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who led the condemned wretch to the gallows, was he who faltely fwore his life away" And yet," continued I,

and ftrove to refume my ferenity. But the watchman foon gave me a fecond alarm. I had fcarcely recover

the rest he has got, it will do him fer"vice in Newgate, where we are fending him." This was an inftance of fuch complicated guilt and hypocrify, that I threw down the book in an ago

ny of rage, and began to think with malice of all the human kind. I fat filent for fome minutes; and food perceiving the ticking of my watch beginning to grow noify and troublesome, I quickly placed it out of hearing,

till I was miferable. Morning came, I fought for tranquillity in diffipa⚫tion, fauntered from one place of pub<lic refort to another; but found myfelf difagreeable to my acquaintance, and ridiculous to others. I tried at different times dancing, fencing, and riding; I folved geometrical problems, fhaped tobacco-ftoppers, wrote verses, and cut paper. At laft I placed my affections on mufic; and find, that earneft employment, if it cannot cure, at least will palliate every anxiety." Adieu.

Tis no unpleafing contemplation to

climate have upon the difpofition of the inhabitants, the animals, and vegetables, of different countries. That among the brute creation is much more vifible than in man, and that in vegetables more than either. In fome places, thofe plants which are entirely poifonous at home, lofe their deleterious quality by being carried abroad. There are ferpents in Macedonia fo harmless as to be used as play-things for children; and we are told that, in fome parts of Fez, there are lions fo very timorous as to be fcarsed away, though coming in herds, by the cries of women.

I know of no country, where the influence of climate and foil is more vifible than in England; the fame hidden caufe which gives courage to their dogs and cocks, gives alfo fierceness to their men. But chiefly this ferocity appears among the vulgar. The polite of every country pretty nearly refemble each ther. But as in fimpleing, it is anong

the uncultivated productions of nature, we are to examine the characteristic differences of climate and foil; so in an eftimate of the genius of the people, we must look among the fons of unpolished rufticity. The vulgar English, therefore, may be eafily diftinguished from all the rest of the world by fuperior pride, impatience, and a peculiar hardinefs of foul.

Perhaps no qualities in the world are more fufceptible of a fine polish than these; artificial complaifance and eafy deference being fuperinduced over thefe, generally forms a great character; fomething at once elegant and majestic; affable, yet fincere. Such, in general, are the better fort; but they who are left in primitive rudenefs, are the leaft difpofed for fociety with others, or comfort internally, of any people under the fun.

The poor, indeed, of every country, are but little prone to treat each other with tendernefs; their own miferies are too apt to engross all their pity'; and perhaps, too, they give but little commiferation,

haps that of philofophic mifery is moft truly ridiculousa paffion no where carried to fo extravagant an excess, as in the country where I now refide. It is not enough to engage all the compaffion of a philofopher here, that his own globe is harraffed with wars, peftilence, or barbarity; he shall grieve for the inha bitants of the moon, if the fituation of her imaginary mountains happen to alter; and dread the extinction of the fun, if the fpots on it's furface happen to encreafe. One should imagine that philo fophy was introduced to make men happy, but here it ferves to make hundreds miferable.

My landlady, fome days ago, brought me the diary of a philofopher of this defponding fort, who had lodged in the apartment before me. It contains the history of a life which feems to be one continued tiffue of forrow, apprehenfion, and diftrefs.. A fingle week will ferve as a fpecimen of the whole...

MONDAY.

IN what a tranfient decaying fituation are we placed; and what various rea❤ fons does philofophy furnish to make mankind unhappy! A fingle grain of muflard shall continue to produce it's fimilitude through numberlefs fuccef. fions; yet what has been granted to this little feed, has been denied to our planetary fyftem; the muftard-feed is ftill unaltered, but the fyftem is growing old, and muit quickly fall to decay. How terrible will it be, when the mo tions of all the planets have at laft become fo irregular as to need repairing; when the moon fall fall into frightful paroxyfms of alteration; when the earth, deviating from it's ancient track, and with every other planet forgetting it's circular revolutions, fhall become fo eccentric, that, unconfined by the laws of fyftem, it hall fly off into boundless Space, to knock againft fome diftant world, or fall in upon the fun, either extinguishing his light, or burned up by his flames in a moment! Perhaps, while I write, this dreadful change is begun. Shield me from univerfal ruin! Yet, idiot man laughs, fings, and re joices, in the very face of the fun, and feems no way touched with his fituation.

