do

ship, interrupting him, give me leave to drink your health-" fo being fond of wild ducks and flum"mery"-Doctor, adds a gentleman who fat next him, let me advife to a wing of this turkey;-" fo this "farmer being fond"-Hob and nob, Doctor, which you chufe, white or red?" So being fond of wild ducks and flummery ;"-take care of your band, Sir, it may dip in the gravy. The Doctor, now looking round, found not a fingle eye difpofed to liften; wherefore calling for a glafs of wine, he gulped down the disappointment and the tale in a bumper.

The converfation now began to be little more than a rhapsody of exclamations; as each had pretty well fatisfied his own appetite, he now found fufficient time to prefs others. Excellent, the very thing; let me recommend the pig; do but tafte the bacon; never eat a better thing in my life; exquifite, delicious. This edifying discourse continued through three courses, which lafted as many hours, till every one of the company were unable to fwallow or utter any thing

more.

It is very natural for men who are abridged in one excefs, to break into fome other. The clergy here, particularly those who are advanced in years, think if they are abftemious with regard to women and wine, they may indulge their other appetites without cenfure. Thus fome are found to rife in the morning only to a confultation with their cook about dinner, and when that has been swallowed, make no other use of their faculties (if they have any) but to ruminate on the fucceeding meal.

A debauch in wine is even more pardonable than this, fince one glass infenfibly leads on to another, and inftead of fateing whets the appetite. The progreffive fteps to it are chearful and feducing; the grave are animated, the melancholy relieved, and there is even claffic authority to countenance the

excefs.

excess. But in eating, after Nature is once fatisfied, every additional morfel brings ftupidity and diftempers with it, and as one of their own poets expreffes it,

The foul fubfides, and wickedly inclines

To feem but mortal, e'en in found divines.

Let me suppose, after fuch a meal as this I have been defcribing, while all the company are fitting in lethargic filence round the table, grunting under a load of foup, pig, pork, and bacon; let me fup. pofe, I fay, fome hungry beggar with looks of want peeping through one of the windows, and thus addreffing the affembly: Prithee, pluck thofe napkins from your chins; after Nature is fatisfied all that you eat extraordinary is my property, and I claim it as mine. It was given you in order to relieve me, and not to opprefs yourselves. How can they comfort or inftrut others who can scarcely feel their own existence, except from the unfavoury returns of an ill-digested meal. But though neither you nor the cushions you fit upon will hear me, yet the world regards the exceffes of its teachə ers with a prying eye, and notes their conduct with double feverity. I know no other anfwer any one of the company could make to fuch an expoftulation but this: "Friend, you talk of our lofing a character, "and being difliked by the world; well, and fup+ "pofing all this to be true, what then! who cares "for the world? We'll preach for the world, and "the world fhall pay us for preaching, whether we like each other or not."

LETTER LVIII.

From Hingpo to Lien Chi Altangi, by the way of Mofcow.

You will probably be pleafed to fee my letter dated from Terki, a city which lies beyond the bounds of the Perfian empire: here, bleffed with fecurity, with all that is dear, I double my raptures, by communicating them to you; the mind fympathizing with the freedom of the body, my whole foul is dilated in gratitude, love, and praife.

Yet were my own happiness all that infpired my present joy, my raptures might juftly merit the inputation of felf-intereft; but when I think that the beautiful Zelis is alfo free, forgive my triumph when I boaft of having refcued from captivity the most deferving object upon earth.

You remember the reluctance fhe teftified at being obliged to marry the tyrant the hated. Her compliance at laft was only feigned, in order to gain time to try fome future means of escape. During the interval between her promife and the intended performance of it, fhe came undiscovered one evening to the place where I generally retired after the fatigues of the day; her appearance was like that of an aerial genius, when it defcends to minifter comfort to undeferved diftrefs; the mild luftre of her eye ferved to banifh my timidity; her accents were fweeter than the echo of fome diftant tymphony. "Unhappy stranger," faid fhe, in the Perfian lanluage, you here perceive one more wretched than thyfelf; all this folemnity of preparation, this elegance of drefs, and the number of my attendants "ferve but to encreafe my miferies; if

you

have

66 courage

courage to rescue an unhappy woman from approaching ruin, and our detefted tyrant, you may depend upon my future gratitude." I bowed to the ground, and the left me, filled with rapture and aftonishment. Night brought me no reft, nor could the enfuing morning calm the anxieties of my mind. I projected a thousand methods for her delivery; but each, when ftrictly examined, appeared impracticable; in this uncertainty the evening again arrived, and I placed myself on my former ftation in hopes of a repeated vifit. After fome short expectation, the bright perfection again appeared; I bowed, as before, to the ground; when raising me up the obferved, that the time was not to be spent in uselefs ceremony fhe obferved that the day following was appointed for the celebration of her nuptials, and that fomething was to be done that very night for our mutual deliverance. I offered with the utmost humility to purfue whatever fcheme fhe fhould direct; upon which the propofed that inftant to scale the garden wall, adding, that fhe had prevailed upon a female flave, who was now waiting at the appointed place, to affift her with a ladder.

Pursuant to this information I led her trembling to the place appointed; but instead of the flave we expected to fee, Moftadad himself was there awaiting our arrival; the wretch in whom we confided, it seems, had betrayed our design to her master, and he now faw the moft convincing proofs of her information. He was just going to draw his fabre, when a principle of avarice repreffed his fury, and he refolved, after a fevere chaftifement, to difpofe of me to another mafter, in the mean time ordered me to be confined in the ftricteft manner, and the next day to receive an hundred blows on the foles of my feet.

Q 4

When

When the morning came I was led out in order to receive the punishment, which, from the feverity with which it is generally inflicted upon flaves, is worfe even than death.

A trumpet was to be a fignal for the folemnization of the nuptials of Zelis, and for the infliction of my punishment. Each ceremony to me equally dreadful were juft going to begin, when we were informed that a large body of Circaffian Tartars had invaded the town, and were laying all in ruin. Every perfon now thought only of faving himself; I inftantly unloofed the cords with which I was bound, and feizing a fcimetar from one of the flaves who had not courage to refift me, flew to the women's apartment where Zelis was confined, dreffed out for the intended nuptials. I bade her follow me without delay; and going forward, cut my way through eunuchs, who made but a faint refiftance. The whole city was now a fcene of conflagration and terror; every perfon was willing to fave himself, unmindful of others. In this confufion, feizing upon two of the fleeteft courfers in the ftable of Moftadad, we fled Northward towards the kingdom of Circaffia. As there were feveral others flying in the fame manner, we paffed without notice, and in three days arrived at Terki, a city that lies in a valley within the bofom of the frowning mountains of Caucafus.

Here, free from every apprehenfion of danger, we enjoy all those fatisfactions which are confiftent with virtue; though I find my heart at intervals give way to unufual paffions, yet fuch is my admiration for my fair companion, that I lofe even tendernefs in diftant refpect. Though her perfon demands particular regard even among the beauties of Circaffia, yet is her mind far more lovely. How very different is a woman who thus has cultivated her underftand