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yond price; his intaglios not fo good. He fhewed us one of an officiating flamen, which he thought to be an antique; but my governor, who is not to be deceived in thefe particulars, foon found it to be an arrant cinque cento. I could not, however, fufficiently admire the genius of Mr. Hogendorp, who has been able to collect from all parts of the world a thousand things which nobody knows the ufe of, Except your Jordfhip and my governor, I do not know any body I admire fo much. He is indeed a furprizing genius. The next morning early, as we were refolved to take the whole day before us, we fent our compliments to Mr. Van Sprockken, deliring to fee his gallery, which request he very politely complied with. His gallery meafures fifty feet by twenty, and is well filled; but what furprized me most of all, was to fee an Holy Family just like your lordship's, which this ingenious gentleman affures me is the true original. I own this gave me inexpreffible unealinefs, and I fear it will to your lordship, as I had flattered myfelf that the only original was in your lordship's poffeffion; I would advise you, however, to take yours down till it's merit can be afcertained, my governor afluring me, that he intends to write a long differtation to prove it's originality. One might study in this city for ages,

and ftill find fomething new. We went from this to view the cardinal's statues, which are really very fine; there were three fpintria executed in a very matterly manner, all arm in arm. The torfe which I heard you talk fo much of, is at last discovered to be a Hercules spinning, and not a Cleopatra bathing, as your lordship had conjectured: there has been a treatwe written to prove it.

My Lord Firmly is certainly a Goth, a Vandal, no tafte in the world for painting. I wonder how any call him a man of taste. Paffing through the ftreets of Antwerp a few days ago, and obferving the nakedness of the inhabitants, he was fo barbarous as to obferve, that he thought the best method the Flemings could take, was to fell their pictures and buy cloaths. Ah, Cogline! we fhall go to-morrow to Mr. Carwarden's cabinet, and the next day we shall fee the curiofities collected by Van Ran, and the day after we shall pay a visit to Mount Calvary, and after that--but I find my paper finifhed; fo with the most fincere wishes to your lordship's happinefs, and with hopes, after having seen Italy, that centre of pleasure, to return home worthy the care and expence which has been generously laid out in my improvement, I remain, my Lord,

LETTER XXXV.

Yours, &c.

FROM HINGPO, A SLAVE IN PERSIA, TO ALTANGI, A TRAVELLING PHILOSOPHER OF CHINA, BY THE WAY OF MOSCOW.

ORTUNE has made me the flave

entertaining the ladies of his Haram

FORTUNE, has mature and incli with coffice, the unhappy captive was in

nation render me entirely fubfervient to you; a tyrant commands my body, but you are matter of my heart. And yet, let not thy inflexible nature condemn me, when I confeis that I find my foul fhrink with my circumstances. I feel my mind, not less than my body, bend beneath the rigours of fervitude; the mafter whom I ferve grows every day more formidable. In fpite of reafon, which should teach me to delpife him, his hi leous image fills even my dreams with horror.

A few days ago, a Chriftian flave, who wrought in the gardens, happening to enter an arbour where the tyrant was

ftantly stabbed to the heart for his intrufion. I have been preferred to his place, which, though leis laborious than my former station, is yet more ungrate ful, as it brings me nearer him whofe prefence excites fenfations at once of difguft and apprehension.

Into what a tate of mifery are the modern Perfians fallen! A nation famous for fetting the world an example of freedom, is now become a land of tyrants, and a den of flaves. The houfelefs Tartar of Kamkatfka, who enjoys his herbs and his fish in unmolested freedom, may be envied, if compared to the thousands who pine here in hopeless

fervitude,

fervitude, and curfe the day that gave them being. Is this jutt dealing, Heaven! to render millions wretched to fwell up the happiness of a few? Cannot the powerful of this earth be happy with out our fighs and tears? Muft every luxury of the great be woven from the calamities of the poor? It muft, it must furely be, that this jarring difcordant life is but the prelude to fome future harmony; the foul attuned to virtue here, fhall go from hence to fill up the univerfal choir where Tien prefides in perfon, where there shall be no tyrants to frown, no fhackles to bind, nor no whips to threaten; where I fhall once more meet my father with rapture, and give a loofe to filial piety; where I fhall hang on his neck, and hear the wifdom of his lips, and thank him for all the happiness to which he has introduced me.

