fortunate for kings that their fubjects are fatisfied with fuch trifling rewards. Should a nobleman happen to lose his leg in a battle, the King prefents him with two yards of ribbon, and he is paid for the lofs of his limb. Should an ambaffador fpend all his paternal fortune in fupporting the honour of his country abroad, the King prefents him with two yards of ribbon, which is to be confidered as an equivalent to his eftate. In fhort, while an European King has a yard of blue or green ribbon left, he need be under no apprehenfion of wanting ftatesmen, generals, and foldiers.

I cannot fufficiently admire those kingdoms in which men with large patrimonial estates are willing thus to undergo real hardships for empty favours. A perfon, already poffeffed of a competent fortune, who undertakes to enter the career of ambition, feels many real inconveniences from his ftation, while it procures him no real happiness that he was not poffeffed of before. He could eat, drink, and fleep before he became a courtier, as well, perhaps better than when invested with his authority. He could command flatterers in a private ftation, as well as in his public capacity, and indulge at home every favourite inclination, uncenfured and unfeen by the people.

What real good then does an addition to a fortune already fufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man by having his fortune increased, increase alfo his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement.

Was he by having his one thousand made two, thus enabled to enjoy two wives, or eat two dinners; then indeed he might be excufed for undergoing fome pain, in order to extend the fphere of his enjoyments. But on the contrary, he finds his defire for pleasure often leffen, as he takes pains to be able

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to improve it; and his capacity of enjoyment diminithes as his fortune happens to increase.

Inftead therefore of regarding the great with envy, I generally confider them with fome fhare of compaffion. I look upon them as a fet of good-natured mifguided people, who are indebted to us and not to themselves for all the happiness they enjoy. For our pleasure, and not their own, they fweat under a cumberous heap of finery; for our pleasure the lacquied train, the flow parading pageant, with all the gravity of grandeur, moves in review; a fingle coat, or a fingle footman answers all the purposes of the moft indolent refinement as well; and those who have twenty, may be faid to keep one for their own pleasure, and the other nineteen merely for ours. So true is the obfervation of Confucius, that we take greater pains to perfuade others that we are happy, than endeavouring to think so ourselves.

But though this defire of being feen, of being made the fubject of difcourfe, and of fupporting the dignities of an exalted station be troublefome enough to the ambitious; yet it is well for fociety that there are men thus willing to exchange eafe and fafety, for danger and a ribbon. We lofe nothing by their vanity, and it would be unkind to endeavour to deprive a child of its rattle. If a Duke or a Duchefs are willing to carry a long train for our entertainment, fo much the worfe for themfelves; if they chufe to exhibit in public with a hundred lacquies and Mameluks in their equipage for our entertainment, ftill fo much the worfe for themselves; it is the fpectators alone who give and receive the pleafure; they only the fweating figures that fwell the pageant.

A Mandarine, who took much pride in appearing with a number of jewels on every part of his robe, was once accosted by an old fly Bonze, who follow

ing him through feveral ftreets, and bowing often to the ground, thanked him for his jewels. What does he mean? cried the Mandarine. Friend, I never

gave thee any of my jewels. No, replied the other; but you have let me look at them, and that is all the ufe you can make of them yourself; fo there is no difference between us, except that you have the trouble of watching them, and that is an employment I don't much defire. Adieu.

LETTER LXIV.

FROM THE SAME..

THOUGH not very fond of feeing a pageant myfelf, yet I am generally pleafed with being in the crowd which fees it; it is amufing to obferve the effect which fuch a fpectacle has upon the variety of faces, the pleasure it excites in fome, the envy in others, and the wifhes it raifes in all. With this defign I lately went to fee the entry of a foreign Ambaffador, refolved to make one in the mob, to fhout as they fhouted, to fix with earneftnefs upon the fame frivolous ohjects, and participate for a-while the pleasures and the wishes of the vulgar..

Struggling here for fome time, in order to be firft to fee the cavalcade as it paffed, fome one of the crowd unluckily happened to tread upon my fhoe, and tore it in fuch a manner, that I was utterly unqualified to march forward with the main body, and obliged to fall back in the rear. Thus rendered incapable of being a fpectator of the fhew myself, I was at leaft willing to obferve the fpectators, and

limped behind like one of the invalids which follow the march of an army.

In this plight I was confidering the eagerness that appeared on every face, how fome buftled to get foremoft, and others contented themselves with taking a tranfient a tranfient peep when they could; how fome praised the four black fervants, that were stuck behind one of the equipages, and fome the ribbons that decorated the horfes' necks in another; my attention was called off to an object more extraordinary than any that I had yet feen: a poor cobler fat in his ftall by the way-fide, and continued to work while the crowd paffed by, without teftifying the smallest share of curiofity. I own his want of attention excited mine; and as I ftood in need of his affiftance, I thought it beft to employ a philofophic cobler on this occafion: perceiving my business, therefore, he defired me to enter and fit down, took my fhoe in his lap, and began to mend it with his ufual indifference and taciturnity.

"How, my friend," faid I to him, "can you "continue to work while all thofe fine things are "pafling by your door?" Very fine they are "mafter," returned the cobler, for those that "like them, to be fure; but what are all those fine things to me? You do not know what it is to be "a cobler, and fo much the better for yourfelf. "Your bread is baked, you may go and fee fights "the whole day, and eat a warm fupper when you come home at night; but for me, if I fhould run hunting after all these fine folk, what fhould I get by my journey but an appetite, and, God help "me, I have too much of that at home already, "without stirring out for it. Your people who may "eat four meals a day and a fupper at night, are "but a bad example to fuch a one as I. No, maf"ter, as God has called me into this world in order

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"to mend old fhoes, I have no business with fine "folk, and they no bufinefs with me.' I here interrupted him with a finile." See this laft, mafter," continues he," and this hammer; this last and ham

mer are the two best friends I have in this world; "nobody elfe will be my friend, because I want a "friend. The great folks you faw pass by juft now "have five hundred friends, because they have no ❝ occafion for them; now, while I ftick to my good "friends here, I am very contented; but when I "ever fo little run after fights and fine things, I begin to hate my work, I grow fad, and have no "heart to mend fhoes any longer.

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This difcourfe only ferved to raise my curiofity to know more of a man whom Nature had thus formed into a philofopher. I therefore infenfibly led him into an hiftory of his adventures: "I have lived,' faid he, "a wandering life, now five and fifty years, "here to-day and gone to-morrow; for it was my "misfortune, when I was young, to be fond of "changing." You have been a traveller, then, I prefume, interrupted I. "I cannot boaft much of

travelling," continued he, " for I have never left "the parish in which I was born but three times in 86 my life, that I can remember; but then there is "not a street in the whole neighbourhood that I "have not lived in, at fome time or another, When "I began to fettle and to take to my business in one "ftreet, fome unforeseen misfortune, or a defire of * trying my luck elfewhere has removed me, per

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haps a whole mile away from my former cuftom"ers, while fome more lucky cobler would come "into my place, and make a handfome fortune among friends of my making: there was one who actually died in a stall that I had left, worth seven "pounds feven fhillings, all in hard gold, which he "had quilted into the waistband of his breeches." VOL. III.

S

I could