TUESDAY.

Went to bed in great distress, awaked and was comforted, by confidering that

this change was to happen at fome in-. definite time; and therefore, like death, the thoughts of it might easily be borne, But there is a revolution, a fixed determined revolution, which must certainly. come to pafs; yet which, by good fortune, I shall never feel, except in my pofterity. The obliquity of the equa. tor with the ecliptic is now twenty minutes lefs than when it was obfervedTM two thousand years ago by Piteas. If this be the cafe, in fix thoufand the obliquity will be ftill less by a whole" degree. This being fuppofed, it is evident that our earth, as Louville has clearly proved, has a motion, by which the climates m ft neceffarily change place; and, in the space of one million of years, England hall actually travel to the Antarctic pole. I shudder at the change! How fhall our unhappy grandchildren endure the hideous climate! A million of years will foon be accomplished; they are but a moment, when compared to eternity; then shall our charming country, as I may fay, in a moment of time, refemble the hide

ous wilderness of Nova Zembla.

WEDNESDAY.

To-night, by my calculation, the long-predicted comet is to make it's first appearance. Heavens! what terrors of earth! Dreadful vifitation! Are we are impending over our little dim speck thered in the vapour of it's tail? That to be fcorched in it's fires, or only imois the question! Thoughtless mortals, go build houfes, plant orchards, purchafe eftates, for to-morrow you die. That would be equally fatal! Comets are fervants, which periodically retur to fupply the fun with fuel. If our fung therefore, fhould be disappointed of the expected fupply, and all his fuel be in the mean time burnt out, he muit expires like an exhaufted taper. What a mi

But what if the comet should not come?

ferable fituation must our earth be inf without his enlivening ray! Have we not feen feveral neighbouring funs en tirely difappear? Has not a fixed ftar, near the tail of the Ram, lately been quite extinguished?

The moon is, I find, at her old pranks. Her appulfes, librations, and other irregularities, indeed amaze me. My daughter, too, is this morning gone off with a grenadier. No way furprifing. I was never able to give her a relish for wifdom. She ever promifed to be a mere expletive in the creation." But the moon, the moon gives me real uneafinefs; I fondly fancied I had fixed her. I had thought her conftant, and conftant only to me; but every night difcovers her infidelity, and proves me a defolate and abandoned lover. Adieu.

IT is furprifing what an influence titles fhall have upon the mind, even though these titles be of our own mak ing. Like children, we drefs up the puppets in finery, and then ftand in aftonishment at the plaftic wonder. I have been told of a rat-catcher here, who trolled for a long time about the villages near town, without finding any employment'; at laft, however, be thought proper to take the title of his Majefty's Rat-catcher in Ordinary, and this fucceeded beyond his expectations; when it was known that he caught rats at court, all were ready to give him countenance and employment.

But of all the people, they who make books feem molt perfectly fenfible of the advantage of titular dignity. All feem convinced, that a book written by vulgar hands can neither inftruct nor improve; none but Kings, Chams, and Mandarines, can write with any probability of fuccefs. If the titles inform me right, not only Kings and Courtiers, but Emperors themselves, in this country, periodically fupply the press.

A man here who fhould write, and hoaeftly confefs that he wrote for bread, might as well fend his manuscript to fire the baker's oven; not one creature will read him; all must be court-bred poets, or pretend at least to be court bred, who can expect to please. Should the caitiff fairly avow a defign of emptying our pockets and filling his own, every reader would inftantly forfake

him; even thofe who write for bread themselves would combine to worry him; perfectly fenfible that his attempts only ferved to take the bread out of their mouths.

