bed; the delinquent would certainly have been shot through the head, but that the piece had not been charged for many years. The gallant made a fhift to escape through the window, but the lady ftill remained; and, as the well knew her husband's temper, undertook to manage the quarrel without a fecond. He was furious, and fhe loud; their noife had gathered all the mob who charitably affembled on the occafion, not to prevent, but to enjoy the quarrel.

Alas! faid I to my companion, what will become of this unhappy creature thus caught in adultery? Believe me, I pity her from my heart; her husband, I fuppofe, will fhew her no mercy. Will they burn her as in India, or behead her as in Perfia? Will they load her with ftripes as in Turkey, or keep her in perpetual imprisonment, as with us in China? Prythee, what is the wife's punishment in England for fuch offences? When a lady is thus caught tripping, replied my companion, they never punish her, but the hufband. You furely jeft, interrupted I; I am a foreigner, and you would abufe my ignorance! I am really ferious, returned he: Dr. Cacafogo has caught his wife in the act; but, as he had no witneffes, his fmall teftimony goes for nothing; the confequence, therefore, of his discovery will be, that he will be packed off to live among her relations, and the doctor must be obliged to allow her a feparate maintenance. Amazing! cried I; is it not enough, that the is permitted to live feparate from the object the detefts, but muft he give her money to keep her in fpirits too? That he muft, faid my guide, and be called a cuckold by all his neighbours into the bargain. The men will laugh at him, the ladies will pity him; and all that his warmeft friends can fay in his favour will be, that the poor good foul has never had any harm in him. Į want patience, interrupted I; what! are there no private chastisements for the wife; no fchools of pe

nitence

nitence to fhew her folly; no rods for fuch delinquents? Pfha, man, replied he fmiling, if every delinquent among us were to be treated in your manner, one half of the kingdom would flog the other.

I must confefs, my dear Fum, that if I were an English husband, of all things I would take care not to be jealous, nor bufily pry into thofe fecrets my wife was pleased to keep from me. Should I detect her infidelity, what is the confequence? If I calmly pocket the abuse, I am laughed at by her and her gallant; if I talk my griefs aloud like a tragedy hero, I am laughed at by the whole world. The courfe then I would take would be, whenever I went out, to tell my wife where I was going, left I should unexpectedly meet her abroad in company with fome dear deceiver. Whenever I returned, I would use a peculiar rap at the door, and give four loud hems as I walked deliberately up the ftair cafe. I would never inquifitively peep under her bed, or look behind the curtains. And even though I knew the captain was there, I would calmly take a difh of my wife's cool tea, and talk of the army with reverence.

Of all nations, the Ruffians feem to me to behave moft wifely in fuch circumftances. The wife promises her husband never to let him fee her tranfgreffions of this nature; and he as punctually promises, whenever fhe is fo detected, without the leaft anger, to beat her without mercy; fo they both know what each has to expect; the lady tranfgreffes, is beaten, taken again into favour, and all goes on as before.

When a Ruffian young lady, therefore, is to be married, her father, with a cudgel in his hand, afks the bridegroom, whether he chufes this virgin for his bride? to which the other replies in the affirmative. Upon this, the father turning the lady three times round, and giving her three ftrokes with

his cudgel on the back; my dear, cries he, these are the laft blows you are ever to receive from your tender father; I refign my authority, and my cudgel, to your bufband; he knows better than me the ufe of either. The bridegroom knows decorums too well to accept of the cudgel abruptly; he affures the father that the lady will never want it, and that he would not, for the world, make any use of it; but the father, who knows what the lady may want better than he, infifts upon his acceptance: upon this there follows a fcene of Ruffian politeness, while one refuses, and the other offers the cudgel. The whole, however, ends with the bridegroom's taking it; upon which the lady drops a courtesy in token of obedience, and the ceremony proceeds as ufual.

There is fomething exceffively fair and open in this method of courtship: by this both fides are prepared for all the matrimonial adventures that are to follow. Marriage has been compared to a game of fkill for life; it is generous thus in both parties to declare they are sharpers in the beginning. In England, I am told, both fides use every art to conceal their defects from each other before marriage, and the rest of their lives may be regarded as doing penance for their former diffimulation. Farewell.

LETTER XX.

FROM THE SAME.

THE republic of letters is a very common expreffion among the Europeans; and yet when applied to the learned of Europe, is the most abfurd that can be imagined, fince nothing is more unlike a republic VOL. III. F

than

than the fociety which goes by that name. From this expreffion one would be apt to imagine, that the learned were united into a fingle body, joining their interefts, and concurring in the fame defign. From this one might be apt to compare them to our literary focieties in China, where each acknowledges a juft fubordination; and all contribute to build the temple of fcience, without attempting, from ignorance or envy, to obftruct each other.

But very different is the state of learning here; every member of this fancied republic is defirous of governing, and none willing to obey; each looks. upon his fellow as a rival, not an affiftant in the fame purfuit. They calumniate, they injure, they defpife, they ridicule each other; if one man writes a book that pleases, others, fhall write books to fhew that he might have given ftill greater pleafure, or fhould not have pleafed. If one happens to hit upon fomething new, there are numbers ready to affure the publick that all this was no novelty to them or the learned; that Cardanus, or Brunus, or fome other author too dull to be generally read, had anticipated the difcovery. Thus, inftead of uniting like the members of a commonwealth, they are divided into almoft as many factions as there are men ; and their jarring conftitution, instead of being styled a republic of letters, fhould be entitled an anarchy of literature.

It is true, there are fome of fuperior abilities who reverence and efteem each other; but their mutual admiration is not fufficient to fhield off the contempt of the crowd. The wife are but few, and they praise with a feeble voice; the vulgar are many, and roar in reproaches. The truly great feldom unite in focieties; have few meetings, no cabals; the dunces hunt in full cry till they have run down a reputation, and then fnarl and fight with each other about dividing the fpoil. Here you may fee the compilers

and

and the book-anfwerers of every month, when they have cut up fome refpectable name, moft frequently reproaching each other with ftupidity and dulnefs; refembling the wolves of the Ruffian foreft, who prey upon venifon, or horfe-flefh, when they can get it; but, in cafes of neceffity, lying in wait to devour each other. While they have new books to cut up, they make a hearty meal; but if this resource should unhappily fail, then it is that critics eat up critics, and compilers rob from compilations.

This is

Confucius obferves, that it is the duty of the learned to unite fociety more clofely, and to perfuade men to become citizens of the world; but the authors I refer to, are not only for difuniting fociety, but kingdoms alfo: if the English are at war with France, the dunces of France think it their duty to be at war with thofe of England. Thus Freron, one of their first-rate fcribblers, thinks proper to charac ́terife all the English writers in the grofs: Their 'whole merit (fays he) confifts in exaggeration, and ' often in extravagance; correct their pieces as you 'pleafe, there ftill remains a leaven which corrupts the whole. They fometimes difcover genius, but 'not the fmalleft fhare of tafte: England is not a 'foil for the plants of genius to thrive in.' open enough, with not the leaft adulation in the picture; but hear what a Frenchman of acknowledged abilities says upon the same subject: I am at a lofs 'to determine in what we excel the English, or where they excel us; when I compare the merits of both in any one species of literary compofition, fo many ' reputable and pleafing writers prefent themselves 'from either country, that my judgment refts in fufpence I am pleafed with the difquifition, ' without finding the object of my enquiry.' But left you fhould think the French alone are faulty in this refpect, hear how an English journalist delivers his fentiments of them: We are amazed (fays he)