EDINBURGH. We are pofitive when we say that Saunders M'Gregor, who was lately executed for horfe-ftealing, is not a Scotchman, but born in Carrickfergus.

Farewell.

Fum Hoam, first prefident of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, to Lien Chi Altangi, the difcontented wanderer; by the way of Moscow.

WHETHER fporting on the flowery banks of the river Irtis, or fcaling the fteepy mountains of Douchenour; whether traverfing the black defarts of Kobi, or giving leffons of politeness to the favage inhabitants of Europe; in whatever country, whatever climate, and whatever circumftances, all hail! May Tien, the univerfal foul, take you under his protection, and inspire you with a fuperior portion of himfelf!

How long, my friend, fhall an enthufiafm for knowledge continue to obftruct your happiness, and tear you from all the connexions that make life pleafing? How long will you continue to rove from climate to climate, circled by thousands, and yet without a friend, feeling all the inconveniences of a crowd, and all the anxiety of being alone?

I know you reply, that the refined pleasure of growing every day wifer, is a fufficient recompence for every inconvenience. I know you will talk of the vulgar, fatisfaction of foliciting happiness from fenfual enjoyment only; and probably enlarge upon

the

the exquifite raptures of fentimental blifs. Yet, believe me, friend, you are deceived; all our pleafures, though feemingly never fo remote from fenfe, derive their origin from fome one of the fenfes. The moft exquisite demonftration in mathematics, or the moft pleafing difquifition in metaphyfics, if it does not ultimately tend to increafe fome fenfual fatisfaction, is delightful only to fools, or to men who have by long habit contracted a falfe idea of pleafure; and he who feparates fenfual and fentimental enjoyments, feeking happiness from mind alone, is in fact as wretched as the naked inhabitant of the foreft, who places all happiness in the firft, regardless of the latter. There are two extremes in this refpect; the favage, who fwallows down the draught of pleafure without ftaying to reflect on his happinefs; and the fage who paffeth the cup while he reflects on the conveniencies of drinking.

It is with an heart full of forrow, my dear Altangi, that I must inform you that what the world' calls happiness must now be yours no longer. Our great emperor's displeasure at your leaving China, contrary to the rules of our government, and the immemorial cuftom of the empire, has produced the most terrible effects. Your wife, daughter, and the reft of your family, have been feized by his order, and appropriated to his ufe; all, except your fon, are now the peculiar property of him who poffeffes all; him I have hidden from the officers employed for this purpose; and even at the hazard of my life I have concealed him. The youth feems obftinately bent on finding you out, wherever you are; he is determined to face every danger that oppofes his purfuit. Though yet but fifteen, all his father's virtues and obftinacy sparkle in his eyes, and mark him as one destined to no mediocrity of fortune.

You fee, my dearest friend, what imprudence has brought thee too; from opulence, a tender family, fur

C 2

furrounding friends, and your mafter's esteem, it has reduced thee to want, perfecution; and, ftill worse, to our mighty monarch's difpleasure. Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty. As I fhall endeavour to guard thee from the one, fo guard thyfelf from the other; and ftill think of me with affection and esteem. Farewell.

From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, first prefident of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China.

The Editor thinks proper to acquaint the reader, that the greatest part of the following letter feems to him to be little more than a rhapsody of fentences borrowed from Confucius, the Chinese philofopher.

A WIFE, a daughter, carried into captivity to expiate my offence, a fon scarce yet arrived at maturity, refolving to encounter every danger in the pious pursuit of one who has undone him, thefe indeed are circumstances of diftrefs; though my tears were more precious than the gem of Golconda, yet would they fall upon fuch an occafion.

But I fubmit to the ftroke of heaven, I hold the volume of Confucius in my hand, and as I read, grow humble, and patient, and wife. We fhould feel forrow, fays he, but not fink under its oppreffion; the heart of a wife man should resemble a mirrour, which reflects every object without being fullied by any. The wheel of fortune turns inceffantly

round;

round; and who can fay within himself I fhall today be uppermoft? We should hold the immutable mean that lies between infenfibility and anguifh; our attempts should not be to extinguish nature, but to reprefs it; not to ftand unmoved at diftrefs, but endeavour to turn every difafter to our own advantage. Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rifing every time we fall.

I fancy myself at prefent, O thou reverend difciple of Tao, more than a match for all that can happen ; the chief business of my life has been to procure wifdom, and the chief object of that wisdom was to be happy. My attendance on your lectures, my conferences with the miffionaries of Europe, and all my fubfequent adventures upon quitting China, were calculated to encrease the sphere of my happiness, not my curiofity. Let European travellers crofs feas and defarts merely to measure the height of a mountain, to describe the cataract of a river, or tell the commodities which every country may produce; merchants or geographers, perhaps, may find profit by such discoveries; but what advantage can accrue to a philofopher from fuch accounts, who is defirous of understanding the human heart, who feeks to know the men of every country, who defires to difcover those differences which refult from climate, religion, education, prejudice, and partiality?

I fhould think my time very ill-beftowed, were the only fruits of my adventures to confift in being able to tell, that a tradesman of London lives in an house three times as high as that of our great Emperor. That the ladies wear longer cloaths than the men, that the priests are dreffed in colours which we are taught to deteft, and that their foldiers wear scarlet, which is with us the symbol of peace and innocence. How many travellers are there, who confine their relations to fuch minute and useless particulars! for one who enters into the genius of thofe nations with

C 3

with whom he has converfed, who difclofes their morals, their opinions, the ideas,which they entertain of religious worship, the intrigues of their minifters, and their skill in sciences; there are twenty, who only mention fome idle particulars, which can be of no real ufe to a true philofopher. All their remarks tend neither to make themselves nor others more happy; they no way contribute to control their paffions, to bear adverfity, to infpire true virtue, or raise a deteftation of vice.

Men may be very learned, and yet very miferable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a fublime aftronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I efteem, therefore, the traveller who inftructs the heart, but defpife him who only indulges the imagination; a man who leaves home to mend himself and others, is a philofopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulfe of curiofity, is only a vagabond. From Zerdufht down to him of Tyanea, I honour all thofe great names who endeavoured to unite the world by their travels; fuch men grew wifer as well as better, the farther they departed from home, and feemed like rivers, whofe ftreams are not only encreased, but refined, as they travel from their fource.

For my own part, my greateft glory is, that travelling has not more fteeled my constitution against all the viciffitudes of climate, and all the depreffions of fatigue, than it has my mind against the accidents of fortune, or the acceffes of defpair. Farewell.

LETTER