without fhrinking philofophers have defcribed poverty in moft charming coJours; and even his vanity is touched, in thinking, that he fhall fhew the world, in himself, one more example of patience, fortitude, and resignation. Come, then, O Poverty! for what is there in thee dreadful to the WISE? Temperance, health, and frugality, walk in thy train; chearfulness and liberty are ever thy companions. Shall any be afhamed of thee of whom Cincinnatus was not afhamed? The running brook, the herbs of the field, can amply fatisfy nature; man wants but little, nor that little long. Come, then, O Poverty, while kings ftand by, and gaze with admiration at the 4 true philofopher's refignation!" The goddess appears; for Poverty ever comes at the call: but, alas! he finds her by no means the charming figure, books and his warm imagination had painted. As when an Eastern bride, whom her friends and relations had long defcribed as a model of perfection, pays her firft vifit, the longing bridegroom lifts the veil to fee a face he had never feen before; but instead of a countenance blazing with beauty like the fun, he beholds deformity fhooting icicles to his heart; fuch appears Poverty to her new entertainer; all the fabric of enthufiafm is at once demolished, and a thousand miferies rife upon it's ruins, while Contempt, with pointing foges, is foremost in the hideous proceffion. The poor man now finds that te.can get no kings to look at him while he is eating; he finds that, in proportion as he grows poor, the world turns it's back upon him, and gives him leave to act the philofopher in all the majesty of folitude. It might be agreeable enough to play the philofopher, while we are confcious that mankind are spectators; but what fignifies wearing the mask of sturdy contentment, and mounting the ftage of reftraint, when not one creature will affiit at the exhibition! Thus is he for, faken of men, while his fortitude wants the fatisfaction even of felf-applaufe; for either he does not feel his prefent calami. ties, and that is natural insensibility, or he difguifes his feelings, and that is di mulation. Spleen now begins to take up the man; not diftinguishing in his resent. ments, he regards all mankind with des teftation, and commencing man-hater, feeks folitude to be at liberty to rail. It has been faid, that he who retires to folitude, is either a beaft or an angel: the cenfure is too fevere, and the praise unmerited; the difcontented being, who retires from fociety, is generally fome good-natured man, who has begun life without experience, and knew not how to gain it in his intercourfe with mankind. Adieu. LETTER LXVIII. 1 FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI, TO FUM HOAM, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CE REMONIAL ACADEMY AT PEKIN, IN CHINA. feels 1 Formerly acquainted the, motgrave root as foon as imported, and fighty English in the art of healing. The Chinefe boaft their fkill in pulfes, the Siamefe their botanical knowledge; but the English advertising-phyficians alone, of being the great reftorers of health, the difpenfers of youth, and the infurers of Jongevity. I can never enough admire the fagacity of this country for the encouragement given to the profeffors of this art; with what indulgence does the fotter up thofe of her own growth, and kindly cherish thofe that come from abroad! Like a fkilful gardener, the invites them from every foreign climate to herfelf. Here every great exotic frikes metropolis, like one vaft munificent dunghill, receives them indifcriminately to her breast, and fupplies each with more than native nourishment. In other countries the phyfician pretends to cure diforders in the lump; the fame doctor who combats the gout in the toe, fhall pretend to prefcribe for a pain in the head; and he who at one time cures a confumption, fhall at another give drugs for a dropfy. How abfurd and ridiculous! this is being a mere, jack of all trades. Is the animal machine lefs complicated than a brafs pin? Not less than ten different hands are re quired quired to make a pin; and fhall the body be fet right by one fingle operator? The English are sensible of the force of this reafoning; they have therefore one doctor for the eyes, another for the toes; they have their feiatica doctors, and inoculating doctors; they have one doctor who is modeftly content with fe curing them from bug-bites, and five hundred who prefcribe for the bite of mad dogs. The learned are not here retired with vicious modefty from public view; for every dead wall is covered with their names, their abilities, their amazing 'cures,' and 'places of abode. Few patients can efcape falling into their hands, unless blafted by lightning, or ftruck dead with some sudden diforder; it may fometimes happen, that a stranger who does not understand English, or a countryman who cannot read, dies without ever hearing of the vivifying drops, or reftorative electuary; but for my part, before I was a week in