muft own, that you did it then fingly to please, and you were in the right of it. Why do you wear fine clothes, and curl your hair? Both are troublesome ; lank locks, and plain flimfy rags are much easier. This then you alfo do in order to please, and you do Every right. But then, reafon and act confequentially; and endeavour to please in other things too, ftill more effential, and without which the trouble you have taken in those is wholly thrown away. You are by no means ill-natured, and would you then most unjuftly be reckoned fo? Yet your common countenance intimates and would make any body, who did not know you, believe it. A-propos of this; I must tell you what was faid the other day to a fine lady whom you know, who is very good natured in truth, but whose common countenance implies ill-nature, even to brutality. It was Mifs Hn, lady My's niece, whom you have feen at Blackheath, and at lady Hervey's. Lady M-y was faying to me, that you had a very engaging countenance when you had a mind to it, but that you had not always that mind; upon which Mifs H- -n faid,that she liked your countenance best when it was as glum as her own. Why then, replied lady My, you two fhould marry; for, while you wear your worst countenances, nobody elfe will venture upon either of you; and they call her now Mrs. Stanhope. To complete this douceur of countenance and motions, which I fo earnestly recommend to you, you fhould carry it alfo to your expreffions and manner of thinking; take the gentle, the favourable, the indulgent fide of most questions. I own, that the manly and fublime John Trott, your countryman, feldom does; but, to fhow his fpirit and decifion, takes the rough and harsh fide, which he generally adorns with an oath, to feem more formidable. This he only thinks fine; for, to do John juftice, he is commonly as good natured as any body. These are among the many little things which you have not, and I have liv ed long enough in the world to know of what infinite confequence they are, in the course of life. Reason then, I repeat it again, within yourself, confequentially a N n

and let not the pains you have taken, and still take, to please in fome things, be à pure perte t, by your negli gence of, and inattention to others, of much lefs trouble, and much more confequence.

I have been of late much engaged, or rather bewildered, in oriental history, particularly that of the Jews, fince the destruction of their temple, and their difperfon by Titus; but the confufion and uncertainty of the whole, and the monstrous extravagances and falfehoods of the greatest part of it,difgufted me extremely. Their Thalmud, their Mischnah, their Targums, and other traditions and writings of their rabbins and docters, who were most of them cabilifts, are really more extravagant and abfurd, if poffible, than all that you have read in comte de Gabalis; and indeed most of his tuff is taken from them. Take this fample of their nonfenfe, which is tranfmitted in the writings of one of their most confiderable rabbins. "One Abbas Saul, a man of ten feet high, was digging a grave, and happened to find the eye of Goliath, in which he thought proper to bury himself; and fo did, all but his head, which the giant's eye was unfortunately not quite deep enough to receive." This, I affure you, is the mot

modeft lie of ten thousand. I have alfo read the Turkish hiftory, which, excepting the religious part, is not fabulous, though very poffibly not true. For the

Turks, having no notion of letters, and being, even by their religion, forbidden the use of them, except for reading and tranfcribing the Koran, they have no hiftorians of their own, nor any authentic records or memorials for other hiftorians to work upon; fo that what hiftories we have of that country are written by foreigners, as Platina, Sir Paul Rycaut, Prince Cantemir, &c. or elfe fnatches only of particular and short periods, by fome who happened to refide there at thofe times, fuch as Bufbequius, whom I have just finished. I like him, as far as he goes, much the best of any of them but then his account is, properly only an account of his own embaffy from the emperor Charles the Vth. to Solyman the Magnificent. However, there Entirely to lofse

he gives, epifodically, the beft account I know, of the customs and manners of the Turks, and of the nature of that government, which is a meft extraordinary one. For, defpotic as it always feems, and fometimes is, it is in truth a military republic; and the real power refides in the janiffaries, who fometimes order their fultan to ftrangle his vizir, and fometimes the vizir to depofe or ftrangle his fultan, according as they happen to be angry at the one or the other. I own I am glad that the capital ftrangler fhould, in his turn, be fran gleable, and now and then ftrangled; for I know of no brute fo fierce, nor criminal fo guilty, as the creature called a fovereign, whether king, fultan or fophy, who thinks himself, either by divine or human right, vefted with an abfolute power of destroying his fellow-creatures; or who, without inquiring into his right, lawlefsly exerts that power. The moft excufeable of all thofe human monfters are the Turks, whofe religion teaches them inevitable fatalifm.

