LETTER XVI. FROM THE SAME. I KNOW not whether I am more obliged to the Chinese miffionaries for the inftruction I have received from them, or prejudiced by the falfhoods they have made me believe. By them I was told that the Pope was univerfally allowed to be a man, and placed at the head of the church; in England, however, they plainly prove him to be a whore in man's cloaths, and often burn him in effigy as an impoftor. A thousand books have been written on either fide of the queftion; priefts are eternally difputing against each other; and thofe mouths that want argument are filled with abufe. Which party must I believe, or fhall I give credit to neither? When I furvey the abfurdities and falfhoods with which the books of the Europeans are filled, I thank Heaven for having been born in China, and that I have fagacity enough to detect imposture. The Europeans reproach us with false history and fabulous chronology; how fhould they blufh to fee their own books, many of which are written by the doctors of their religion, filled with the most monftrous fables, and attefted with the utmoft folemnity. The bounds of a letter do not permit me to mention all the abfurdities of this kind, which in my reading I have met with. I fhall confine myself to the accounts which fome of their lettered men give of the perfons of fome of the inhabitants on our globe: and not fatisfied with the moft folemn affeverations, they fometimes pretend to have been eye-witneffes of what they defcribe. A chrif A chriftian doctor, in one of his principal performances, fays, that it was not impoffible for a whole nation to have but one eye in the middle of the forehead. He is not fatisfied with leaving it in doubt; but in another work affures us, that the fact was certain, and that he himself was an eyewitness of it. When, fays he, I took a journey into Ethiopia, in company with feveral other fervants of Chrift, in order to preach the gospel there; I beheld in the Southern provinces of that country a nation which bad only one eye in the midst of their foreheads. You will, no doubt, be furprized, reverend Fum, with this author's effrontery; but, alas! he is not alone in this story; he has only borrowed it from feveral others who wrote before him. Solinus creates another nation of Cyclops, the Arimafpians who inhabit those countries that border on the Cafpian fea. This author goes on to tell us of a people of India, who have but one leg and one eye, and yet are extremely active, run with great fwiftnefs, and live by hunting. These people we scarcely know how to pity or admire; but the men whom Pliny calls Cynamolci, who have got the heads of dogs, really deserve our compaffion: inftead of language they exprefs their fentiments by barking. Solinus confirms what Pliny mentions; and Simon Mayole, a French bishop, talks of them as of particular and familiar acquaintances. After paffing the defarts of Egypt, fays he, we meet with the Kunokephaloi, who inhabit thofe regions that border on Ethiopia; they live by hunting; they cannot speak, but while; their chins resemble a ferpent's head; their hands are armed with long sharp claws; their breast resembles that of a greybound; and they excel in fwiftness and agility. Would you think it, my friend, that thefe odd kind of * Auguftin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. p. 422. † Id. ad fratres in Eremo, Serm. xxxvii. E 2 peo ple ple are, notwithstanding their figure, exceffively delicate; not even an Alderman's wife, or Chinese mandarine, can excel them in this particular. Thefe people, continues our faithful bifhop, never refuse wine; love roaft and boiled meat; they are particularly curious in having their meat well-dressed, and spurn at it if in the leaft tainted. When the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt (fays he a little farther on) thofe men with dogs' heads taught grammar and mufic. For men who had no voices to teach mufick, and who could not fpeak to teach grammar, is, I confefs, a little extraordinary. Did ever the difciples of Fohi broach any thing more ridiculous? Hitherto we have feen men with heads ftrangely deformed, and with dogs' heads; but what would you fay if you heard of men without any heads at all? Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Aulus Gellius defcribe them to our hand: "The Blemiæ "have a nofe, eyes, and mouth on their breafts; "or, as others will have it, placed on their fhoul"ders." One would think that thefe authors had an antipathy to the human form, and were refolved to make a new figure of their own; but let us do them juftice. Though they fometimes deprive us of a leg, an arm, an head, or fome fuch trifling part of the body, they often as liberally beftow upon us fomething that we wanted before. Simon Mayole feems our particular friend in this refpect: if he has denied heads to one part of mankind, he has given tails to another. He defcribes many of the English of his time, which is not more than an hundred years ago, as having tails. His own words are as follow: In England there are fome families which have tails, as a punishment for deriding an Auguftin friar fent by St. Gregory, and who preached in Dorfetfhire. They fewed the tails of different animals to his cloaths; but foon they found that thofe tails entailed on them and their pofterity for ever. It is certain that the author had fome ground for this defcription; many of the English wear tails to their wigs to this very day, as a mark, I suppose, of the antiquity of their families, and perhaps as a fymbol of thofe tails with which they were formerly diftinguished by Nature. You fee, my friend, there is nothing fo ridiculous that has not at fome time been faid by fome philofopher. The writers of books in Europe feem to think themselves authorifed to fay what they pleafe; and an ingenious philofopher among them* has openly afferted, that he would undertake to perfuade the whole republic of readers to believe that the fun was neither the cause of light nor heat; if he could only get fix philofophers on his fide. Farewell. WERE an Afiatic politician to read the treaties of peace and friendship that have been annually making for more than an hundred years among the inhabitants of Europe, he would probably be furprized how it fhould ever happen that chriftian princes could quarrel among each other. Their compacts for peace are drawn up with the utmoft precifion, and ratified with the greateft folemnity; to these each party promifes a fincere and inviolable obedience, and all wears the appearance of open friendship and unreferved reconciliation. Yet, notwithstanding those treaties, the people of Europe are almoft continually at war. There is nothing more eafy than to break a treaty ratified in all the ufual forms, and yet neither party be the aggreffor. One fide, for inftance, breaks a trifling article by miftake; the oppofite party, upon this, makes a fmall but premeditated reprifal; this brings on a return of greater from the other; both fides complain of injuries and infractions; war is declared; they beat; are beaten; fome two or three hundred thousand men are killed; they grow tired; leave off juft where they began; and so fit cooly down to make new treaties. The English and French seem to place themselves foremost among the champion ftates of Europe. Though parted by a narrow fea, yet are they entirely of oppofite characters; and from their vicinity are taught to fear and admire each other. They are at prefent engaged in a very deftructive war, have already fpilled much blood, are exceffively irritated; and all upon account of one fide's defiring to wear greater quantities of furs than the other. The pretext of the war is about fome lands a thoufand leagues off; a country cold, defolate, and hideous; a country belonging to a people who were in poffeffion for time immemorial. The favages of Canada claim a property in the country in difpute; they have all the pretenfions which long poffeffion can confer. Here they had reigned for ages without rivals in dominion; and knew no enemies but the prowling bear or infidious tyger; their native forefts produced all the neceffaries of life, and they found ample luxury in the enjoyment. In this manner they might have continued to live to eternity, had not the English been informed that those countries produced furs in great abundance. From that moment the country became an object of defire; it was found that |