body still retained

form, be

appetites and passions 13 alteri considered that it would not only be mire table, but also more becoming to we ... but unhappily he had no methoc é -ing them himself, nor had he the use -ci to demand them from others, and is the first time he felt real anxiety. He sooL ceived how much more elegantly men were etan he, therefore he began to loath is usual and longed for those delicacies when adorn tables of princes, but here again he found it ossible to be satisfied; for though he could • obtain flesh, yet he found it impossible to ass it in any degree of perfection. In short ery pleasure that contributed to the felicity of nankind, served only to render him more miserahe, as he found himself utterly deprived of the wer of enjoyment. In this manner he led a reing, discontented life, detesting himself, and spleased with his ill-judged ambition, till at las his benefactor Wistnow, taking compassion ( • forlorn situation, restored him to the ignorance the happiness which he was originally formed

o cujoy.

Ay friend, to attempt to introduce the sciinto a nation of wandering barbarians, is only der them more miserable than even Nature od they should be. A life of simplicity is best cuya state of solitude.

gevat law-giver of Russia attempted to imdie desolate inhabitants of Siberia, by sending em some of the politest men of Europe. Casequence has shewn, that the country was

to receive them; they languished for a à a sort of exotic malady, every day degerom themselves, and at last, instead of rendering

dering the country more polite, they conformed to the soil, and put on barbarity.

No, my friend, in order to make the sciences useful in any country, it must first become populous: the inhabitant must go through the different stages of hunter, shepherd, and husbandman: then when property becomes valuable, and consequently gives cause for injustice; then when laws are appointed to repress injury, and secure possession, when men by the sanction of those laws, become possessed of superfluity, when luxury is thus introduced and demands its continual supply, then it is that the sciences become necessary and useful; the state then cannot subsist without them; they must then be introduced, at once to teach men to draw the greatest possible quantity of pleasure from circumscribed possession; and to restrain them within the bounds of moderate enjoyment.

The sciences are not the cause of luxury, but its consequence, and this destroyer thus brings with it an antidote which resists the virulence of its own poison. By asserting that luxury introduces the sciences, we assert a truth; but if with those, who reject the utility of learning, we assert that the sciences also introduce luxury, we shall be at once false, absurd, and ridiculous.

Adieu.

LETTER

LETTER LXXXII.

Altangi to Hingpo, by the way of

Moscow.

warrived at an age, my son, when suades from application; but rob not uncation all the succeeding period of > appmess. Sacrifice a little pleasure at >ge expectance of greater. The study of ears will make the rest of life completely

tead of continuing the subject myself, take wing instructions borrowed from a modern pter of China*. “He who has begun his e ov study will certainly confirm it by perce. The love of books damps the passion asure, and when this passion is once exsite. Life is then cheaply supported; this being possessed of more than he wants, can e subject to great disappointments, and

hose meannesses which indigence some navoidably produces.

e is unspeakable pleasure attending the a voluntary student. The first time I read Lent book, it is to me just as if I had a new friend. When I read over a book perused before, it resembles the meeting ...in old one. We ought to lay hold of every ent in life for improvement, the trifling as

.t

ranslation of this passage may also be seen in Du Halde, . p. 47, and 58. This extract will at least serve to undness for humour which appears in the writings of

"well

"well as the important. It is not one diamond "alone which gives lustre to another, a common "coarse stone is also employed for that purpose. "Thus I ought to draw advantage from the insults "and contempt I meet with from a worthless fellow. "His brutality ought to induce me to self-examination, and correct every blemish that may have gi"ven rise to his calumny.

66

66

66

"Yet with all the pleasures and profits which are generally produced by learning, parents often "find it difficult to induce their children to study. They often seem dragged to what wears the appearance of application. Thus being dilatory in "the beginning, all future hopes of eminence are entirely cut off. If they find themselves obliged "to write two lines more polite than ordinary, their "pencil then seems as heavy as a mill-stone, and "they spend ten years in turning two or three pe"riods with propriety.

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"These persons are most at a loss when a banquet "is almost over; the plate and the dice go round, "that the number of little verses which each is "obliged to repeat may be determined by chance. "The booby, when it comes to his turn, appears quite stupid and insensible. The company divert "themselves with his confusion; and sneers, winks, " and whispers are circulated at his expence. "for him, he opens a pair of large heavy eyes, "stares at all about him, and even offers to join in "the laugh, without ever considering himself as the "burthen of all their good humour.

As

"But it is of no importance to read much, ex"cept you be regular in reading. If it be inter"rupted for any considerable time, it can never be "attended with proper improvement. There are "some who study for one day with intense appli"cation and repose themselves for ten days after.

"But

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

I FANCY the character of a poet is in every country the same, fond of enjoying the present, careless of the future, his conversation that of a man of sense, his actions those of a fool! of fortitude able to stand unmoved at the bursting of an earthquake, yet of sensibility to be affected by the breaking of a tea-cup; such is his character, which considered in every light is the very opposite of that which leads

to riches.

The poets of the West are as remarkable for their indigence as their genius, and yet among the numerous hospitals designed to relieve the poor, I have heard of but one erected for the benefit of decayed authors. This was founded by pope Urban VIII. and called the retreat of the incurables, intimating, that it was equally impossible to reclaim the patients, who sued for reception, from poverty, or from po etry. To be sincere, were I to send you an account of the lives of the Western poets, either antient or modern, I fancy you would think me employed in collecting materials for an history of human wretch

edness.

Homer is the first poet and beggar of note among the antients; he was blind, and sung his ballads about the streets; but it is observed, that his mouth was more frequently filled with verses than with

bread.

had two trades, he was a poet for his diversion, and Plautus the comic poet was better off; he

helped