Befides, I am told, your Afiatic • Beauties are the most convenient wo.men alive, for they have no fouls; pofitively there is nothing in nature I fhould like fo much as ladies without fouls; foul, here, is the utter ruin of half the fex. A girl of eighteen fhall have foul enough to spend an hundred pounds in the turning of a trump. Her mother fhall have foul enough to ride a fweep itake match at a horfe race; her maiden aunt fhall have foul enough to purchafe the furniture of a whole toy-fhop; and others Thall have foul enough to behave as if they had no fouls at all."

With refpect to the foul," interrupted L, the Afiatics are much kinder to the fair-fex than you imagine; inftead of one foul, Fohi, the idol of China, gives every woman three; the Brammes give them fifteen; and even Mahomet himself no where excludes the fex from Paradife. Abulfeda reports, that an old woman one day importaning him to know what the ought to do in order to gain Paradife? "My good lady," answered the prophet, "old women never get there." "What, never get to Paradife!" returned the matron, in a fury. "Never," fays he, "for they always grow young by the way."

No, Sir, continued 1, the men ⚫ of Afia behave with more deference to the fex than you feem to imagine. As you of Europe fay grace upon fitting down to dinner, fo it is the custom in China to fay grace when a man goes to bed to his wife. And may I die,' returned my companion, but

a very pretty ceremony! For, ferioufly, Sir, I fee no reafon why a man fhould not be as grateful in one fituation as in the other. Upon hoI nour, always find myself much more difpofed to gratitude, on the couch of a fine woman, than upon fiting down to a fulloin of beef."

Another ceremony, faid I, refuming the converfation, in favour of the

wall and twide wal

fex amongst us, is the bride's being allowed, after marriage, her three days of freedom. During this interval, a thousand extravagancies are practifed by either fex. The lady is placed upon the nuptial bed,, and numberleis monkey-tricks are played round to divert her. One gentleman fmells her perfumed handkerchief another attempts to untie her garters, a third pulls off her fhoe to play hunt the flipper, another pretends to be an • idiot, and endeavours to Laise a laugh by grimacing; in the mean time, the glais goes brifkly about, till ladies, 'gentlemen, wife, hufband, and all, are mixed together in one inundation of arrack-punch.'

Strike me dumb, deaf, and blind, cried my companion, but very pretty There is fome fenfe in your Chinese ladies condefcenfions! but among us, you thall fcarce find one of the whole lex that fhall hold her good humour for three days together. No later than yesterday I happened to fay fome civil things to a citizen's wife of my 'acquaintance, not because I loved, but because I had charity; and what do you think was the tender creature's reply? Only that the d tefted my pigtail wig, high-heeled fhoes, and fallow complexion! That is all. Nothing more!-Yes, by the heavens, though he was more ugly than an unpainted actrefs, I found her more infolent than a thorough bred woman of quality!"

He was proceeding in this wild manner, when his invective was interrupted by the man in black, who entered the apartment, introducing his niece, a young lady of exquifite beauty. Her very appearance was fufficient to filence the fevereft fatirift of the fex; easy without pride, and free without impudence, fhe feemed capable of fupplying every fenfe with pleature; her looks, her converfation, were natural and unconstrained; the had neither been taught to lapguifh nor ogle, to laugh without a jelt, or figh without forrow. I found that the had juft returned from abroad, and had been converfant in the manners of the world: Curiofity prompted me to afk feveral questions, but the declined them all. I own I never found inyfelf fo ftrongly prejudiced in favour of apparent merit before; and could willing

Ty

ly have prolonged our converfation, 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.

EW virtues have been more praifed by moralifts, than generosity; every practical treatife of ethics tends to encreate our fenfibility of the diftreffes of others, and to relax the grasp of frugality. Philofophers that are poor, praite it because they are gainers by it's effects; and the opulent Seneca himself has written a treatise on benefits, though he was known to give nothing away.

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

Were men taught to defpife the receiving obligations with the fame force **of reasoning 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 chearful induftry, neither relaxed by hope, nor fuilen from, difappointment.

Every favour a man receives, in fome meafure finks him below his dignity; and in proportion to the value of the benefit, or the frequency of it's acceptance, he gives up fo much of his natural independence. He, therefore, who thrives upon the unmerited bounty of another, if he has any fenfibility, fuffers the worlt of fervitude; the shackled flave may murmur without reproach, but the humble dependant is taxed with ingratitude upon every fymptom of difcontent; the one may rave round the walls of his cell, but the other lingers in all the filence of mental confinement. To encrease his diftrefs, every new obligation but adds to the former load which kept the vigorous mind from-rifing, til at lat, elaftic no longer, it hapes itfelf 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 fill 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 debafement from dependence, fince they were originally as vile as was poffible to be; dependence 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 worthless, 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 meanness of a life of continued dependence, I would not be thought to include those natural or political fubordinations which fubfift in every fociety; for in fuch, though dependence is exacted from the inferior, yet the obligation on either fide is mutual. The fon must rely upon his parent for fapport, but the parent lies under the fame obligations to give that the other has to expect; the fubordinate officer mult receive the commands of his fuperior, but for this obedience the former has a right to demand an intercourfe of favour: fuch is not the dependence 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 transferied without injuftice. The character of a legacyhunter, for inftance, 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 unjust prejudice; never confidering the neceffary degradations a wretch muft undergo, who previously expects to grow rich by benefits, with

But 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 himfelf, or of the world, amidst a circle of thofe whom hope or gratitude has gathered round him; their unceasing humiliations muit neceffarily encrease his comparative magnitude, for all men meature their own abilities by thofe of their company; thus, being taught to over,rate his merit, he in reality leffens it; encreasing in confidence, but not in power, his profeffions end in empty boaft, his undertakings in thameful difappointment.