The wretch whom Fortune has made my matter, has lately purchased several flaves of both fexes; among the reft, I hear a Chriftian captive talked of with admiration. The eunuch who bought her, and who is accuftomed to furvey beauty with indifference, fpeaks of her with emotion! Her pride, however, aftonishes her attendant flaves not lefs than her beauty: it is reported that the refuses the warmeft folicitations of her haughty lord; he has even offered to make her one of his four wives upon changing her religion, and conforming to his. It is probable she cannot refufe fuch extraordinary offers, and her delay is perhaps intended to enhance her fa

vours.

I have just now feen her; the inadvertently approached the place without a veil, where I fat writing. She feemed to regard the heavens alone with fixed attention: there her molt ardent gaze was directed. Genius of the fun! what unexpected foftnefs! what animated grace! her beauty feemed the tranfparent covering of virtue. Celestial be

ings could not wear a look of more perfection, while forrow humanized her form, and mixed my admiration with pity. I rofe from the bank on which I fat, and the retired; happy that none oblerved us, for fuch an interview might have been fatal.

I have regarded, till now, the opulence and the power of my tyrant without envy; I saw him with a mind incapable of enjoying the gifts of fortune, and confequently regarded him as one loaded, rather than enriched, with it's favours. But at prefent, when I think that fo much beauty is reserved only for him, that fo many charms fhall be lavifhed on a wretch incapable of feeling the greatnefs of the bleffing, I own I feel a reluctance to which I have hitherto been a stranger.

But let not my father impute those uneafy fenfations to fo trifling a caufe as love. No, never let it be thought that your fon, and the pupil of the wife Fum Hoam, could stoop to fo degrading a paffion. I am only difpleafed at feeing fo much excellence fo unjustly difpofed of.

The uneafinefs which I feel is not for myfelf, but for the beautiful Christian. When I reflect on the barbarity of him for whom he is defigned, I pity, indeed I pity her. When I think that the mut only share one heart, who deferves to command a thoufand, excufe me, if I feel an emotion, which univerfal benevolence extorts from me. As I am convinced that you take a pleafure in thofe fallies of humanity, and are particularly pleafed with compaffion, I could not avoid difcovering the fenfibility with which I felt this beautiful stranger's diftrefs. I have for a while forgot, in her's, the miferies of my own hopeless fituation. The tyrant grows every day more fevere; and love, which foftens all other minds into tenderness, seems only to have encreafed his feverity. Adicu.

LETTER XXXVI.

TO THE SAME.

THE HE whole Haram is filled with a tumultuous joy; Zelis, the beautiful captive, has confented to embrace the religion of Mahomet, and become one of the wives of the faftidious Perfian.

It is impofible to defcribe the tranfport that fits on every face on this occafion. Mufic and feasting fill every apartment; the mot miferable flave feems to forget his chains, and fympathizes with the happines

happiness of Moftadad. The herb we tread beneath our feet is not made more for our ufe, than every flave around him for their imperious mafter; mere machines of obedience, they wait with filent affiduity, feel his pains, and rejoice in his exultation. Heavens! how much is requifite to make one man happy!

Twelve of the most beautiful flaves, and I among the number, have got orders to prepare for carrying him in triumph to the bridal apartment. The blaze of perfumed torches are to imitate the day; the dancers and fingers are hired at a vast expence. The nuptials are to be celebrated on the approaching fet of Barboura, when an hundred taels in gold are to be distributed among the barren wives, in order to pray for fertility from the approaching union.

What will not riches procure! An hundred domeftics, who curfe the tyrant in their fouls, are commanded to wear a face of joy, and they are joyful. An hundred flatterers are ordered to attend, and they fill his ears with praife. Beauty, all-commanding beauty, fues for admittance, and fcarcely receives an anfwer; even love itself feems to wait upon fortune, or though the passion be only feigned, yet it wears every appearance of fincerity; and what greater pleasure can even true fincerity confer, or what would the rich have more?

Nothing can exceed the intended magnificence of the bridegroom, but the coftly dreffes of the bride; fix eunuchs, in the most fumptuous habits, are to conduct him to the nuptial couch, and wait his orders. Six ladies, in all the magnificence of Pertia, are directed to undrels the bride. Their business is to aflift to encourage her, to diveft her of every encumbering part of her drefs, all but the laft covering, which, by an artful complication of ribbons, is perp fely made difficult to unloole, and with which he is to part reluctantly even to the joyful poffeffor of her beauty.

