How would a Chinese, bred up in the formalities of an Eastern court, be regarded, fhould he carry all his good manners beyond the Great Wall? How would an Englishman, fkilled in all the decorums of Western good-breeding, appear at an Eastern entertainment: would he not be reckoned more fantastically favage than even his unbred footman!

Ceremony refembles that bafe coin which circu-lates through a country by the royal mandate; it ferves every purpofe of real money at home, but is entirely ufelefs if carried abroad; a person who fhould attempt to circulate his native trash in another country, would be thought either ridiculous or culpable. He is truly well bred who knows when to value and when to defpife thofe national peculiarities, which are regarded by fome with fo much observance; a traveller of tafte at once perceives that the wife are polite all the world over; but that fools are polite only at home.

I have now before me two very fashionable letters upon the fame fubject, both written by ladies of diftinction; one of whom leads the fashion in England, and the other fets the ceremonies of China; they are both regarded in their respective countries by all the beau monde, as ftandards of tafte, and models of true politenefs, and both give us a true idea of what they imagine elegant in their admirers; which of them understands true politenefs, or whether either, you fhall be at liberty to determine : the English lady writes thus to her female confident.

AS I live, my dear Charlotte, I believe the colonel will carry it at laft; he is a moft irrefiftible fellow, that is flat. So well dreffed, fo neat, fo fprightly, and plays about one fo agreeably, that I vow, he has as much fpirits as the marquis of Monkeyman's Italian greyhound. I firft faw him at Ranelagh; he fhines there; he is nothing with

out

out Ranelagh, and Ranelagh nothing without him. The next day he sent a card and compliments, defiring to wait on mamma and me to the mufic fubfcription. He looked all the time with fuch irrefiftible impudence, that pofitively he had fomething in his face gave me as much pleasure as a pair-royal of naturals in my own hand. He waited on mamma and me the next morning to know how we got home you must know the infidious devil makes love to us both. Rap went the footman at the door; bounce went my heart; I thought he would have rattled the houfe down. Chariot drove up to the window, with his footmen in the prettieft liveries: he has infinite tafte, that is flat. Mamma had fpent all the morning at her head; but for my part, I was in an undrefs to receive him; quite eafy, mind that; no way difturbed at his approach: mamma pretended to be as degagée as I, and yet I faw her blush in fpite of her. Pofitively he is a moft killing devil! We did nothing but laugh all the time he ftaid with us; I never heard fo many very good things before: at first he mistook mamma for my fifter; at which the laughed: then he miftook my natural complexion for paint; at which I laughed; and then he fhewed us a picture in the lid of his fnuff-box, at which we all laughed. He plays picquet so very ill, and is fo very fond of cards, and lofes with fuch a grace, that pofitively he has won me; I have got a cool hundred, but have lost my heart. I need not tell you that he is only a co lonel of the train-bands.

I am, dear Charlotte,

Yours for ever,

BELINDA.

The Chinese lady addreffes her confident, a poor relation of the family, upon the fame occafion; in which

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which fhe feems to understand decorums even better than the Western beauty. You who have refided fo long in China will readily acknowledge the picture to be taken from Nature; and, by being acquainted with the Chinese cuftoms, will better apprehend the lady's meaning.

From YAOUA to YAYA.

PAPA infifts upon one, two, three, four hundred taels from the colonel my lover, before he parts with a lock of my hair. Ho, how I wish the dear creature may be able to produce the money, and pay papa my fortune. The colonel is reckoned the politeft man in all Shenfi. The firft vifit he paid at our houfe; mercy, what stooping, and cringing, and ftopping, and figeting, and going back, and creeping forward, there was between him and papa, one would have thought he had got the feventeen books of ceremonies all by heart. When he was come into the hall he flourished his hands three times in a very graceful manner. Papa, who would not be out-done, flourished his four times; upon this the colonel began again, and both thus continued flourishing for fome minutes in the politeft manner imaginable. I was pofted in the ufual place behind the fcreen, where I faw the whole ceremony through a flit. Of this the colonel was fenfible, for papa informed him. I would have given the world to have fhewn him my little fhoes, but had no opportunity. It was the first 'time I had ever the happinefs of feeing any man but papa, and I vow my dear Yaya, I thought my three fouls would actually have fled from my lips. Ho, but he looked moft charmingly, he is reckoned the best fhaped man in the whole province, for he is very fat, and very fhort; but even thofe natural advantages are improved by his drefs, which is fashionable past description. His head was

clofe

clofe fhaven, all but the crown, and the hair of that was braided into a moft beautiful tail, that reached down to his heels, and was terminated by a bunch of yellow rofes. Upon his firft entering the room, I could eafily perceive he had been highly perfumed with affafoetida. But then his looks, his looks my dear Yaya were irrefiftible. He kept his eyes ftedfaftly fixed on the wall during the whole ceremony, and I fincerely believe no accident could have difcompofed his gravity, or drawn his eyes away. After a polite filence of two hours, he gallantly begged to have the finging woman introduced, purely for my amufement. After one of them had for fome time entertained us with her voice, the colonel and she retired for fome minutes together. I thought they would never have come back; I must own he is a moft agreeable creature. Upon his return, they again renewed the concert, and he continued to gaze upon the wall as ufual, when, in lefs than half an hour more! Ho, but he retired out of the room with another. He is indeed a moft agreeable

creature.

When he came to take his leave, the whole ceremony began afresh; papa would fee him to the door, but the colonel fwore he would rather fee the earth turned upside down than permit him to stir a single ftep, and papa was at laft obliged to comply. As foon as he was got to the door, papa went out to see him on horseback; here they continued half an hour bowing and cringing, before one would mount or the other go in, but the colonel was at last victorious. He had fcarce gone an hundred paces from the house when papa running out halloo'd after him, A good journey; upon which the colonel returned, and would fee papa into his houfe before ever he would depart. He was no fooner got home than he fent me a very fine prefent of duck eggs painted of twenty different colours. His generolity I own has

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has won me. I have ever fince been trying over the eight letters of good fortune, and have great hopes, All I have to apprehend is that after he has married me, and that I am carried to his houfe close shut up in my chair, when he comes to have the firft fight of my face, he may fhut me up a fecond time and fend me back to papa. However I fhall appear as fine as poffible; mamma and I have been to buy. the cloaths for my wedding. I am to have a new fong whang in my hair, the beak of which will reach down to my nofe; the milliner from whom we bought that and our ribbons cheated us as if the had no confcience, and fo to quiet mine I cheated her. All this is fair you know. I remain, my dear Yaya,

Your ever faithful,

LETTER

XXXIX.

YAQUA,

FROM THE SAME.

YOU have always teftified the highest efteem for the English poets, and thought them not inferior to the Greeks, Romans, or even the Chinefe in the art. But it is now thought even by the English themfelves that the race of their poets, is extinct; every day produces fome pathetic exclamation upon the decadence of tafte and genius. Pegafus, fay they, has flipped the bridle from his mouth, and our modern bards attempt to direct his flight by catching him by the tail.

Yet, my friend, it is only among the ignorant that fuch difcourfes prevail, men of true difcern

ment