town, I had learned to bid the whole catalogue of diforders defiance, and was perfectly acquainted with the names and the medicines of every great man, or great woman, of them all. But as nothing pleases curiofity more than anecdotes of the great, however minute or trifling, I muft prefent you, inadequate as my abilities are to the fubject, with fome account of thofe perfonages who lead in this honourable profeflion. The firft upon the lift of glory is Doctor Richard Rock, F. U. N. This great man, thort of ftature, is fat, and waddles as he walks. He always wears a white three-tailed wig, nicely combed, and frizzed upon each cheek. Sometimes he carries a cane, but a hat never; it is indeed very remarkable, that this extraordinary perfonage fhould never wear an hat, but fo it is he never wears an hat. He is ufually drawn at the top of his own bills, fitting in his armchair, holding a little bottle between his finger and thumb, and furrounded with rotten teeth, nippers, pills, pacquets, and gallypots. No man can promife fairer nor better than he; for, as he obferves, Be your diforder never fo far gone, be under no uneafinefs, make yourself quite eafy, I can cure you." The next in fame, though by fome eckoned of equal pretenfions, is Doctor Timothy Franks, F. O. G. H. living in a place called the Old Bailey. As Rock is remarkably fquab, his great rival Franks is as remarkably tall. He was born in the year of the Chriftian era 1692, and is, while I now write, exactly fixty-eight years, three months, and four days old. Age, however, has no ways impaired his ufual health and vivacity; I am told, he generally walks with his breaft open. This gentleman, who is of a mixed reputation, is particularly remarkable for a becoming af furance, which carries him gently through life; for, except Doctor Rock, none are more bleft with the advantages of face than Doctor Franks. And yet the great have their foibles as well as the little. I am almost alhamed to mention it. Let the foibles of the great reft in peace. Yet I mult impart the whole to my friend. Thefe two great men are actually now at variance; yes, my dear Fum Hoam, by the head of our grandfather, they are now at variance like mere men, mere common mortals. The champion Rock advifes the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks; while Franks retorts the wit and the farcafm, (for they have both a world of wit) by fixing on his rival the odious appellation of Dumplin Dick. He calls the ferious "Doctor Rock, Dumplin Dick! Head of Confucius, what prophanation!" Dumplin Dick! What a pity, ye powers, that the learned, who were born mutually to affift in enlightening the world, fhould thus differ among themselves, and make even the profeffion ridiculous! Sure the world is wide enough, at least, for two great perfonages to figure in; men of fcience fhould leave controverfy to the little world below them; and then we might fee Rock and Franks walking to gether hand in hand, fmiling onward to immortality. Next to thefe is Doctor Walker, preparator of his own medicines. This gentleman is remarkable for an averfion to quacks; frequently cautioning the public to be careful into what hands they commit their fafety; by which he would infinuate, that if they do not employ him alone, they must be undone. His public fpirit is equal to his fuccefs. Not for himself, but his country, is the gally-pot prepared, and the drops fealed up with proper directions for any part of the town or country. All this is for his country's good: fo that he is of phyfic with which you are yet usacquainted. I know full well a doctor thou art, great Rock, and fo am I. Wherefore I challenge, and do hereby invite you, to a trial of learning upon hard problems, and knotty This, my friend, is a formidable tri-phyfical points. In this debate we umvirate; and yet, formidable as they ⚫ are, I am refolved to defend the honour of Chinese phyfic against them all. I have made a vow to fummon Doctor Rock to a folemn difputation in all the myfteries of the profeffion, before the face of every Philomath, ftudent in aftrology, and member of the learned focieties. I adhere to, and venerate the doctrines of old Wang-hu-ho. In the very teeth of oppofition I will maintain, that the heart is the fon of the liver, which has the kidneys for it's mother, and the ftomach for it's wife. I have therefore drawn up a difputation challenge, which is to be fent speedily, to this effe: I, Lien Chi Altangi, D. N. R. P. • native of Honan in China, to Richard. Rock, F. U. N. native of Garbage. Alley in Wapping, defiance. Though, Sir, I am perfectly sensible of your importance, though no stranger to your ftudies in the path of nature, yet there may be many things in the art will calmly inveftigate the whole theory and practice of medicine, batany, and chymistry; and I invite all the philomaths, with many of the lecturers in medicine, to be prefent at the difpute; which, I hope, will be carried on with due decorum, with proper