Moftadad, O my father, is no philo

fopher; and yet he seems perfectly contented with ignorance. Poffeffed of numberless flaves, camels, and women, he defires no greater poffeffion. never opened the page of Mentius, and yet all the flaves tell me that he is happy.

He

Forgive the weakness of my nature, if I fometimes feel my heart rebellious to the dictates of wisdom, and eager for happinefs like his. Yet, why with for his wealth with his ignorance? to be like him, incapable of fentimental pleafures, incapable of feeling the happiness of making others happy, incapable of teaching the beautiful Zelis philofophy.

What, fhall I in a tranfport of paffion give up the golden mean, the univerfal harmony, the unchanging effence, for the poffeffion of an hundred camels, as many flaves, thirty-five beautiful horfes, and feventy-three fine women? First blaft me to the centre! Degrade me beneath the most degraded! Pare my nails, ye powers of heaven! ere I would ftoop to fuch an exchange. What, part with philofophy, which teaches me to fupprefs my paffions inftead of gratifying them, which teaches me even to diveit my foul of paffion, which teaches ferenity in the midft of tortures; philesophy, by which even now I am so very ferene, and so very much at ease, to he perfuaded to part with it for any other enjoyment! Never, never, even though perfuafion spoke in the accents of Zelis!

ver,

A female flave informs me that the bride is to be arrayed in a tissue of filand her hair adorned with the largeft pearls of Ormus: but why teaze you with particulars, in which we both are fo little concerned; the pain I feel in feparation throws a gloom over my mind, which in this fcene of univerfal joy I fear may be attributed to fome other caufe. How wretched are thofe who are, like me, denied even the laft refource of milery, their tears!

Adieu

LETTER

LETTER XXXVII.

i.

I

FROM THE SAME.

Begin to have doubts whether wifdom be alone fufficient to make us happy. Whether every step we make in refinement is not an inlet into new difquietudes. A mind too vigorous and active, ferves only to confume the body to which it is joined, as the richest, jewels are fooneft found to wear their fettings.

When we rife in knowledge, as the profpect widens, the objects of our regard become more obfcure; and the unlettered peafant, whofe views are only directed to the narrow fphere around him, beholds Nature with a finer relish, and taftes her bleffings with a keener appetite, than the philofopher, whose mind attempts to grafp an universal syf

tem.

As I was fome days ago pursuing this fubject among a circle of my fellowflaves, an ancient Guebre of the number, equally remarkable for his piety and wisdom, feemed touched with my converfation, and defired to illuftrate what I had been saying with an allegory taken from the Zendavefta of Zoroaster:

By this we shall be taught,' favs he, • that they who travel in pursuit of wifdom, walk only in a circle; and after all their labour, at last return to their priftine ignorance; and in this alfo 6 we fhall fee that enthufiaftic confidence, or unfatisfying doubts, terminate all our enquiries.

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In early times, before myriads of 'nations covered the earth, the whole human race lived together in one vallev. The fimple inhabitants, fur✦ rounded on every fide by lofty mountains, knew no other world but the ⚫ little spot to which they were confined.

They fancied the heavens bent down 'to meet the mountain tops, and formed an impenetrable wall to furround them. None had ever yet ventured to climb the steepy chitt, in order to explore thofe regions that lay beyond it; they knew the nature of the skies only ⚫ from a tradition, which mentioned their being made of adamant; traditions make up the reasonings of the

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fimple, and ferve to filence every enquiry.

In this fequeltered vale, bleffed with all the fpontaneous productions of nature, the honeyed bloffom, the refreshing breeze, the gliding brook, ⚫ and golden fruitage, the fimple inhabitants feemed happy in themselves, in each other; they defired no greater pleasures, for they knew of none 'greater; ambition, pride, and envy, were vices unknown among them; and from this peculiar fimplicity of it's poffeffors, the country was called, The Valley of Ignorance.

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At length, however, an unhappy youth, more aspiring than the rest, undertook to climb the mountain's fide, and examine the fummits which were hitherto deemed inacceffible. The inhabitants from below gazed with wonder at his intrepidity; fome applauded his courage, others cenfured his folly; ftill, however, he proceeded towards the place where the earth and heavens feemed to unite, and at length arrived at the wifhed-for height with extreme labour and affiduity.

