and a people of humanity: I may rove into other climes, and converfe with nations yet unknown, but where shall I meet a foul of fuch purity as that which refides in thy breast! Sure thou hast been nurtured by the bill of the Shin Shin, or fucked the breafts of the provident Gin Hiung. The melody of thy voice could rob the Chong Fou of her whelps, or inveigle the Bob that lives in the midst of the waters. Thy fervant fhall ever retain a fenfe of thy favours; and one day boaft of thy virtue, fincerity, and truth, among the daughters of China. Adieu. I HAVE been deceived! The whom I fancied a daughter of Paradife has proved to be one of the infamous difciples of Han! I have loft a trifle, I have gained the confolation of having discovered a deceiver. I once more, therefore, relax into my former indifference with regard to the English la-dies; they once more begin to appear difagreeable in my eyes: thus is my whole time paffed in forming conclufions which the next minute's experience may probably destroy; the prefent moment becomes a comment on the past, and I improve rather in humility than wisdom. Their laws and religion forbid the English to keep more than one woman; I therefore concluded that prostitutes were banished from fociety; I was deceived; every man here keeps as many wives as he can maintain; the laws are cemented with blood, praifed and difregarded. The very Chinese, whofe religion religion allows him two wives, takes not half the liberties of the English in this particular. Their laws may be compared to the books of the Sybils; they are held in great veneration, but feldom read, or feldomer understood; even those who pretend to be their guardians difpute about the meaning of many of them, and confefs their ignorance of others. The law therefore which commands them to have but one wife, is ftrictly obferved only by thofe for whom one is more than fufficient, or by fuch as have not money to buy two. As for the reft, they violate it publicly, and fome glory in its violation. They feem to think, like the Perfians, that they give evident marks of manhood by encreafing their feraglio. A mandarine therefore here generally keeps four wives, a gentleman three, and a ftage-player two. As for the magiftrates, the country juftices and fquires, they are employed first in debauching young virgins, and then punishing the tranfgreffion. From fuch a picture you will be apt to conclude, that he who employs four ladies for his amusement, has four times as much conftitution to fpare as he who is contented with one; that a Mandarine is much cleverer than a gentleman, and a gentleman than a player; and yet it is quite the reverfe; a Mandarine is frequently fupported on spindle fhanks, appears emaciated by luxury, and is obliged to have recourse to variety, merely from the weakness, not the vigour of his conftitution, the number of his wives being the moft equivocal symptom of his virility. Befide the country fquire, there is also another fet of men, whofe whole employment confifts in corrupting beauty; thefe the filly part of the fair fex call amiable; the more fenfible part of them, however, give them the title of abominable. You will probably demand what are the talents of a man thus careffed by the majority of the oppofite fex; what what talents, or what beauty is he poffeffed of fuperior to the reft of his fellows. To answer you directly, he has neither talents nor beauty, but then he is poffeffed of impudence and affiduity. With affiduity and impudence, men of all ages, and all figures, may commence admirers. I have even been told of fome who made profeffions of expiring for love, when all the world could perceive they were going to die of old age: and what is more furprifing ftill, fuch battered beaus are generally most infamously successful. A fellow of this kind employs three hours every morning in dreffing his head, by which is underftood only his hair. He is a profeffed admirer, not of any particular lady, but of the whole fex. He is to fuppofe every lady has caught cold every night, which gives him an opportunity of calling to fee how fhe does the next morning. He is upon all occafions to fhew himself in 'very great pain for the ladies; if a lady drops even a pin, he is to fly in order to prefent it. He never speaks to a lady without advancing his mouth to her ear, by which he frequently addreffes more fenfes than one. Upon proper occafions he looks exceffively tender. This is performed by laying his hand upon his heart, fhutting his eyes, and fhewing his teeth. He is exceffively fond of dancing a minuet with the ladies, by which is only meant walking round the floor eight or ten times with his hat on, affecting great gravity, and fometimes looking tenderly on his partner. He never affronts any man himself, and never resents an affront from another. He has an infinite variety of fmall talk upon all occafions, and laughs when he has nothing more to say. Such Such is the killing creature who proftrates himself to the fex till he has undone them; all whofe fubmiffions are the effects of defign, and who to please the ladies almoft becomes himself a lady. LETTER X. TO THE SAME. I HAVE hitherto given you no account of my journey from China to Europe, of my travels through countries, where Nature sports in primeval rudeness, where the pours forth her wonders in folitude; countries, from whence the rigorous climate, the fweeping inundation, the drifted defart, the howling foreft, and mountains of immeafurable height, banish the husbandman, and fpread extenfive defolation ; countries, where the brown Tartar wanders for a precarious fubfiftence, with an heart that never felt pity, himself more hideous than the wilderness he makes. You will eafily conceive the fatigue of croffing vaft tracts of land, either defolate, or ftill more dangerous by its inhabitants. The retreat of men, who feem driven from fociety, in order to make war upon all the human race; nominally profeffing a fubjection to Mufcovy or China, but without any refemblance to the countries on which they depend. After I had croffed the great wall, the first objects that presented themselves were the remains of defolated cities, and all the magnificence of venerable ruin. There were to be seen temples of beautiful structure, ftatues wrought by the hand of a master, and around a country of luxuriant plenty; but not one fingle inhabitant to reap the bounties of nature. Thefe were prospects profpects that might humble the pride of kings, and reprefs human vanity. I asked my guide the cause of fuch defolation. These countries, fays he, were once the dominions of a Tartar prince; and these ruins the feat of arts, elegance, and ease. This prince waged an unsuccessful war with one of the emperors of China; he was conquered, his cities plundered, and all his fubjects carried into captivity. Such are the effects of the ambition of Kings! Ten Dervifes, fays the Indian proverb, fhall fleep in peace upon a fingle carpet, while two kings hall quarrel though they have kingdoms to divide them. Sure, my friend, the cruelty and the pride of man have made more defarts than Nature ever made! fhe is kind, but man is ungrateful! Proceeding in my journey through this penfive fcene of defolated beauty, in a few days I arrived, among the Daures, a nation ftill dependent on China. Xaizigar is their principal city, which, compared with thofe of Europe, fcarcely deserves the name. The governors, and other officers, who are fent yearly from Pekin, abuse their authority, and often take the wives and daughters of the inhabitants to themselves. The Daures, accustomed to base submiffion, feel no refentment at those injuries, or stifle what they feel. Cuftom and neceffity teach even barbarians the fame art of diffimulation that ambition. and intrigue inspire in the breafts of the polite. Upon beholding fuch unlicensed ftretches of alas, thought I, how little does our wife and good emperor know of thefe intolerable exactions! thefe provinces are too distant for complaint, and too infignificant to expect redrefs. The more diftant the government, the honefter fhould be the governor to whom it is entrusted; for hope of impunity is a ftrong inducement to violation. power, The religion of the Daures is more abfurd than even that of the fectaries of Fohi. How would you be |