And yet this filly prepoffeffion the mora amazes me, when I confider, that almost all the excellent productions in wit that have appeared here, were purely the offspring of neceffity; their Drydens," Butlers, Otways, and Farquhars, were all writers for bread. Believe me, my friend, hunger has a most amazing faculty of fharpening the genius; and he who with a full belly can think like a hero, after a courfe of fafting, fhall rife to the fublimity of a demi-god.

But what will most amaze, is, that this very fet of men, who are now so much depreciated by fools, are, however, the very beft writers they have among them at prefent. For my own part, were I to buy an hat, I would not have it from a stocking-maker, but an hatter; were I to buy fhoes, I should not go to the taylor's for that purpose. It is juft fo with regard to wit: did I, for my life, defire to be well ferved, I would apply only to thofe who made it their trade, and lived by it. You smile at the oddity of my opinion; but be affured, my friend, that wit is in fome. measure mechanical: and that a man, long habituated to catch at even it's refemblance, will at last be happy enough to poffefs the fubftance. By a long habit of writing, he acquires a juttrels

of

of thinking, and a mastery of manner, which holi lay-writers, even with ten umes his genius, hay vainly attempt to equal. How then are they deceived, who expect from title, dignity, and exterior circumflance, an excellence which is in fome measure acquired by habit, and fharpened by neceflity! You have feen, like me, many literary reputations promoted by the influence of fashion,

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which have fearce furvived the poffel-. for; you have feen the poor hardly earn the little reputation they acquired, and their merit only acknowledged when they were incapable of enjoying the pleasures of popularity: fuch, however, is the reputation, worth poffeffing; that which is hardly earned is hardly loft. Adieu.

Upon leaving Terki, we took the nearest road to the dominions of Ruffia. We paffed the Ural mountains covered with eternal fnow; and traverfed the forests of Ufa, where the prowling bear and fhrieking hyena keep an undisputed poffeffion. We next embarked up on the rapid river Bulija, and made the belt of our way to the banks of the Wolga, where it waters the fruitful vallies of Cafan.

There were two veffels in company, properly equipped and armed, in order to oppofe the Wolga pirates, who we were informed infelted this river. Of all manking thefe pirates are the moft terrible. They are compofed of the criminals and outlawed pealants of Ruffia, who fly to the forefts that he along the banks of the Wolga for protection. Here they join in parties, lead a favage life, and have no other fubfiftence but plunder. Beng deprived of houses, friends, or a "fixed habitation, they become more terrible even than the tiger, and as infenible to all the feelings of humanity. They neither give quarter to thofe they conquer, nor receive it when overpowered themfelves. The feverity of the laws against them ferve to encreate their barbarity, and feem to make them a neutral (pecies of beings between the wildnefs of the lion and the fubtlety of the

man. When taken alive, their punishment is hideous. A floating gibbet is erected, which is let run down with the stream; here, upon an iron hook ftuck under their ribs, and upon which the whole weight of their body depends, they are left to expire in the most terrible agonies; fome being thus found to linger feveral days fucceffively.

We were but three days voyage from the confluence of this river into the Wolga, when we perceived at a distance behind us an armed barque coming up, with the affiftance of fails and oars, in order to attack us. The dreadful fignal of death was hung upon the matt, and our captain with his glafs could eafily difcern them to be pirates. It is impoffible to exprefs our confternation on this occafion; the whole crew inftantly came together to confult the propereft means of fafety. It was therefore foon determined to fend off our women and valuable commodities in one of our veffels, and that the men fhould stay in the other, and boldly oppofe the enemy. This refolution was foon put into execution, and I now reluctantly parted from the beautiful Zelis for the first time fince our retreat from Perfia. - The veffel in which she was difappeared to my longing eyes, in proportion as that of the pirates approached us. They foon came up; but, upon examining our ftrength, and perhaps fenfible of the manner in which we had fent off our molt valuable effects, they feemned more eager to pursue the veffel we had fent away than attack us. In this manner they continued to harrafs us for three days; till endeavouring to país us withaut fighting. But, on the fourth day, finding it entirely impoffible, and des

pairing