the politeft people in the world, I must make a tranfition to the funeral folemnities of the English, who think themselves as polite as they. The numberlefs ceremonies which are ufed here when a perfon is fick, appear to me fo many evident marks of fear and apprehenfion. Afk an Englishman, however, whether he is afraid of death, and he boldly anfwers in the negative; but obferve his behaviour in circumftances of approaching fickness, and you will find his actions give his affertions the lye.

The Chinese are very fincere in this refpect; they hate to die, and they confefs their terrors: a great part of their life is fpent in preparing things proper for their funeral; a poor artizan fhall fpend half his income in providing himfelf a tomb twenty years before he wants it; and denies himself the neceffaries of life, that he may be amply provided for when he fhall want them no more.

But people of diftinction in England really deferve pity, for they die in circumitances of the most extreme diftrefs. It is an established rule, never to let a man know that he is dying: phyficians are fent for, the clergy are called, and every thing paffes in filent folemnity round the fick bed; the patient is in agonies, looks round for pity, yet not a ingle creature will fay that he is dy ing. If he is poffeffed of fortune, his relations entreat him to make his will, as it may rettore the tranquillity of his mind. He is defired to undergo the rites of the church, for decency requires it. His friends take their leave only be saufe they do not care to fee him in pain,

In fhort, an hundred ftratagems are

make

been induced to perform only by being told Sir, you are paft all hopes, and

had as good think decently of dying.'

Befides all this, the chamber is darkened, the whole houfe echoes to the cries of the wife, the lamentations of the children, the grief of the fervants, and the fighs of friends. The bed is furrounded with priests and doctors in black, and only flambeaux emit a yellow gloom. Where is the man, how intrepid foever, that would not shrink at fuch a hideous folemnity? For fear of affrighting their expiring friends, the English pratife all that can fill them with terror. Strange effect of human prejudice, thus to torture merely from mistaken tenderness!

You fee, my friend, what contradictions there are in the tempers of thofe iflanders; when prompted by ambition, revenge, or difappointment, they meet death with the utmoft refolution; the very man who in his bed would have trembled at the aspect of a doctor, fhall go with intrepidity to attack a baftion, or deliberately noofe himself up in his garters.

The paffion of the Europeans for magnificent interments is equally strong with that of the Chinefe. When a tradefman dies, his frightful face is painted up by an undertaker, and placed in a proper fituation to receive company; this is called lying in ftate. To this difagreeable fpectacle all the idlers in town flock, and learn to loath the wretch dead, whom they defpifed when living. In this manner you fee fome who would have refufed a fhilling to C 2

fave

fave the life of their dearest friend, beftow thousands on adorning their putrid corpfe. I have heen told of a fellow, who, grown rich by the price of blood, left it in his will that he should lie in ftate, and thus unknowingly gibbeted himself into infamy, when he might have otherwife quietly retired into oblivion.

When the perfon is buried, the next care is to make his epitaph; they are generally reckoned belt which flatter moft; fuch relations therefore as have received moft benefits from the defunct, discharge this friendly office; and generally flatter in proportion to their joy. When we read thofe monumental hiftories of the dead, it may be justly faid, that all men are equal in the duft,' for they all appear equally remarkable for being the moit fincere Chriftians, the moft benevolent neighbours, and the honeftelt men of their time. To go through anEuropean cemetery,one would be apt to wonder how mankind could have fo bafely degenerated from fuch excellent ancestors; every tomb pretends to claim your reverence and regret; fome are praised for piety in thofe infcriptions who never entered the temple until they were dead; fome are praifed for being excellent poets, who were never mentioned, except for their dullness, .when living; others for fublime orators, who were never noted except for their impudence; and others ftill for military atchievements, who were never in any other skirmishes but with the watch. Some even make epitaphs for themfelves, and befpeak the reader's good-will. It were indeed to be wifhed, that every man would early learn, in this manner, to make his own; that he would draw it

I

up in terms as flattering as poffible; and that he would make it the employment of his whole life to deferve it!

I have not yet been in a place called Weftminster Abbey, but foon intend to vifit it. There I am told I shall fee juftice done to deceafed merit; none, I am told, are permitted to be buried there but fuch as have adorned as well as improved mankind. There no intruders, by the influence of friends or fortune, prefume to mix their unhal lowed afhes with philofophers, heroes, and poets. Nothing but true merit has a place in that awful fanctuary: the guardianfhip of the tombs is committed to feveral reverend priests, who are never guilty for a fuperior reward of taking down the names of good men, to make room for others of equivocal character, nor ever prophane the facred walls with pageants, that pofterity cannot know, or fhall blush to own.

