugnance at being feen with one who appeared fo very wretched, went along with feeming alacrity.

Still as he approached nearer home, his goodhumour proportionably feemed to increafe. At laft

he

he stopped, not at the gate of an hovel, but of a magnificent palace! When I caft my eyes upon all the fumptuous elegance which every where prefented upon entering, and then when I looked at my feeming miferable conductor, I could fcarcely think that all this finery belonged to him; yet in fact it did. Numerous fervants ran through the apartments with filent affiduity; feveral ladies of beauty and magnificently dreffed came to welcome his return; a moft elegant fupper was provided; in fhort, I found the perfon, whom a little before I had fincerely pitied, to be in reality a moft refined epicure; One who courted contempt abroad, in order to feel with keener guft the pleasure of pre-eminence at home. Adieu.

LETTER LII.

FROM THE SAME.

How often have we admired the eloquence of Europe! That ftrength of thinking, that delicacy of imagination, even beyond the efforts of the Chinese themselves. How were we enraptured with those bold figures which fent every fentiment with force to the heart. How have we spent whole days together in learning those arts by which European writers got within the paffions, and led the reader as if by enchantment.

But though we have learned most of the rhetorical figures of the laft age, yet there seems to be one or two of great ufe here, which have not yet travelled to China. The figures I mean are called Bawdy and Pertnefs; none are more fashionable; none fo fure

of

of admirers; they are of fuch a nature, that the mereft blockhead, by a proper use of them, shall have the reputation of a wit; they lie level to the meaneft capacities, and addrefs thofe paffions which all have, or would be afhamed to difown.

It has been obferved, and I believe with fome truth, that it is very difficult for a dunce to obtain the reputation of a wit; yet by the affiftance of the figure Bawdy, this may be eafily affected, and a bawdy blockhead often paffes for a fellow of fmart parts and pretenfions. Every object in Nature helps the jokes forward, without fcarcely any effort of the imagination. If a lady ftands, fomething very good may be faid upon that, if the happens to fall, with the help of a little fashionable pruriency, there are forty fly things ready on the occafion. But a prurient jeft has always been found to give moft pleasure to a few very old gentlemen, who being in fome measure dead to other fenfations, feel the force of the allufion with double violence on the organs of rifibility.

An author who writes in this manner is generally fure therefore of having the very old and the impotent among his admirers; for thefe he may properly be faid to write, and from these he ought to expect his reward, his works being often a very proper fuccedaneum to cantharides, or an affafoetida pill. His pen fhould be confidered in the fame light as the fquirt of an apothecary, both being directed at the fame generous end.

But though this manner of writing be perfectly adapted to the tafte of gentlemen and ladies of fafhion here, yet ftill it deferves greater praife in being equally fuited to the most vulgar apprehenfions. The very ladies and gentlemen of Benin or Cafraria are in this refpect tolerably polite, and might relish a prurient joke of this kind with critical

pro

propriety; probably too with higher guft, as they wear neither breeches nor petticoats to intercept the application.

It is certain I never could have expected the ladies here, biaffed as they are by education, capable at once of bravely throwing off their prejudices, and not only applauding books in which this figure makes the only merit, but even adopting it in their own converfation. Yet fo it is, the pretty innocents now carry thofe books only in their hands, which formerly were hid under the cufhion; they now lifp their double meanings with fo much grace, and talk over the raptures they beftow with fuch little reserve, that I am fometimes reminded of a cuftom among the entertainers in China, who think it a piece of neceffary breeding to whet the appetites of their guefts, by letting them fmell dinner in the kitchen before it is ferved up to table.

The veneration we have for many things, entirely proceeds from their being carefully concealed. Were the idolatrous Tartar permitted to lift the veil which keeps his idol from view, it might be a certain method to cure his future fuperftition; with what a noble fpirit of freedom therefore must that writer be poffeffed, who bravely paints things as they are, who lifts the veil of modefty, who difplays the most hidden receffes of the temple, and fhows the erring people that the object of their vows is either, perhaps a mouse, or a monkey.

However, though this figure be at prefent fo much in fashion; though the profeffors of it are fo much careffed by the great, thofe perfect judges of literary excellence; yet it is confeffed to be only a revival of what was once fashionable here before. There was a time, when by this very manner of writing, the gentle Tom Durfey, as I read in English

authors

authors, acquired his great reputation, and became the favourite of a king.

The works of this original genius, though they never travelled abroad to China, and fcarcely have reached pofterity at home, were once found upon every fashionable toilet, and made the fubject of polite, I mean very polite converfation. Has your "Grace fen Mr. Durfey's last new thing, the Oylet "Hole. A most facetious piece?" "Sure, my Lord, "all the world must have seen it; Durfey is certainly "the most comical creature alive. It is impoffible to "read his things and live. Was there ever any thing "fo natural and pretty, as when the Squire and Bridget meet in the cellar. And then the difficulties they both find in broaching the beer barrel are fo arch and fo " ingenious! We have certainly nothing of this kind in "the language." In this manner they fpoke then, and in this manner they speak now; for though the fucceffor of Durfey does not excel him in wit, the world muft confefs he out-does him in obfcenity.

There are feveral very dull fellows, who, by a few mechanical helps, fometimes learn to become extremely brilliant and pleafing; with a little dexterity in the management of the eye-brows, fingers, and nofe. By imitating a cat, a fow and pigs: by a loud laugh, and a flap on the fhoulder, the most ignorant are furnished out for converfation. But the writer finds it impoffible to throw his winks, his fhrugs, or his attitudes upon paper; he may borrow fome affiftance indeed, by printing his face at the title-page; but without wit to pafs for a man of ingenuity, no other mechanical help but downright obfcenity will fuffice. By speaking to fome peculiar fenfations, we are always fure of exciting laughter, for the jeft does not lie in the writer, but in the fubject.

VOL. III.

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