st and most trifling consideration. If eir goods and chattels can be brought to aite, their sympathetic souls are ever ady to guarantee the treaty. The gentleian's mortgaged lawn becomes enamoured f the lady's marriageable grove: the match struck up, and both parties are piously a love-according to act of parliament. Thus they who have fortune are posessed at least of something that is lovely; ut I actually pity those that have none. I am told there was a time when ladies, with no other merit but youth, virtue, and beauty, had a chance for husbands, at least Among the ministers of the church, or the pcers of the army. The blush and innocence of sixteen was said to have a powerful influence over these two professions. But of late all the little traffic of blushing, oging, dimpling, and smiling, has been forbidden by an act in that case wisely made and provided. A lady's whole cargo of miles, sighs, and whispers, is declared erly contraband, till she arrives in the warm latitudes of twenty-two, where comadities of this nature are too often found decay. She is then permitted to dimple d smile when the dimples and smiles n to forsake her; and, when perhaps Fan ugly, is charitably entrusted with unlimited use of her charms. Her kers, however, by this time have for en her: the captain has changed for ther mistress; the priest himself leaves rin solitude to bewail her virginity; and e dies even without benefit of clergy. Thus you find the Europeans disuraging Love with as much earnestness the rudest savage of Sofala. The Genius surely now no more. In every region find enemies in arms to oppress him. Avarice in Europe, jealousy in Persia, eremony in China, poverty among the artars, and lust in Circassia, are all preared to oppose his power. The Genius certainly banished from earth, though ace adored under such a variety of forms. He is nowhere to be found; and all that me ladies in each country can produce tre but a few trifling relics, as instances of his former residence and favour.

"The Genius of Love," says the Eastern pologue, "had long resided in the happy plains of Abra, where every breeze was

health, and every sound produced tranquillity. His temple at first was crowded, but every age lessened the number of his votaries, or cooled their devotion. Perceiving, therefore, his altars at length quite deserted, he was resolved to remove to some more propitious region, and he apprised the fair sex of every country where he could hope for a proper reception, to assert their right to his presence among them. In return to this proclamation embassies were sent from the ladies of every part of the world to invite him, and to display the superiority of their claims.

"And first the beauties of China appeared. No country could compare with them for modesty, either of look, dress, or behaviour: their eyes were never lifted from the ground; their robes of the most beautiful silk hid their hands, bosom, and neck, while their faces only were left uncovered. They indulged no airs that might express loose desire, and they seemed to study only the graces of inanimate beauty. Their black teeth and plucked eyebrows were, however, alleged by the Genius against them, and he set them entirely aside when he came to examine their little feet.

"The beauties of Circassia next made their appearance. They advanced handin-hand, singing the most immodest airs, and leading up a dance in the most luxurious attitudes. Their dress was but half a covering; the neck, the left breast, and all the limbs, were exposed to view, which, after some time, seemed rather to satiate than inflame desire. The lily and the rose contended in forming their complexions; and a soft sleepiness of eye added irresistible poignancy to their charms: but their beauties were obtruded, not offered, to their admirers; they seemed to give, rather than receive, courtship; and the Genius of Love dismissed them as unworthy his regard, since they exchanged the duties of love, and made themselves not the pursued, but the pursuing sex.

The kingdom of Cashmire next produced its charming deputies. This happy region seemed peculiarly sequestered by nature for his abode. Shady mountains fenced it on one side from the scorching sun, and sea-borne breezes on the other

gave peculiar luxuriance to the air. Their complexions were of a bright yellow, that appeared almost transparent, while the crimson tulip seemed to blossom on their cheeks. Their features and limbs were delicate beyond the statuary's power to express, and their teeth whiter than their own ivory. He was almost persuaded to reside among them, when unfortunately one of the ladies talked of appointing his seraglio.

"In this procession the naked inhabitants of Southern America would not be left behind; their charms were found to surpass whatever the warmest imagination could conceive, and served to show, that beauty could be perfect, even with the seeming disadvantage of a brown complexion. But their savage education rendered them utterly unqualified to make the proper use of their power, and they were rejected as being incapable of uniting mental with sensual satisfaction. In this manner the deputies of other kingdoms had their suits rejected: the black beauties of Benin, and the tawny daughters of Borneo; the women of Wida, with wellscarred faces, and the hideous virgins of Caffraria; the squab ladies of Lapland, three feet high, and the giant fair ones of Patagonia.

