ing him through feveral ftreets, and bowing often to the ground, thanked him for his jewels. What does he mean? cried the Mandarine. Friend, I never gave thee any of my jewels. No, replied the other; but you have let me look at them, and that is all the ufe you can make of them yourfelf; fo there is no difference between us, except that you have the trouble of watching them, and that is an employment I don't much defire. Adieu.

LETTER LXIV.

FROM THE SAME.

THOUGH not very fond of feeing a pageant myfelf, yet I am generally pleafed with being in the crowd which fees it; it is amufing to obferve the effect which fuch a fpectacle has upon the variety of faces, the pleasure it excites in fome, the envy in others, and the wifhes it raifes in all. With this defign I lately went to fee the entry of a foreign Ambaffador, refolved to make one in the mob, to shout as they shouted, to fix with earneftnefs upon the fame frivolous ohjects, and participate for a-while the pleasures and the wishes of the vulgar.

Struggling here for fome time, in order to be first to fee the cavalcade as it paffed, fome one of the crowd unluckily happened to tread upon my fhoe, and tore it in fuch a manner, that I was utterly unqualified to march forward with the main body, and obliged to fall back in the rear. Thus rendered incapable of being a fpectator of the fhew myfelf, I was at leaft willing to obferve the fpectators, and

limped behind like one of the invalids which follow the march of an army.

In this plight I was confidering the eagerness that appeared on every face, how fome buftled to get foremost, and others contented themselves with taking a tranfient peep when they could; how fome praised the four black fervants, that were stuck behind one of the equipages, and fome the ribbons that decorated the horfes' necks in another; my attention was called off to an object more extraordinary than any that I had yet feen: a poor cobler fat in his ftall by the way-fide, and continued to work while the crowd paffed by, without teftifying the smallest share of curiofity. I own his want of attention excited mine; and as I ftood in need of his affiftance, I thought it beft to employ a philofophic cobler on this occafion perceiving my business, therefore, he defired me to enter and fit down, took my fhoe in his lap, and began to mend it with his ufual indifference and taciturnity.

"How, my friend," faid I to him, can you "continue to work while all thofe fine things are "paffing by your door?" "Very fine they are "mafter," returned the cobler, "for those that "like them, to be fure; but what are all thofe fine "things to me? You do not know what it is to be "a cobler, and fo much the better for yourself. "Your bread is baked, you may go and fee fights "the whole day, and eat a warm fupper when you "come home at night; but for me, if I fhould run

hunting after all thefe fine folk, what fhould I get "by my journey but an appetite, and, God help "me, I have too much of that at home already, "without ftirring out for it. Your people who may "eat four meals a day and a fupper at night, are "but a bad example to fuch a one as I. No, maf"ter, as God has called me into this world in order

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to mend old fhoes, I have no bufinefs with fine "folk, and they no bufinefs with me." I here interrupted him with a fmile." See this laft, mafter, continues he, "and this hammer; this laft and hammer are the two beft friends I have in this world; "nobody elfe will be my friend, because I want a friend. The great folks you faw pafs by juft now "have five hundred friends, because they have no "occafion for them; now, while I ftick to my good “friends here, I am very contented; but when I "ever fo little run after fights and fine things, I begin to hate my work, I grow fad, and have no "heart to mend fhoes any longer."

This discourse only ferved to raise my curiofity to know more of a man whom Nature had thus formed into a philofopher. I therefore infenfibly led him into an hiftory of his adventures: "I have lived," faid he, "a wandering life, now five and fifty years, "here to-day and gone to-morrow; for it was my "misfortune, when I was young, to be fond of changing." You have been a traveller, then, I prefume, interrupted I. "I cannot boaft much of "travelling," continued he, "for I have never left "the parish in which I was born but three times in "my life, that I can remember; but then there is "not a street in the whole neighbourhood that I "have not lived in, at some time or another. When "I began to fettle and to take to my bufinefs in one "ftreet, fome unforeseen misfortune, or a defire of "trying my luck elsewhere has removed me, per

haps a whole mile away from my former cuftom"ers, while fome more lucky cobler would come "into my place, and make a handsome fortune 66 among friends of my making: there was one who actually died in a stall that I had left, worth feven "pounds feven fhillings, all in hard gold, which he "had quilted into the waistband of his breeches.' VOL. III. I could

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I could not but smile at these migrations of a man by the fire-fide, and continued to afk if he had ever been married. "Ay, that I have, mafter," replied he, for fixteen long years; and a weary life I had "of it, Heaven knows. My wife took it into her "head, that the only way to thrive in this world "was to fave money, fo though our comings-in was "but about three fhillings a week, all that ever she "could lay her hands upon the ufed to hide away "from me, though we were obliged to ftarve the "whole week after for it.

"The first three years we used to quarrel about "this every day, and I always got the better; but "The had a hard spirit, and still continued to hide "as ufual; fo that I was at laft tired of quarrelling "and getting the better, and the scraped and fcraped "at pleasure, till I was almoft ftarved to death. Her ❝ conduct drove me at laft in defpair to the ale"houfe; here I used to fit with people who hated "home like myself, drank while I had money left, ❝and run in fćore when any body would trust me; till at laft the landlady, coming one day with a long bill when I was from home, and putting it "into my wife's hands, the length of it effectually "broke her heart. I fearched the whole ftall after "The was dead for money, but she had hidden it fo "effectually, that with all my pains I could never find a farthing."

By this time my fhoe was mended, and fatisfying the poor artift for his trouble, and rewarding him befides for his information, I took my leave, and returned home to lengthen out the amufement his converfation afforded, by communicating it to my friend.

Adieu.

LETTER

LETTER LXV.

From Lien Chi Altangi to Hingpo, by the way of Mofcow. GENEROSITY properly applied will fupply every other external advantage in life, but the love of those we converfe with; it will procure efteem and a conduct refembling real affection, but actual love is the fpontaneous production of the mind; no generofity can purchafe, no rewards increafe, nor no liberality continue it: the very perfon who is obliged, has it not in his power to force his lingering affections upon the object he should love, and voluntarily mix paffion with gratitude.

Imparted fortune, and well-placed liberality may procure the benefactor good-will, may load the perfon obliged with the fenfe of the duty he lies under to retaliate; this is gratitude: and fimple gratitude untinctured with love, is all the return an ingenuous mind can beftow for former benefits.

But gratitude and love are almoft oppofite affections; love is often an involuntary paffion, placed upon our companions without our confent, and frequently conferred without our previous esteem. We love fome men, we know not why; our tendernefs is naturally excited in all their concerns; we excuse their faults with the fame indulgence, and approve their virtues with the fame applaufe with which we confider our own. While we entertain the paffion it pleases us, we cherish it with delight, and give it up with reluctance, and love for love is all the reward we expect or defire.

Gratitude, on the contrary, is never conferred, but where there have been previous endeavours to excite it; we confider it as a debt, and our fpirits