you are equally verfed in the Dutch and Chinese languages. Dear friend, think of my abfence with regret, as I fincerely regret yours; even while I write, I lament our feparation. Farewell.

From Lien Chi Altangi, to the care of Fipfibi, refident in Mofcow; to be forwarded by the Ruffian caravan to Fum Hoam, first prefident of the ceremonial Academy at Pekin in China.

THINK not, O thou guide of my youth, that

abfence can impair my refpect, or interpofing tracklefs defarts blot your reverend figure from my memory. The farther I travel I feel the pain of feparation with ftronger force; thofe ties that bind me to my native country, and you, are still unbroken. By every remove, I only drag a greater length of chain *.

Could I find aught worth tranfmitting from fo remote a region as this to which I have wandered, I fhould gladly fend it; but, inftead of this, you must be contented with a renewal of my former profesfions, and an imperfect account of a people with whom I am as yet but fuperficially acquainted. The remarks of a man who has been but three days in the country can only be thofe obvious circumftances which force themselves upon the imagination: I confider myself here as a newly-created Being introduced into a new world; every object ftrikes with wonder and furprise. The imagination, ftill unfated, feems the only active principle of the * We find a repetition of this beautiful and affecting image in the Traveller:

'And drags at each remove a lengthening chain,'

в 3

mind.

1

mind. The moft trifling occurrences give pleasure, till the glofs of novelty is worn away. When I have ceafed to wonder, I may poffibly grow wife; I may then call the reafoning principle to my aid, and compare thofe objects with each other, which were before examined without reflection.

Behold me then in London, gazing at the ftrangers, and they at me; it feems they find fomewhat abfurd in my figure; and had I been never from home it is poffible I might find an infinite fund of ridicule in theirs; but by long travelling I am taught to laugh at folly alone, and to find nothing truly ridiculous but villainy and vice.

When I had juft quitted my native country, and croffed the Chinefe wall, I fancied every deviation from the cuftoms and manners of China was a departing from nature: I fmiled at the blue lips and red foreheads of the Tonguefe; and could hardly contain when I faw the Daures drefs their heads with horns. The Oftiacs powdered with red earth; and the Calmuck beauties, tricked out in all the finery of theep-fkin, appeared highly ridiculous; but I.foon perceived that the ridicule lay not in them but in me; that I falfely condemned others for abfurdity, because they happened to differ from a .... ftandard originally founded in prejudice or partiality.

I find no pleasure therefore in taxing the English with departing from Nature in their external appearance, which is all I yet know of their character; it is poffible they only endeavour to improve her fimple plan, fince every extravagance in drefs proceeds from a defire of becoming more beautiful than Nature made us; and this is fo harmless a vanity that I not only pardon but approve it: a defire to be more excellent than others is what actually makes us fo, and, as thousands find a livelihood in fociety by fuch appetites, none but the ignorant inveigh against them.

You

You are not infenfible, most reverend Fum Hoam, what numberless trades, even among the Chinese, fubfift by the harmless pride of each other. Your nose-borers, feet-fwathers, tooth-ftainers, eye-brow pluckers, would all want bread, fhould their neighbours want vanity. Thefe vanities, however, employ much fewer hands in China than in England; and a fine gentleman, or a fine lady, here dreffed up to the fathion, feems fcarcely to have a fingle limb that does not fuffer fome diftortions from art.

To make a fine gentleman, feveral trades are required, but chiefly a barber: you have undoubtedly heard of the Jewish champion, whose strength lay in his hair: one would think that the English were for placing all wisdom there: to appear wife, nothing more is requifite here than for a man to borrow hair from the heads of all his neighbours, and clap it like a bush on his own: the diftributors s of law and phyfic ftick on fuch quantities, that it is almoft impoffible, even in idea, to diftinguifh between the head and the hair.

Those whom I have been now defcribing affect the gravity of the lion: those I am going to defcribe more resemble the pert vivacity of fmaller animals. The barber, who is ftill mafter of the ceremonies, cuts their hair clofe to the crown; and then with a compofition of meal and hog's lard plafters the whole in fuch a manner, as to make it impoffible to diftinguish whether the patient wears a cap or a plaifter; but, to make the picture more perfectly striking, conceive the tail of fome beaft, a greyhound's tail, or a pig's tail for inftance, appended to the back of the head, and reaching down to that place where tails in other animals are generally feen to begin; thus betailed and bepowdered, the man of tafte fancies he improves in beauty, dreffes up his hard-featured face in fmiles, and attempts to look hideoufly tender. Thus equipped, he is qualified to make

love, and hopes for fuccefs more from the powder on the outfide of his head, than the fentiments within.

Yet when I confider what fort of a creature the fine lady is, to whom he is fuppofed to pay his addreffes, it is not ftrange to find him thus equipped in order to please. She is herfelf every whit as fond of powder, and tails, and hog's lard, as he: to speak my fecret fentiments, moft reverend Fum, the ladies here are horribly ugly; I can hardly endure the fight of them; they no way resemble the beauties of China the Europeans have a quite different idea of beauty from us; when I reflect on the fmall-footed perfections of an Eastern beauty, how is it poffible I should have eyes for a woman whofe feet are ten inches long. I fhall never forget the beauties of my native city of Nanfew. How very broad their faces! how very fhort their nofes! how very little their eyes! how very thin their lips! how very black their teeth! the fnow on the tops of Bao is not fairer than their cheeks and their eye-brows are small as the line by the pencil of Quamfi. Here a lady with fuch perfections would be frightful; Dutch and Chinese beauties indeed have fome refemblance, but English women are entirely different; red cheeks, big eyes, and teeth of a moft odious whitenefs, are not only feen here, but wished for; and then they have fuch masculine feet, as actually ferve fome for walking!

Yet uncivil as Nature has been, they feem refolved to outdo her in unkindnefs; they use white powder, blue powder, and black powder, for their hair, and a red powder for the face on fome particular occafions.

They like to have the face of various colours, as among the Tartars of Koreki, frequently fticking on, with fpittle, little black patches on every part of it, except on the tip of the nofe, which I have never

feen

seen with a patch. You'll have a better idea of their manner of placing these spots, when I have finished a map of an English face patched up to the fashion, which fhall fhortly be fent to encrease your curious collection of paintings, medals, and monfters.

But what furprizes more than all the reft is what I have juft now been credibly informed by one of this country. "Moft ladies here," fays he, "have two faces; one face to fleep in, and another to fhew in company; the firft is generally referved for the hufband and family at home; the other put on to please strangers abroad: the family face is often indifferent enough, but the out-door one looks fomething better; this is always made at the toilet, where the lookingglafs and toad-eater fit in council, and fettle the complexion of the day."

I can't ascertain the truth of this remark; however, it is actually certain, that they wear more cloaths within doors than without; and I have feen a lady, who feemed to fhudder at a breeze in her own apartment, appear half naked in the streets. Farewell.

LETTER IV.

TO THE SAME.

THE English feem as filent as the Japanese, yet vainer than the inhabitants of Siam. Upon my arrival I attributed that referve to modefty, which I now find has its origin in pride. Condefcend to addrefs them firft, and you are fure of their acquaintance; ftoop to flattery, and you conciliate