"The beauties of Europe at last appeared: grace was in their steps, and sensibility sat smiling in every eye. It was the universal opinion while they were approaching, that they would prevail; and the Genius seemed to lend them his most favourable attention. They opened their pretensions with the utmost modesty; but unfortunately, as their orator proceeded, she happened to let fall the words, house in town, settlement, and pin-money. These seemingly harmless terms had instantly a surprising effect: the Genius with ungovernable rage burst from amidst the circle; and, waving his youthful pinions, left this earth, and flew back to those ethereal mansions from whence he descended.

"The whole assembly was struck with amazement; they now justly apprehended, that female power would be no more, since Love had forsaken them. They continued some time thus in a state of torpid despair,

when it was proposed by one of the num that since the real Genius had left th in order to continue their power, th should set up an idol in his stead; a that the ladies of every country sho furnish him with what each liked be This proposal was instantly relished a agreed to. An idol was formed by uniti the capricious gifts of all the assembl though no way resembling the departe Genius. The ladies of China furnished ti monster with wings; those of Cashmi supplied him with horns; the dames Europe clapped a purse in his hand; a the virgins of Congo furnished him wi a tail. Since that time all the vOW addressed to Love are in reality paid to th idol; but, as in other false religions, th adoration seems most fervent where t heart is least sincere."-Adieu.

LETTER CXV.

To the same.

MANKIND have ever been prone to e patiate in the praise of human nature The dignity of man is a subject that ha always been the favourite theme humanity: they have declaimed with the ostentation which usually acompanies suc as are sure of having a partial audience they have obtained victories because ther were none to oppose. Yet, from all have ever read or seen, men appear mor apt to err by having too high, than b having too despicable an opinion of thei nature; and, by attempting to exalt thei original place in creation, depress thei real value in society.

The most ignorant nations have alway been found to think most highly of them selves. The Deity has ever been though peculiarly concerned in their glory and preservation; to have fought their barties and inspired their teachers: their wizanis are said to be familiar with heaven; and every hero has a guard of angels, as well as men, to attend him. When the Por tuguese first came among the wretched inhabitants of the coast of Africa, these savage nations readily allowed the stranger more skill in navigation and war; yet st considered them at best but as useful servants, brought to their coast by the guardian serpent, to supply them with

xuries they could have lived without. hough they could grant the Portuguese ore riches, they could never allow them have such a king as their Tottimondelem, ho wore a bracelet of shells round his eck, and whose legs were covered with

ory.

In this manner, examine a savage in the istory of his country and predecessors, on ever find his warriors able to conquer rmies, and his sages acquainted with more han possible knowledge. Human nature s to him an unknown country: he thinks t capable of great things, because he is gnorant of its boundaries; whatever can be conceived to be done, he allows to be possible, and whatever is possible, he conjetures must have been done. He never measures the actions and powers of others by what himself is able to perform; nor makes a proper estimate of the greatness sfellows, by bringing it to the standard his own incapacity. He is satisfied to be one of a country where mighty things have been; and imagines the fancied powers of others reflect a lustre on himself. Tas, by degrees, he loses the idea of his wn insignificance in a confused notion the extraordinary powers of humanity, Eis willing to grant extraordinary gifts every pretender, because unacquainted h their claims.

This is the reason why demigods and Leroes have ever been erected in times or antries of ignorance and barbarity: they dressed a people who had high opinions human nature, because they were ignoat how far it could extend; they addressed people who were willing to allow that en should be gods, because they were yet perfectly acquainted with God and with Lan. These impostors knew, that all men we naturally fond of seeing something ery great made from little materials of manity; that ignorant nations are not more proud of building a tower to reach heaven, or a pyramid to last for ages, an of raising up a demigod of their own ountry and creation. The same pride hat erects a colossus or a pyramid instals * god or an hero; but though the adoring avage can raise his colossus to the clouds, Be can exalt the hero not one inch above he standard of humanity: incapable,

therefore, of exalting the idol, he debases himself, and falls prostrate before him.