gravity, and as befits men of erudition and fcience, among each other. But before we meet face to face, I would thus publicly, and in the face of the whole world, defire you to answer me one question; I afk it with the fame earnestnefs with which you have often folicited the public; anfwer me, I fay, at once, without having recourfe to your phyfical dic• tionary, which of those three diforders, incident to the human body, is the most fatal, the fyncope, parenthefis, or apoplexy? "I beg your reply may be as public as this my demand. I am, as hereafter may be, your admirer, or your rival.' LETTER LXIX. TO THE SAME. NDULGENT Nature foems to have exempted this island from many of thofe epidemic evils which are fo fatal in other parts of the world. A want of rain but for a few days beyond the expected feafon in China, fpreads famine, defolation, and terror, over the whole country; the winds that blow from the brown bofom of the Western defart are impregnated with death in every gale; but in this fortunate land of Britain, the inhabitant courts health in every breeze, and the husbandman ever fows in joyful expectation. But though the nation be exempt from real evils, think not, my friend, that it is more happy on this account than Adieu. others. They are afflicted, it is true, with neither famine nor peftilence, but then there is a diforder peculiar to the country, which every leafon makes ftrange ravages among them; it fpreads with peftilential rapidity, and infects almost every rank of people: what is ftill more ftrange, the natives have no name for this peculiar malady, though well known to foreign phyficians by the appellation of Epidemic Terrer. A feafon is never known to pars in which the people are not vifited by this cruel calamity in one shape or another, feemingly different, though ever the fame: one year it iffues from a baker's fhop in the fhape of a fixpenny loaf, the *See Du Halde, Vol. II. Fol. p. 185. The day after this was published the editor received an answer, in which the dollar feeins to be of opinion, that the apoplexy is mof fatal. mext it takes the appearance of a comet with a fiery tail, a third it threatens like a flat-bottomed boat, and a fourth it carries confternation at the bite of a mad dog. The people, when once infected, lofe their relish for happinefs, faunter about with looks of defpondence, afk after the calamities of the day, and receive no comfort but in heightening each other's distress. It is infignificant how remote, or near, how weak or powerful, the object of terror may be, when once they refolve to fright and be frighted, the mereft trifles fow confternation and difmay, each proportions his fears not to the object, but to the dread he difcovers in the-countenance of others; for when once the fermentation is begun, it goes on of itfelf, though the original caufe be difcontinued which firft fet it in motion. A dread of mad dogs is the epidemic terror, which now prevails, and the whole station is at prefent actually groaning under the malignity of it's influence. The people fally from their houfes with that circumfpection which is prudent in fuch as expect a mad dog at every turning. The phyfician publifes his prefcription, the beadle prepares his halter, and a few of unufual bravery arm themselves with boots and buff gloves, in order to face the enemy if he should offer to attack them. In fhort, the whole people ftand bravely upon their defence, and feem by their prefent spirit to fhew a refolution of not being tamely bit by mad dogs any longer. Their manner of knowing whether a dog be mad or no, fomewhat refembles the ancient European cuftom of trying witches. The old woman fufpected was tied hand and foot and thrown into the water. If the fwam, then he was inflantly carried off to be burnt for a witch; if fhe funk, then indeed she was acquitted of the charge, but drowned in the experiment. In the fame manner a crowd gather round a dog suspected of madnels, and they begin by teazing the devoted animal on every fide; if he attempts to stand upon the defenfive and bite, then is he unanimouy found guilty, for a mad dog always fnaps at every thing; if, on the contrary, he frives to escape by running away, then he can expect no compaffion, for mad dogs always run ftraight forward before them. It is pleasant enough for a neutral being like me, who have no fhare in those ideal calamities, to mark the ftages of this national difeafe. The terror at firft feebly enters with a difregarded ftory of a little dog, that had gone through a neighbouring village, that was thought to be mad by feveral that had feen him. The next account comes, that a maftiff ran through a certain town, and had bit five geefe, which immediately run mad, foamed at the bill, and died in great agonies foon after. Then comes an affecting history of a little boy bit in the leg, and gone down to be dipped in the falt water; when the people have fufficiently fhuddered at that, they are next congealed