emperor Tifiang of the irregularity of his conduct? He who firft undertook the dangerous task was cut in two by the emperor's order; the fecond was ordered to be tormented, and then put to a cruel death; the third undertook the task with intrepidity, and was inftantly ftabbed by the tyrant's hand: in this manner they all fuffered, except one. But not to be turned from his purpose, the brave furvivor entering the palace with the inftruments of torture in his hand, Here, cried he, addreffing himself to the throne, here, O Tifiang, are ike marks your faithful fubjects receive for their loyalty; I am wearied with ferving a tyrant, and now come for my reward. The emperor, ftruck with his intrepidity, inftantly forgave the boldness of his conduct, and reformed his own. What European annals can boast of a tyrant thus reclaimed to lenity!

When five brethren had fet upon the great emperor Ginfong alone; with his fabre he flew four of them; he was ftruggling with the fifth, when his guards coming up were going to cut the confpirator into a thoufand pieces. No, no, cried the emperor, with a calm and placid countenance, of all his brothers he is the only one remaining, at least let one of the family be fuffered to live, that his aged parents may have fomebody left to feed and comfort them.

When Haitong, the last emperor of the house of Ming, faw himfelf befieged in his own city by the ufurper, he was refolved to iffue from his palace with fix hundred of his guards, and give the enemy battle; but they forfook him. Being thus without hopes, and chufing death rather than to fall alive into the hands of a rebel, he retired to his garden, conducting his little daughter, an only child in his hand, there, in a private arbour, unfheathing his fword, he ftabbed the young innocent to the heart, and then dispatching himfelf, left the following words written with his blood on the border of his

Ι

veft.

veft. Forfaken by my fubjects, abandoned by my friends, ufe my body as you will, but spare, O spare my people.

An empire which has thus continued invariably the fame for such a long fucceffion of ages, which though at laft conquered by the Tartars, ftill preferves its antient laws and learning; and may more properly be faid to annex the dominions of Tartary to its empire, than to admit a foreign conqueror; an empire as large as Europe, governed by one law, acknowledging fubjection to one prince, and experiencing but one revolution of any continuance in the space of four thousand years; this is fomething fo peculiarly great, that I am naturally led to defpife all other nations on the comparifon. Here we fee no religious perfecutions, no enmity between mankind, for difference in opinion. The difciples of Lao Kium, the idolatrous fectaries of Fohi, and the philofophical children of Confucius, only strive to fhew by their actions the truth of their doctrines.

Now turn from this happy peaceful scene to Europe, the theatre of intrigue, avarice, and ambition. How many revolutions does it not experience in the compass even of one age; and to what do thefe revolutions tend but the deftruction of thoufands. Every great event is replete with fome new calamity. The feafons of ferenity are paffed over in filence, their hiftories feem to fpeak only of the ftorm.

There we fee the Romans extending their power over barbarous nations, and in turn becoming a prey to those whom they had conquered. We fee thofe barbarians, when become chriftians, engaged in continual war with the followers of Mahomet; or more dreadful ftill, deftroying each other. We fee councils in the earlier ages authorifing every iniquity; crufades fpreading defolation in the country VOL. III,

M

left,

left, as well as that to be conquered. Excommu→ nications freeing fubjects from natural allegiance, and perfuading to fedition; blood flowing in the fields and on fcaffolds; tortures ufed as arguments to convince the recufant: to heighten the horror of the piece, behold it fhaded with wars, rebellions, treafons, plots, politics, and poifon.

And what advantage has any country of Europe obtained from fuch calamities? Scarcely any. Their diffentions for more than a thousand years have ferved to make each other unhappy, but have enriched none. All the great nations ftill nearly preferve their antient limits: none have been able to fubdue the other, and fo terminate the difpute. France, in fpite of the conquefts of Edward the third, and Henry the fifth, notwithstanding the efforts of Charles the fifth and Philip the fecond, ftill remains within its antient limits. Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, the ftates of the North, are nearly ftill the fame. What effect then has the blood of fo many thousands, the destruction of fo many cities produced? Nothing either great or confiderable. The Chriftian princes have loft indeed much from the enemies of Christendom, but they have gained nothing from each other. Their princes, because they preferred ambition to juftice, deferve the character of enemies to mankind; and their priefts, by neglecting morality for opinion, have miftaken the interefts of fociety.

On whatever fide we regard the hiftory of Europe, we fhall perceive it to be a tiffue of crimes, follies, and misfortunes, of politicks without defign, and wars without confequence; in this long lift of human infirmity, a great character, or a fhining virtue may fometimes happen to arife, as we often meet a cottage or a cultivated fpot, in the moft hideous wildernefs. But for an Alfred, an Alphonfo, a Frederic, or one Alexander III. we

meet

meet a thousand princes who have difgraced humanity.

LETTER XLII.

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

WE have juft received accounts here, that Voltaire the poet and philofopher of Europe is dead! He is now beyond the reach of the thousand enemies, who, while living, degraded his writings, and branded his character. Scarcely a page of his latter productions, that does not betray the agonies of an heart bleeding under the fcourge of unmerited. reproach. Happy, therefore, at laft in escaping from calumny, happy in leaving a world that was unworthy of him and his writings.

Let others, my friend, beftrew the hearfes of the great with panegyrick; but fuch a lofs as the world has now fuffered affects me with ftronger emotions. When a philofopher dies, I confider myfelf as lofing a patron, an inftructor, and a friend. I confider the world lofing one who might ferve to confole her amidst the defolations of war and ambition. Nature every day produces in abundance men capable of filling all the requifite duties of authority; but fhe is nigard in the birth of an exalted mind, fcarcely producing. in a century a fingle genius to blefs and enlighten a degenerate age. Prodigal in the production of kings, governors, mandarines, chams, and courtiers, the feems to have forgotten for more than three thousand years, the manner in which the once formed the brain of a Confucius; and well it is the

has forgotten, when a bad world gave him fo very bad a reception.

Whence, my friend, this malevolence which has ever purfued the great even to the tomb; whence this more than fiend-like difpofition of embittering the lives of those who would make us more wife and more happy?

When I caft my eye over the fates of feveral philofophers, who have at different periods enlightened mankind, I muft confefs it infpires me with the moft degrading reflections on humanity. When I read of the ftripes of Mentius, the tortures of Tchin, the bowl of Socrates, and the bath of Seneca; when I hear of the perfecutions of Dante, the imprifonment of Galileo, the indignities fuffered by Montaigne, the banishment of Cartefius, the infamy of Bacon; and that even Locke himself efcaped not without reproach; when I think on fuch fubjects, I hefitate whether moft to blame the ignorance or the villany of my fellow creatures.

Should you look for the character of Voltaire among the journalists and illiterate writers of the age, you will there find him characterized as a monfter, with a head turned to wifdom, and an heart inclining to vice; the powers of his mind and the baseness of his principles forming a deteftable contraft. But feek for his character among writers like himself, and you find him very differently defcribed. You perceive him in their accounts poffeffed of good-nature, humanity, greatnefs of foul, fortitude, and almoft every virtue: in this defcription those who might be fuppofed beft quainted with his character are unanimous. The royal Pruffian*, Dargents, Diderot, d'Alambert, and Fontenelle confpire in drawing the

Philofophe fans souci. + Let. Chin.

ac

Encycloped.

picture,