When man has thus acquired an erroneous idea of the dignity of his species, he and the gods become perfectly intimate; men are but angels, angels are but men— nay, but servants, that stand in waiting to execute human commands. The Persians, for instance, thus address their prophet Haly: "I salute thee, glorious Creator, of whom the sun is but the shadow. Masterpiece of the Lord of human creatures, great star of justice and religion! The sea is not rich and liberal but by the gifts of thy munificent hands. The angel treasurer of heaven reaps his harvest in the fertile gardens of the purity of thy nature. The primum mobile would never dart the ball of the sun through the trunk of heaven, were it not to serve the morning, out of the extreme love she has for thee. The angel Gabriel, messenger of truth, every day kisses the groundsel of thy gate. Were there a place more exalted than the most high throne of God, I would affirm it to be thy place, O master of the faithful! Gabriel, with all his art and knowledge, is but a mere scholar to thee." Thus, my friend, men think proper to treat angels; but if indeed there be such an order of beings, with what a degree of satirical contempt must they listen to the songs of little mortals thus flattering each other: thus to see creatures, wiser indeed than the monkey, and more active than the oyster, claiming to themselves the mastery of heaven! minims, the tenants of an atom, thus arrogating a partnership in the creation of universal nature! Sure Heaven is kind, that launches no thunder at those guilty heads: but it is kind, and regards their follies with pity, nor will destroy creatures that it loved into being.

But whatever success this practice of making demigods might have been attended with in barbarous nations, I do not know that any man became a god in a country where the inhabitants were refined. Such countries generally have too close an inspection into human weakness, to think it invested with celestial power. They sometimes indeed admit the gods of strangers, or of their ancestors, which had their existence in times of obscurity; their weakness

being forgotten, while nothing but their power and their miracles were remembered. The Chinese, for instance, never had a god of their own country: the idols which the vulgar worship at this day were brought from the barbarous nations around them. The Roman emperors who pretended to divinity were generally taught by a poniard that they were mortal; and Alexander, though he passed among barbarous countries for a real god, could never persuade his polite countrymen into a similitude of thinking. The Lacede monians shrewdly complied with his commands by the following sarcastic edict:Εἰ ̓Αλέξανδρος βουλέται εἶναι θεός, θεὸς ἔστω.

LETTER CXVI.

To the same.

Adieu.

THERE is something irresistibly pleasing in the conversation of a fine woman; even though her tongue be silent, the eloquence of her eyes teaches wisdom. The mind sympathises with the regularity of the object in view, and, struck with external grace, vibrates into respondent harmony. In this agreeable disposition, I lately found myself in company with my friend and his niece. Our conversation turned upon love, which she seemed equally capable of defending and inspiring. We were each of different opinions upon this subject: the lady insisted that it was a natural and universal passion, and produced the happiness of those who cultivated it with proper precaution; my friend denied it to be the work of nature, but allowed it to have a real existence, and affirmed, that it was of infinite service in refining society; while I, to keep up the dispute, affirmed it to be merely a name, first used by the cunning part of the fair sex, and admitted by the silly part of ours; therefore no way more natural than taking snuff, or chewing opium.

"How is it possible," cried I, "that such a passion can be natural, when our opinions even of beauty, which inspires it, are entirely the result of fashion and caprice? The ancients, who pretended to be connoisseurs in the art, have praised narrow foreheads, red hair, and eyebrows that joined each other above the nose.

Such were the charms that once captiv Catullus, Ovid, and Anacreon. La would at present be out of humour, ift lovers praised them for such graces; should an antique beauty now revive, face would certainly be put under the cipline of the tweezer, forehead-cloth, lead comb, before it could be seen in pa company.

"But the difference between the anc and moderns is not so great as bets the different countries of the present wi A lover of Gongora, for instance, sigh thick lips: a Chinese lover is poetic praise of thin. In Circassia a stra nose is thought most consistent beauty: : cross but a mountain which s rates it from the Tartars, and there noses, tawny skins, and eyes three in asunder, are all the fashion. In Pe and some other countries, a man, whe marries, chooses to have his bride a m in the Philippine Islands, if a bridegr happens to perceive, on the first nig that he is put off with a virgin, the marri is declared void to all intents and purpos and the bride sent back with disgrace, some parts of the East a woman of beau properly fed up for sale, often amounts one hundred crowns: in the kingdom Loango ladies of the very best fashion sold for a pig ; queens, however, sell bett and sometimes amount to a cow. In sha turn even to England, don't I there s the beautiful part of the sex neglecte and none now marrying or making lov but old men and old women that hay saved money? Don't I see beauty frox fifteen to twenty-one rendered null an void to all intents and purposes, and the six precious years of womanhood put grd a statute of virginity? What! shall I ca that rancid passion love, which pasɛ between an old bachelor of fifty-six and widow lady of forty-nine? Never, never what advantage is society to reap from intercourse, where the big belly is ofters on the man's side? Would any perua me that such a passion was natural, uning the human race were more fit for love! they approached the decline, and, like sik worms, became breeders just before the expired?"

"Whether love be natural or no," rep

Lade