I do not yet hear one jot the better for all my bathings and pumpings, though I have been here already full half my time; I confequently go very little into company, being very little fit for any. I hope you keep company enough for us both; you will get more by that, than I fhall by all my reading. I read fingly to amufe myself, and fill up my time, of which I have too much ; but you have two much better reafons for going into company, pleasure and profit. May you find a great deal of both, in a great deal of company.Adieu !

LETTER CLVI.

Court of Manheim... Good-breeding fecures a good Reception... Affairs of France...Danger to established Government from the Military...Another Prophecy of the French Revolu tion...The Reajons.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Lordon, December the 25th.

YESTERDAY again I received two letters at once

from you, the one of the 7th, the other of the 15th, from Manheim.

You never had in your life fo good a reafon for not writing, either to me or to any body elfe, as your fore finger lately furnished you. I believe it was painful, and I am glad it is cured; but a fore finger, however painful, is a much leffer evil than laziness, of either body or mind, and attended by fewer ill confequences.

I am very glad to hear that you were diftinguished at the court of Manheim, from the rest of your countrymen and fellow-travellers: it is a fign that you had better manners and addrefs than they; for, take it for granted, the beft-bred people will always be the best received, wherever they go. Good manners are the fettled medium of focial, as specia is of commercial life; returns are equally expected for both; and people will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt. I really both hope and believe that the German courts will do you a great deal of good; their ceremony and restraint being the proper correctives and antidotes for your negligence and inattention. I believe they would not greatly relifh your weltering in your own lazinefs and an eafy chair; nor take it very kindly, if, when they fpoke to you, or you to them, you looked another way. As they give, fo they require attention; and, by the way, take this maxim for an undoubted truth, that no young man can poffibly improve in any company for which he has not refpect enough to be under fome degree of reftraint.

As my letters to you frequently miscarry, I will repeat in this that part of my laft which related to your future motions. Whenever you shall be tired of Berlin, go to Drefden; where Sir Charles Williams will be, who will receive you with open arms. He dined with me to-day; and fets out for Dresden in about fix weeks. He spoke of you with great kindnefs, and impatience to fee you again. He will truft and employ you in business (and he is now in the whole fecret of importance) till we fix our place to meet in; which, probably will be Spa. Wherever you are, inform yourfelf minutely of, and attend particularly to the affairs of

France; they grow ferious, and, in my opinion, will grow more and more fo every day. The king is def pised, and I do not wonder at it; but he has brought it about to be hated at the fame time, which feldom happens to the fame man. His minifters are known to be as difunited as incapable: he hesitates between the church and the parliaments, like the afs in the fable, that ftarved between two hampers of hay; too much in love with his miftrefs to part with her, and too much afraid for his foul to enjoy her jealous of the parliaments, who would fupport his authority, and a devoted bigot to the church, that would destroy it. The people are poor, confequently difcontented: those who have religion are divided in their notions of it; which is faying, that they hate one another. The clergy never do forgive, much lefs will they forgive the parliament: the parliament never will forgive them. The army muft, without doubt, take, in their own minds at least, different parts in all thefe difputes, which, upon occafion would break out. Armies though always the fupporters and tools of abfolute power for the time being, are always the deftroyers of it too, by frequently changing the hands in which they think proper to lodge it. This was the cafe of the prætorian bands, who depofed and murdered the monfters they had raised to opprefs mankind. The janiffaries in Turkey, and the regiment of guards in Ruffia do the fame now. The French nation reafons freely, which they never did before, upon matters of religion and government; the officers do fo too: in fhort, all the symptoms, which I have ever met with in hiftory, previous to great changes and revolutions in government, now exift,and daily increase in France. I am glad of it; the reft of Europe will be quieter, and have time to recover. England, I am fure, wants reft; for it wants men and money: the republic of the United Provinces wants both, ftill more: the other powers cannot well dance, when neither France, nor the mari. time powers, can, as they ufed to do, pay the piper The firft fquabble in Europe, that I forefee, will be about the crown of Poland; fhould the pr