It is perhaps one of the fevereft miffortunes of the great, that they are, in general, obliged to live among men whole real value is leffened by dependence, 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 conscious inferiority, by degrees finks into a flatterer, and from flattery at laft degenerates into ftupid veneration. To remedy this, the great often difiifs their old dependents, and take new. Such changes are falfely imputed to levity, falfehood, or caprice, in the patron, fince they may be more juftlv afcribed to the client's gradual deterioration.

No, my fon, a life of independence is generally a life of virtue. It is that which fits the foul for every generous fight of humanity, fre dom, and friendfhip. To give should be our pleasure, but to rece.ve our fhame; ferenity, health, and affluence, attend the defire of rifing by labour; mifery, Lepentance, and difrespect, that of fucceeding by extorted benevolence. The man who can thank himself alore for the happiness he enjoys is truly bleffed; and lovely, far more lovely, the fturdy gloom of laborious indigence, than the fawning fimper of thriving adulation. Adieu.

IN every fociety, fome men are born

to teach, and others to receive intruction; fome to work, and others to enjoy in idleness the fruits of their induftry; fome to govern, and others to obey. Every people, how free foever, must 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 first influenced their choice in the election of their governors, fhould ever be weighed against the fucceeding apparent inconfiitencies 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 fmallett obftacies are apt to retard the execution of what is to be planned by a multiplicity of counfels; the judgment of one alone being always fittelt for winding through the labyrinths of intrigue, and the obftructions of difappointment. 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 thefe truths are, the people of this country feem infenfible of their force. Not fatisfied with the advantages of internal peace and opulence, they fill marmur 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 infruct by argument, and the Afiatics moftly by narration, were I to addrefs them, I fhould convey my fentiments in the following ftory.

Takupi had long been prime minifter of Tipartala, a fertile country that ftretches along the western confines of China. During his administration, whatever advantages could be derived from arts, learning, and commerce, were feen to blefs the people; nor were

the

the neceffary precautions of providing for the fecurity of the ftate forgotten. It often happens, however, that when men are poffeffed of all they want, they then begin to find torment from imaginary afflictions, and leffen their prefent enjoyments, by foreboding that thote enjoyments are to have an end. The people now, therefore, endeavoured to find out grievances; and after fome fearch, actually began to think themselves aggrieved. A petition against the enormities of Takupi was carried to the throne in due form; and the queen who governed the country, willing to fatis. fy her fubjects, appointed a day in which his accufers fhould be heard, and the minifter fhould stand upon his defence.

The day being arrived, and the minister brought before the tribunal, a carrier, who fupplied the city with fish, appeared among the number of his accufers. He exclaimed, that it was the custom, time immemorial, for carriers to bring their fish upon an horfe in a hamper; which being placed on one fide, and balanced by a ftone on the other, was thus conveyed with eafe and fafety but that the prifoner, moved either by a spirit of innovation, or perhaps bribed by the hamper-makers, had obliged all carriers to use the stone no longer, but balance one hamper with another; an order entirely repugnant to the cuftoms of all antiquity, and those of the kingdom of Tipartala in particular.

The carrier finifhed; and the whole court fhook their heads at the innovat ing minifter: when a second witness appeared. He was infpector of the citybuildings, and accufed the difriced favourite of having given orders for the demolition of an ancient ruin, which obftructed the paffage through one of the principal freets. He obferved, that fuch buildings were noble monuments of barbarous antiquity; contributed finely to how how little their ancestors understood of architecture: and for that reafon fuch monuments fhould be

held facred, and fuffered gradually to decay.

The laft witness now appeared. This was a widow, who had laudably attempted to burn herself upon her hufband's funeral-pile. But the innovating minifter had prevented the execution of her defign, and was infenfible to her tears, proteftations, and entreaties.

The queen could have pardoned the two former offences; but this laft was confidered as fo grofs an injury to the fex, and fo directly contrary to all the customs of antiquity, that it called for immediate juftice. What!' cried the queen, not fuffer a woman to burn herfelf when the thinks proper! The fex are to be very prettily tutored, no doubt, if they must be reftrained from entertaining their female friends now and then with a fried wife, or roafted acquaintance. I fentence the criminal to be banished my prefence for ever, for his injurious treatment " of the fex.'

Takupi had been hitherto filent, and fpoke only to fhew the fincerity of his refignation. Great Queen!' cried he, I acknowledge my crime; and fince I am to be banished, I beg it may be to fome ruined town, or defolate village, in the country I have governed. I fhall find fome pleafure in improving the foil, and bringing back a fpirit of industry among the inhabi· tants.' His request appearing reafonable, it was immediately complied with; and a courtier had orders to fix upon a place of banishment aufwering the minifter's defcription. After fome months fearch, however, the enquiry proved fruitles; neither a defolate vil lage, nor a ruined town, was found in the kingdom. Alas! faid Takupi then to the queen, how can that country be ill governed which has neither