against every oppofer; at once ready to increase their pride while living, and their character when dead. For you and I, my friend, who have no humble admirer thus to attend us, we, who neither are, nor never will be great men, and who do not much care whether we are great men or no, at least let us ftrivę to be honest men, and to have common fenfe, LETTER LXXIV. FROM THE SAME, THERE are numbers in this city who live by writing new books; and yet there are thousands of volumes in every large library unread and forgotten, This, upon my arrival, was one of thofe contradictions which I was unable to account for. Is it poffible, faid I, that there should be any demand for new books, before those already published are read? Can there be fo many employed in producing a commodity with which the market is already overstocked; and with goods also better than any of modern manufacture! What at firft view appeared an inconfiftence, is a proof at once of this people's wifdom and refinement, Even allowing the works of their ancestors better written than theirs, yet thofe of the moderns acquire a real value, by being marked with the impreffion of the times. Antiquity has been in the poffeffion of others; the prefent is our own: let us firft therefore learn to know what belongs to ourselves, and then, if we we have leifure, caft our reflections back to the reign of Shonou, who governed twenty thousand years before the creation of the moon. The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well ferve to amufe the curious; but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate ufe; the former are often prized above their intrinfic value, and kept with care, the latter feldom pass for more than they are worth, and are often fubject to the mercilefs hands of fweating critics, and clipping compilers; the works of antiquity were ever praised, thofe of the moderns read; the treasures of our ancestors have our esteem, and we boaft the paffion; those of cotemporary genius engage our heart, although we blush to own it. The vifits we pay the former refemble those we pay the great; the ceremony is troublesome, and yet fuch as we would not chufe to forego; our acquaintance with modern books is like fitting with a friend; our pride is not flattered in the interview, but it gives more internal fatisfaction. In proportion as fociety refines, new books muft ever become more neceffary. Savage rufticity is reclaimed by oral admonition alone; but the elegant exceffes of refinement are beft corrected by the still. voice of ftudious enquiry. In a polite age almost every perfon becomes a reader, and receives more inftruction from the prefs than the pulpit. The preaching Bonfe may inftruct the illiterate peafant; but nothing less than the infinuating addrefs of a fine writer can win its way to an heart already relaxed in all the effeminacy of refinement. Books are neceffary to correct the vices of the polite, but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote fhould be changed accordingly; fhould ftill be new. Inftead Instead therefore of thinking the number of new. publications here too great, I could wish it ftill greater, as they are the moft ufeful inftruments of reformation. Every country must be inftructed either by writers or preachers; but as the number of readers increases, the number of hearers is proportionably diminished, the writer becomes more useful, and the preaching Bonfe less neceffary. Inftead, therefore of complaining that writers are overpaid, when their works procure them a bare fubfiftence, I should imagine it the duty of a state, not only to encourage their numbers, but their induftry. A Bonfe is rewarded with immenfe riches for inftructing only a few, even of the moft ignorant of the people; and fure the poor fcholar fhould not beg his bread, who is capable of inftructing a million. Of all rewards, I grant, the most pleasing to a man of real merit, is fame; but a polite age, of all times, is that in which scarcely any fhare of merit can acquire it. What numbers of fine writers in the latter empire of Rome, when refinement was carried to the highest pitch, have miffed that fame and immortality which they had fondly arrogated to themfelves? How many Greek authors, who wrote at that period when Conftantinople was the refined miftrefs of the empire, now reft either not printed, or not read, in the libraries of Europe! Those who came firft, while either ftate as yet was barbarous, carried all the reputation away. Authors, as the age refined, became more numerous, and their numbers deftroyed their fame. It is but natural, therefore, for the writer, when conscious that his works will not procure him fame hereafter, to endeavour to make them turn out to his temporal interest here. Whatever be the motives which induce men to write, whether avarice or fame, the country becomes moft moft wife and happy, in which they moft ferve for inftructors. The countries, where facerdotal inftruction alone is permitted, remain in ignorance, fuperftition, and hopeless flavery. In England, where there are as many new books published as in all the reft of Europe together, a spirit of freedom and reafon reigns among the people; they have been often known to act like fools, they are generally found to think like men. The only danger that attends a multiplicity of publications, is that fome of them may be calculated to injure, rather than benefit fociety. But where writers are numerous, they also ferve as a check upon each other; and perhaps a literary inquifition is the moft terrible punishment that can be conceived, to a literary tranfgreffor. But to do the English juftice, there are but few offenders of this kind; their publications in general aim at mending either the heart, or improving the common weal. The dulleft writer talks of virtue, and liberty, and benevolence with efteem; tells his true ftory, filled with good and wholefome advice; warns against flavery, bribery, or the bite of a mad dog, and dreffes up his little useful magazine of i knowledge and entertainment, at least with a good intention. The dunces of France, on the other hand, who have lefs encouragement, are more vicious. Tender hearts, languifhing eyes, Leonora in love at thirteen, extatic transports, ftolen bliffes are the frivolous fubjects of their frivolous memoirs. In England, if a bawdy blockhead thus breaks in on the community, he fets his whole fraternity in a roar; nor can he escape, even though he fhould fly to nobility for shelter. Thus even dunces, my friend, may make themfelves ufeful. But there are others whom Nature has bleft with talents above the reft of mankind; men capable capable of thinking with precifion, and impreffing their thought with rapidity. Beings who diffufe those regards upon mankind, which others contract and settle upon themselves. These deserve every honour from that community of which they are more peculiarly the children; to fuch I would give my heart, fince to them I am indebted for its humanity! Adieu. LETTER LXXV. From Hingpo, to Lien Chi Altangi, by the way of Mofcow. I STILL remain at Terki, where I have received that money which was remitted here in order to release me from captivity. My fair companion ftill improves in my esteem; the more I know her mind, her beauty becomes more poignant; fhe appears charming, even among the daughters of Circaffia. Yet were I to examine her beauty with the art of à ftatuary, I fhould find numbers here that far furpafs her; Nature has not granted her all the boasted Circaffian regularity of feature, and yet the greatly exceeds the fairest of the country, in the art of feizing the affections. Whence, have I often said to myfelf, this refiftlefs magic that attends even moderate charms: though I regard the beauties of the country with admiration, every interview weakens the impreffion, but the form of Zelis grows upon my imagination, I never behold her without an increafe of tenderness and refpect. Whence this injuftice of the mind in preferring imperfect beauty to that |