I always was of opinion, that fepulchral honours of this kind fhould be confidered as a national concern, and not trufted to the care of the priests of any country, how refpectable foever; but from the conduct of the reverend perfonages, whofe difinterefted patriotism I fhall shortly be able to difcover, I am taught to retract my former fentiments. It is true, the Spartans and the Persians made a fine political ufe of fepulchral vanity; they permitted none to be thus interred, who had not fallen in the vindication of their country; a monument thus became a real mark of diftinction, it nerved the hero's arm with tenfold vigour; and he fought without fear, who only fought for a grave. Farewell.

Am juft returned from Weftminfter Abbey, the place of fepulture for the philofophers, heroes, and kings of England. What a gloom do monumental infcriptions and all the venerable remains of deceafed merit infpire! Imagine a temple marked with the hand of antiquity, folemn as religious awe, adorned with all the magnificence of barbarous profufion, dim windows, fretted pillars, long colonades, and dark

them all; they have toiled for an hour to gain a tranfient immortality, and are at length retired to the grave, where they have no attendant but the worm, none to flatter but the epitaph.'

As I was indulging fuch reflections, a gentleman, dreffed in black, perceiving me to be a ftranger, came up, entered into conversation, and politely offered to be my instructor and guide through the temple. If any monument,' faid he,

fhould particularly excite your curiofity, I thall endeavour to fatisfy your demands.' I accepted, with thanks, the gentleman's offer; adding, that I was come to obferve the policy, the wif dom, and the juftice of the English, in conferring rewards upon deceased merit.

If adulation like this,' continued I, be properly conducted, as it can no ways injure thofe who are flattered, fo it may be a glorious incentive to those who are now capable of enjoying it. It is the duty of every good govern. < ment to turn this monumental pride to it's own advantage, to become ftrong in the aggregate from the weaknefs of the individual. If none but the truly great have a place in this awful repofitory, a temple like this will give the fineft leffons of morality, and be a ftrong incentive to true ambition. I am told, that none have a ⚫ place here but characters of the most

diftinguifhed merit.' The man in black feemed impatient at my obfervations; fo I difcontinued my remarks, and we walked on together to take a view of every particular monument in order as it lay.

As the eye is naturally caught by the finct objects. I could not avoid being particularly curious about one monument which appeared more beautiful than the reft;That,' faid I to my guide, I take to be the tomb of fome

very great man. By the peculiar ex<cellence of the workmanship, and the magnificence of the defign, this mutt be a trophy railed to the memory of fome king who has faved his country from ruin; or law-giver, who has re. duced his fellow-citizens from anarchy into juft fubjection. It is not requifite,' replied my companion, fmiling, to have fuch qualifications in order to have a very fine monument ⚫ here. More humble abilities will fuffice.' What, I fuppofe, then, the gaining two or three battles, or the

6

taking half a score towns, is thought

a fufficient qualification ?'➡ Gaining battles, or taking towns,' replied the man in black, may be of fervice; but a gentleman may have a very fine 'monument here without ever seeing a battle or a fiege. This then is the • monument of fome poet, I prefume; of one whose wit has gained him immortality? No, Sir,' replied my guide, the gentleman who lies here never made verfes; and as for wit, he defpifed it in others, because he had none himfelf. Pray tell me then in a word,' faid I, peevishly,' what is the great man who lies here parti'cularly remarkable for?'-' Remarkable, Sir!' said my companion; why, Sir, the gentleman that lies here is remarkable, very remarkable-for a ⚫ tomb in Westminster Abbey.'-' But, head of my Ancestors! how has he got here? I fancy he could never bribe the guardians of the temple to give him a place: Should he not be ashamed to be feen among company, where even moderate merit would look like infamy? I fuppofe,' replied the man in black, the gentleman was rich, and his friends, as is ufual in such a cafe, told him he was great. He readily believed them; the guardians of the temple, as they got by the felfdelufion, were ready to believe him too; fo he paid his money for a fine monument; and the workman, as you fee, has made him one the most beautiful. Think not, however, that this gentleman is fingular in his defire of being buried among the great; there are feveral others in the temple, who, hated and fhunned by the great while alive, have come here, fully resolved to keep them company now they are 'dead.'