with a frightful account of a man who was faid lately to have died from a bite he had received fome years before. This relation only prepares the way for another, ftill more hideous; as, how the mafter of a family, with feven fmall children, were all bit by a mad lap-dog, and how the poor father firft perceived the infection by calling for a draught of water, where he faw the lapdog fwimming in the cup. When epidemic terror is thus once excited, every morning comes loaded with fome new difafter; as in ftòries of ghofts each loves to hear the account, though it only ferves to make him uneafy; fo here each liftens with eagerness, and adds to the tidings with new cir cumftances of peculiar horror. A lady, for inftance, in the country, of very weak nerves, has been frighted by the barking of a dog; and this, alas! too frequently happens. The ftory foon is improved, and spreads, that a mad dog had frighted a lady of diftinction. Thele circumstances begin to grow terrible bea fore they have reached the neighbouring village; and there the report is, that a lady of quality was bit by a mad mastiff. This account every moment gathers new ftrength, and grows more difmal as it approaches the capital; and, by the time it has arrived in town, the lady is defcribed with wild eyes, foaming mouth, running mad upon all four, barking like a dog, biting her fervants, and at laft finothered between two beds by the advice of her doctors: while the mad maftiff is in the mean time ranging the whole country over, flavering at the mouth, and feeking whom he may de your. My landlady, a good natured wo❤.. e man, but a little credulous, waked me fome mornings ago before the ufual hour, with horror and aftonishment in her looks; the defired me, if I had any regard for my fafety, to keep within; for a few days ago fo difmal an accident had happened, as to put all the world upon their guard. A mad dog down in the country, the affured me, had bit a farmer, who foon becoming mad, ran into his own yard and bit a fine brindled cow; the cow quickly became as mad as the man, began to foam at the mouth, and raining herself up, walked about on her hind-legs, fometimes barking like a dog, and fometimes attempting to talk like the farmer. Upon examining the grounds of this story, I found my landlady had it from one neighbour, who had it from another neighbour; who heard it from very good authority. Were most stories of this nature thoroughly examined, it would be found that numbers of fuch as have been faid to fuffer were no way injured, and that of those who have been actually bitten, not one in a hundred was bit by a mad dog. Such accounts in general, there fore, only ferve to make the people miferable by falfe terrors, and fometimes fright the patient into actual phrenzy, by creating thofe very fymptoms they pretended to deplore. But even allowing three or four to die in a feason of this terrible death, (and four is probably too large a con ceffion) yet, ftill, it is not confidered how many are preferved in their health and in their property by this devoted animal's fervices. The midnight robber is kept at a distance; the infidious thief is often detected, the healthful chace repairs many a worn conftitution, and the poor man finds in his dog t willing affiftant, eager to leffen his toil, and content with the smallest retribution. A dog,' fays one of the English poets, is an honeft creature, and I am a friend to dogs. Of all the beats that graze the lawn or hunt the foreft, a dog is the only animal that, leaving his fellows, attempts to cultivate the friendship of man; to man he looks in all his neceffities, with a fpeaking eye, for affiftance; exerts for him all the little fervice in his power with chearfulness and pleasure; for him, bears famine and fatigue with patience and refigna tion; no injuries can abate his fidelity, no diftress induce him to forfake his benefactor; studious to please, and fearing to offend, he is ftill an humble, stedfaft dependant; and in him alone fawning is not flattery. How unkind, then, to torture this faithful creature, who has left the forest to claim the protection of man! How ungrateful a return to the trufty animal for all it's fervices! Adieu. LETTER LXX. FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI, TO HINGPO, BY THE WAY OF MOSCOW. be fatisfied fortune is not there; where ever you fee a beautiful woman, goodnatured and obliging, be convinced fortune is never there. In short, she is ever feen accompanying industry, and as often trundling a wheel-barrow, as lolling in a coach and fix. If you would make fortune your friend, or to perfonize her no longer, if you defire, my fon, to be rich, and have money, be more eager to fave than to acquire: when people fay- Money is to be got here, and money is to be got there,' take no notice; mind your own bufinefs; stay where you are; and fecure all you can get, without ftirring, When you hear that your neighbour has picked up a purfe of gold in the reet, |