all but one character of improvidence and rapacity; and tutored nations, however feparate, make use of the very fame methods to procure refined enjoyment. The diftinctions of polite nations are few; but fuch as are peculiar to the Chinese, appear in every page of the following correfpondence. The metaphors and allufions are all drawn from the East. Their formality our author carefully preferves. Many of their favourite tenets in morals are illuftrated. The Chinese are always concife, fo is he. Simple, fo is he. The Chinese are grave and fententious, fo is he. But in one particular, the refemblance is peculiarly ftriking the Chinese are often dull; and fo is he. Nor has my affiftance been wanting. We are told in an old romance of a certain knight-errant and his horfe who contracted an intimate friendship. The horse moft usually bore the knight, but, in cafes of extraordinary dispatch, the knight returned the favour, and carried his horfe. Thus in the intimacy between my author and me, he has ufually given me a lift of his Eaftern fublimity, and I have fometimes given him a return of my colloquial cafe. Yet it appears ftrange in this feafon of panegyric, when scarcely an author paffes unpraifed either by his friends or himself, that fuch merit as our Philofopher's fhould be forgotten. While the epithets of ingenious, copious, elaborate, and refined, are lavifhed among the mob, like medals at a coronation, the lucky prizes fall on every fide, but not one on him. I could on this occafion make myself melancholy, by confidering the capricioufnefs of public taste, or the mutability of fortune; but during this fit of morality, left my reader should fleep, I'll take a nap myself, and when I awake tell him my dream. I imagined the Thames was frozen over, and I ftood by its fide. Several booths were erected upon the ice, and I was told by one of the fpectators, that FASHION 4 FASHION FAIR was going to begin. He added, that every author who would carry his works there, might probably find a very good reception. I was refolved however to obferve the humours of the place in fafety from the fhore, fenfible that ice was at beft precarious, and having been always a little cowardly in my fleep. Several of my acquaintance feemed much more hardy than I, and went over the ice with intrepidity. Some carried their works to the fair on fledges, fome on carts, and those which were more voluminous, were conveyed in waggons. Their temerity aftonished me. I knew their cargoes were heavy, and expected every moment they would have gone to the bottom. They all entered the fair, however, in fafety, and each foon after returned to my great furprize, highly fatisfied with his entertainment, and the bargains he had brought away. The fuccefs of fuch numbers at laft began to operate upon me. If thefe, cried I, meet with favour and fafety, fome luck may, perhaps, for once attend the unfortunate. I am refolved to make a new adventure. The furniture frippery and fire-works of China have long been fashionably bought up. I'll try the fair with a small cargo of Chinese morality. If the Chinese have contributed to vitiate our taste, I'll try how far they can help to improve our underftanding. But as others have driven into the market in waggons, I'll cautioufly begin by venturing with a wheel-barrow. Thus refolved, I baled up my goods and fairly ventured; when, upon juft entering the fair, I fancied the ice that had supported an hundred waggons before, cracked under me, and wheel-barrow and all went to the bottom. Upon awaking from my reverie with the fright, I cannot help wishing that the pains taken in giving this correspondence an English dress, had been em ployed ployed in contriving new political fyftems, or new plots for farces. I might then have taken my ftation in the world, either as a poet or a philofopher, and made one in thofe little focieties where men club to raise each others reputation. But at prefent I belong to no particular clafs. I refemble one of thofe animals, that has been forced from its foreft to gratify human curiofity. My earlieft wifh was to escape unheeded through life; but I have been fet up for halfpence, to fret and scamper at the end of my chain. Though none are injured by my rage, I am naturally too favage to court any friends by fawning; too obftinate to be taught new tricks; and too improvident to mind what may happen: I am appeased, though not contented. Too indolent for intrigue, and too timid to push for favour, I am-But what fignifies what I am. Ελπὶς καὶ σὺ τύχη μέγα χαίρζε· τὸν λιμέν' εὗρον. CON |