As we walked along to a particular part of the temple There, fays the gentleman, pointing with his finger,

that is the Poets Corner; there you fee the monuments of Shakespeare, and Milton, and Prior, and Drayton." Drayton,' I replied, I never heard of him before; but I have been told of one Pope, is he there?'-' It is time enough,' replied my guide, thefe hundred years, he is not long dead, people have not done hating him yet. Strange!' cried I,

any

can

be found to hate a man, whofe life was wholly fpent in entertaining • and

and inftructing his fellow-creatures?' -- Yes,' fays my guide; they hate ⚫ him for that very reafon. There are a fet of men called anfwerers of books, who take upon them to watch the republic of letters, and diftribute reputation by the fheet; they fomewhat refemble the eunuchs in a feraglio, who are incapable of giving pleafure themselves, and hinder thofe that would. Thefe antwerers have no other employment but to cry out Dunce, and Scribbler; to praife the dead, and revile the living; to grant a man of confeffed abilities fome imall fhare of merit, to applaud twenty blockheads in order to gain the reputation of candour, and to revile the moral character of the man whofe writings they cannot injure. Such wretches are kept in pay by fome mercenary bookfeller, or more frequently, the bookfeller himself takes this dirty work off their hands, as all that is required is to be very abufive and very dull; every Poet of any genius is fure to find fuch enemies; he feels, though he feems to defpife their malice, they make him miferable here, and in the purfuit of empty fame, at last he gains folid anxiety.'

Has this been the cafe with every poet I fee here?' cried I. Yes, with every mother's fon of them,' replied he, except he happened to be born a mandarine. If he has much money, he may buy reputation from your book anfwerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of the ⚫ temple.'

<

But are there not fome men of diftinguished taste, as in China, who are willing to patronize men of merit, and foften the rancour of malevolent dul'nefs?'

I own there are many,' replied the man in black; ' but, alas! Sir, the book anfwerers croud about them, and call themfelves the writers of books; and the patron is too indolent to diftinguid: thus poets are kept at a diftance, while their enemies eat up all their rewards at the mandarine's table.'

Leaving this part of the temple, we made up to an iron gate, through which my companion told me we were to pafs in order to fee the monuments of the kings. Accordingly I marched up, without further ceremony, and was go.

ing to enter, when a perfon, who held the gate in his hand, told me I must pay firit. I was furprifed at fuch a demand; and afked the man whether the people of England kept a fhere? Whether the paltry fum he demanded was not a national reproach? Whether it was not more to the honour of the country to let their magnificence or their antiquities be openly feen, than thus meanly to tax a curiofity which tended to their own bonour? As for your questions,' replied the gate-kceper, to be fure they

may be very right, because I don't understand them; but as for that there three-pence, I farm it from one, who " rents it from another, who hires it from a third, who leafes it from the guardians of the temple, and we all muft live. I expected, upon paying here, to fee fomething extraordinary, fince what I had feen for nothing filled me with so much surprise; but in this I was disappointed; there was little more within than black coffins, rufty armour, tattered ftandards, and fome few flovenly figures in wax. I was forry I had paid, but I comforted myself by confidering it would be my last payment. A perfon attended us, who, without once blufhing, told an hundred lyes; he talked of a lady who died by pricking her finger, of a king with a golden head, and twenty fuch pieces of abfurdity.

Look ye there, gentlemen,' fays he, pointing to an old oak chair, there's a curiofity for ye! in that chair the kings of England were crowned; you fee alfo a stone underneath, and that ftone is Jacob's pillow.' I could see no curiofity either in the oak chair or the stone; could I, indeed, behold one of the old kings of England feated in this, or Jacob's head laid upon the other, there might be fomething curious in the fight; but, in the prefent cale, there was no more reafon for my furprize than if I fhould pick a ftone from their streets, and call it a curiofity, merely becaufe one of the kings happened to tread upon it as he paffed in a proceffion.

From hence our conductor led us through feveral dark walks and winding ways, uttering lyes, talking to himself, and flouring a wand which he held in his hand. He reminded me of the black magicians of Kobi. After we had been almost fatigued with a variety of obic&ts, he, at last, defired me to confider atten.