verfant in the manners of the world. Curiofity prompted me to afk feveral queftions, but fhe declined them all. I own I never found myfelf fo ftrongly prejudiced in favour of apparent merit before; and could willingly have prolonged our conversation, but the company after fome time withdrew. Juft, however, before the little beau took his leave he called me afide, and requested I would change him a twenty pound bill, which as I was incapable of doing, he was contented with borrowing half a crown. Adieu.

LETTER XCIX.

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

FEW virtues have been more praised by moralifts than generofity; every practical treatife of Ethics tends to increase our fenfibility of the diftreffes of others, and to relax the grafp of frugality. Philofophers that are poor praife it because they are gainers by its effects; and the opulent Seneca himfelf has written a treatife on benefits, though he was known to give nothing away.

But among the many who have enforced the duty of giving, I am furprized there are none to inculcate the ignominy of receiving, to fhew that by every favour we accept, we in fome measure forfeit our native freedom, and that a state of continual dependance on the generofity of others is a life of gradual debasement.

Were men taught to despise the receiving obliga

tions with the fame force of reafoning and declamation that they are inftructed to confer them, we might then fee every perfon in fociety filling up the requifite duties of his ftation with cheerful induftry, neither relaxed by hope, nor fullen from difappointment.

Every favour a man receives, in fome measure finks him below his dignity, and in proportion to the value of the benefit, or the frequency of its acceptance, he gives up fo much of his natural independance. He therefore, who thrives upon the unmerited bounty of another, if he has any fenfibility, fuffers the worst of fervitude; the fhackled flave may murmur without reproach, but the humble dependant is taxed with ingratitude upon every fymptom of discontent; the one may rave round the walls of his cell, but the other lingers in all the filence of mental confinement. To increafe his diftrefs, every new obligation but adds to the former load which kept the vigorous mind from rifing; till at laft, elastic no longer, it shapes itself to constraint, and puts on habitual fervility.

It is thus with the feeling mind; but there are fome who, born without any fhare of fenfibility, receive favour after favour, and ftill cringe for more, who accept the offer of generofity with as little reluctance as the wages of merit, and even make thanks for paft benefits an indirect petition for new; fuch I grant can fuffer no debasement from dependance, fince they were originally as vile as was poffible to be; dependance degrades only the ingenuous, but leaves the fordid mind in priftine meannefs. In this manner therefore long continued generofity is misplaced, or it is injurious; it either finds a man worthlefs, or it makes him fo; and true it is, that the perfon who is contented to be often obliged, ought not to have been obliged at all.

Yet while I defcribe the meannefs of a life of confinued dependance, I would not be thought to include those natural or political fubordinations which fubfift in every fociety, for in fuch, though dependance is exacted from the inferior, yet the obligation on either fide is mutual. The fon muft rely upon his parent for fupport, but the parent lies under the fame obligations to give, that the other has to expect; the fubordinate officer muft receive the comimands of his fuperior, but for this obedience the former has a right to demand an intercourfe of favour; fuch is not the dependance I would depreciate, but that where every expected favour must be the refult of mere benevolence in the giver, where the benefit can be kept without remorfe, or transferred without injuftice. The character of a legacyhunter, for instance, is deteftable in fome countries, and defpicable in all; this univerfal contempt of a man who infringes upon none of the laws of fociety, fome moralifts have arraigned as a popular and unjuft prejudice; never confidering the neceflary degradations a wretch muft undergo, who previously expects to grow rich by benefits without having either natural or focial claims to enforce his petitions,

But this intercourfe of benefaction and acknowledgment is often injurious even to the giver as well as the receiver; a man can gain but little knowledge of himself, or of the world, amidst a circle of those whom hope or gratitude has gathered round him; their unceafing humiliations muft neceffarily increase his comparative magnitude, for all men measure their own abilities by thofe of their company; thus being taught to over-rate his merit, he in reality leffens it; increafing in confidence, but not in power, his profeffions end in empty boaft, his undertakings in fhameful difappointment.

It is perhaps one of the fevereft misfortunes of the great, that they are, in general, obliged to live among men whofe real virtue is leffened by dependance, and whofe minds are enflaved by obligation. The humble companion may have at firft accepted patronage with generous views, but foon he feels the mortifying influence of confcious inferiority, by degrees finks into a flatterer, and from flattery at laft degenerates into stupid veneration. To remedy this the great often difmifs their old dependants, and take new. Such changes are falfely imputed to levity, falfhood, or caprice in the patron, fince they may be more justly afcribed to the client's gradual deteri oration.

No, my fon, a life of independance is generally a life of virtue. It is that which fits the foul for every generous flight of humanity, freedom, and friendship. To give should be our pleasure, but to receive our fhame; ferenity, health, and affluence attend the defire of rifing by labour; mifery, repentance, and difrefpect that of fucceeding by extorted benevolence; the man who can thank himfelf alone for the happiness he enjoys is truly bleft; and lovely, far more lovely the sturdy gloom of laborious indigence, than the fawning fimper of thriving adulation.

Adieu.

LETTER C.

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

IN

every fociety fome men are born to teach, and others to receive inftruction; fome to work, and others to enjoy in idleness the fruits of their industry; fome to govern, and others to obey. Every people, how free fo ever, muft be contented to give up part of their liberty and judgment to thofe who govern, in exchange for their hopes of fecurity; and the motives which firft influenced their choice in the election of their governors fhould ever be weighed against the fucceeding apparent inconfiftencies of their conduct. All cannot be rulers, and men are generally beft governed by a few. In making way through the intricacies of bufinefs, the smallest obftacles are apt to retard the execution of what is to be planned by a multiplicity of counfels; the judgment of one alone being always fitteft for winding through the labyrinths of intrigue, and the obftructions of dif appointinent. A ferpent, which, as the fable obferves, is furnished with one head and many tails, is much more capable of fubfiftence and expedition, than another, which is furnished with but one tail and many heads.

Obvious as these truths are, the people of this country seem infenfible of their force. Not fatiffied with the advantages of internal peace and opulence, they ftill murmur at their governors, and interfere in the execution of their defigns; as if they wanted to be fomething more than happy. But as the Europeans inftruct by argument, and the Afiatics moftly