mortals, go build houfes, plant orchards, purchase eftates, for to-morrow you die. But what if the comet fhould not come? That would be equally fatal. Comets are fervants which periodically return to fupply the fun with fuel. If our fun therefore fhould be disappointed of the expected fupply, and all his fuel be in the mean time burnt out, he muft expire like an exhaufted taper. What a miserable fituation muft our earth be in without his enlivening ray! Have we not feen feveral neighbouring funs entirely difappear? Has not a fixed ftar near the tail of the Ram lately been quite extinguished?

Thursday. The comet has not yet appeared; I am forry for it: firft, forry becaufe my calculation is falie; fecondly, forry left the fun fhould want fuel; thirdly, forry left the wits fhould laugh at our erroneous predictions; and fourthly, forry because if it appears to-night, it muft neceffarily come within the fphere of the earth's attraction; and Heaven help the unhappy country on which it happens to fall.

Friday. Our whole fociety have been out all eager in fearch of the comet. We have feen not lefs than fixteen comets in different parts of the heavens. However, we are unanimoufly refolved to fix upon one only to be the comet expected. That near Virgo wants nothing but a tail to fit it out completely for terreftrial admiration.

Saturday. The moon is I find at her old pranks. Her appulfes, librations, and other irregularities indeed amaze me. My daughter too is this morning gone off with a grenadier. No way furprizing. I was never able to give her a relifh for wifdom. She ever promifed to be a mere expletive in the creation. But the moon, the moon gives me real

un

uneafinefs; I fondly fancied I had fixed her. I had thought her conftant, and conftant only to me; but every night discovers her infidelity, and proves me a defolate and abandoned lover.

Adieu.

LETTER XCII.

TO THE SAME.

IT is furprifing what an influence titles fhall have upon the mind, even though these titles be of our own making. Like children we dress up the puppets in finery, and then stand in aftonifhment at the plaftic wonder. I have been told of a rat-catcher here, who strolled for a long time about the villages near town, without finding any employment; at last however he thought proper to take the title of his Majefty's rat-catcher in ordinary, and this fucceeded beyond his expectations; when it was known that he caught rats at court, all were ready to give him countenance and employment.

But of all the people, they who make books feem moft perfectly fenfible of the advantage of titular dignity. All feem convinced, that a book written by vulgar hands, can neither inftruct nor improve; none but Kings, Chams, and Mandarines can write with any probability of fuccefs. If the titles inform me right, not only Kings and Courtiers, but Emperors themfelves in this country periodically supply the prefs.

A man here who fhould write, and honeftly confefs that he wrote for bread, might as well fend his manuscript to fire the baker's oven; not one creature

will read him; all must be court-bred poets, or pretend at least to be court-bred, who can expect to please. Should the caitiff fairly avow a defign of emptying our pockets and filling his own, every reader would inftantly forfake him; even those who write for bread themfelves would combine to worry him, perfectly fenfible, that his attempts only served to take the bread out of their mouths.

And yet this filly prepoffeffion the more amazes me, when I confider, that almoft all the excellent productions in wit that have appeared here, were purely the offspring of neceffity; their Drydens, Butlers, Otways, and Farquhars were all writers for bread. Believe me, my friend, hunger has a moft amazing faculty of fharpening the genius; and he who with a full belly, can think like a hero, after a course of fafting, fhall rife to the fublimity of a demi-god.

But what will most amaze is, that this very fet of men, who are now fo much depreciated by fools, are however the very beft writers they have among them at prefent. For my own part, were I to buy an hat, I would not have it from a ftocking-maker, but an hatter; were I to buy fhoes, I fhould not go to the tailor's for that purpose. It is juft fo with regard to wit: did I, for my life, defire to be well-ferved, I would apply only to thofe who made it their trade, and lived by it. You fmile at the oddity of my opinion; but be affured, my friend, that wit is in fome measure mechanical; and that a man long habituated to catch at even its resemblance, will at last be happy enough to poffefs the fubftance: by a long habit of writing he acquires a juftness of thinking, and a maftery of manner, which holiday-writers, even with ten times his genius, may vainly attempt to equal.

How then are they deceived, who expect from title, dignity, and exterior circumftance an excel

lence,

lence, which is in fome measure acquired by habit, and fharpened by neceffity; you have feen, like me, many literary reputations promoted by the influence of fashion, which have fcarcely furvived the poffeffor; you have seen the poor hardly earn the little reputation they acquired, and their merit only acknowledged when they were incapable of enjoying the pleasures of popularity; fuch, however, is the reputation worth poffeffing, that which is hardly earned is hardly loft. Adieu.

LETTER XCIII.

From Hingpo in Mofcow, to Lien Chi Altangi, in

London.

WHERE will my difäppointment end? Muft I

ftill be doomed to accufe the feverity of my fortune, and fhew my conftancy in diftrefs rather than moderation in profperity? I had at least hopes of conveying my charming companion fafe from the reach of every enemy, and of again reftoring her to her native foil. But thofe hopes are now no more.

Upon leaving Terki we took the nearest road to the dominions of Ruffia. We paffed the Ural mountains covered with eternal fnow, and traverfed the forefts of Ufa, where the prowling bear and fhrieking hyena keep an undifputed poffeffion. We next embarked upon the rapid river Bulija, and made the best of our way to the banks of the Wolga, where it waters the fruitful valleys of Cafan.

There were two veffels in company properly equipped and armed in order to oppose the Wolga pirates, VOL. III.

B B

who

who we were informed infefted this river. Of all mankind thefe pirates are the moft terrible. They are compofed of the criminals and outlawed peasants of Ruffia, who fly to the forefts that lie along the banks of the Wolga for protection. Here they join in parties, lead a favage life, and have no other fubfiftence but plunder. Being deprived of houses, friends, or a fixed habitation, they become more. terrible even than the tyger, and as infenfible to all the feelings of humanity. They neither give quarter to those they conquer, nor receive it when overpowered themselves. The feverity of the laws against them ferve to increase their barbarity, and feem to make them a neutral fpecies of beings between the wildness of the lion and the fubtlety of the man. When taken alive their punishment is hideous. A floating gibbet is erected, which is let run down. with the ftream; here, upon an iron hook ftuck under their ribs, and upon which the whole weight of their body depends, they are left to expire in the moft terrible agonies; fome being thus found to linger feveral days fucceffively.

We were but three days voyage from the confluence of this river into the Wolga, when we perceived at'a diftance behind us an armed barque coming up with the affiftance of fails and oars, in order to attack us. The dreadful fignal of death was hung upon the maft, and our captain with his glafs could eafily dif cern them to be pirates. It is impoffible to exprefs our confternation on this occafion; the whole crew inftantly came together to confult the propereft means of fafety. It was therefore foon determined to fend off our women and valuable commodities in one of our veffels, and that the men fhould stay in the other and boldly oppofe the enemy. This refolution was foon put into execution, and I now reluctantly parted from the beautiful Zelis for the first