His first furprize was to find the skies, not, as he expected, within his ́ reach, but still as far off as before; his amazement encreased when he faw • a wide extended region lying on the 'oppofite fide of the mountain; but it rofe to aftonishment when he beheld a country at a diftance more beautiful and alluring than even that he had just left behind.

As he continued to gaze with wonder, a Genius, with a look of infinite modefty, approaching, offered to be his guide and instructor. "The dif "tant country which you so much ad"mire," fays the angelic being, "is "called The Land of Certainty; n "that charming retreat, fentiment c 1"tributes to refine every fenfual ba..

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quet; the inhabitants are bieffed with (c every folid enjoyment, and fit more "bleffed in a perfect consciousness of "their own felicity; ignorance it. that "" country is wholly unknown; all there

"is

"the journey to where every pleasure "waits our arrival."

❝ is satisfaction without allay, for every "pleasure first undergoes the examina"tion of Reafon. As for me, I am call"ed the Genius of Demonftration, and 66 am ftationed here in order to conduct "every adventurer to that land of hap-veller to change his conductor; and

"pinefs through thofe intervening re"gions you fee over-hung with fogs "and darknefs, and horrid with fo"reits, cataracts, caverns, and various "other fhapes of danger. But follow 66 me, and in time I may lead you to "that distant defirable iand of tran"quillity."

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The intrepid traveller immediately himfelf under the direction of the put Genius, and both journeying on together with a flow but agreeable pace, deceived the tedioufnefs of the way by converfation. The beginning of the ⚫ journey feemed to promife true fatiffaction; but as they proceeded forward, the fkies became more gloomy, and the way more intricate; they often inadvertently approached the brow of fome frightful precipice, or the brink ⚫ of a torrent, and were obliged to meafure back their former way: the gloom encreating as they proceeded, their pace became more flow; they paufed at every ep, frequently tumbled, and their ditiuft and timidity encreafed. The Genius of Demonftration now, therefore, advised his pupil to C grope upon hands and feet, as a method, though more flow, yet lefs liable

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In this manner they attempted to pursue their journey for fome time, when they were overtaken by another Genius, who, with a precipitate pace, feemed travelling the fame way. was inftantly known by the other to be the Genius of Probability. wore two wide-extended wings at his bick, which inceffantly waved, without increating the rapidity of his motion; his countenance betrayed a confidence that the ignorant might miftake for fincerity, and he had but one eye, which was fixed in the middle of his forehead.

"Servant of Hormizda,” cried he, approaching the mortal pilgrim, "if "if "thou art travelling to the Land of "Certainty, how is it poffible to arrive "there under the guidance of a Genius, "who proceeds forward to flowly, and "is to little acquainted with the way? "Follow me, we thall foon perform

The peremptory tone in which this Genius spoke, and the speed with which he moved forward, induced the tra

leaving his modeft companion behind, he proceeded forward with his more confident director, feeming not a little pleafed at the encreated velocity of his 'motion.

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But foon he found reafons to repent. Whenever a torrent croffed their way, his guide taught him to defpife the obftacle by plunging him in; whenever a precipice prefented, he was directed to fling himself forward. Thus each moment miraculously escaping, his repeated efcapes only ferved to encreafe his temerity. He led him, therefore, forward, amidit infinite dif'ficulties, till they arrived at the borders of an ocean which appeared unnavigable from the black mitts that lay upon it's furface. It's unquiet waves were of the darkest hue, and gave a lively reprefentation of the various agitations of the human mind.

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The Genius of Probability now 'confeffed his temerity, owned his being an improper guide to the Land of Certainty, a country where no mortal • had ever been permitted to arrive; but at the fame time offered to fupply the traveller with another conductor, who 'fhould carry him to the Land of Confidence; a region where the inhabitants lived with the utmost tranquillity, and tafted almoft as much fatiffaction as if in the Land of Certainty. Not waiting for a reply, he flamped three times on the ground, and called forth the Dæmon of Error, a gloomy 'fiend of the fervants of Arimanes. The yawning earth gave up the reluctant favage, who feemed unable to bear the light of the day. His ftature was enormous, his colour black and hideous, his aspect betrayed a thoufand varying paffions, and he fpread forth pinions that were fitted for the most rapid flight. The traveller at firft was fhocked at the fpectre; but finding him obedient to fuperior pow. er, he affumed his former tranquil

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