CORNEX.L 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Gift of 
 
 J. p. Merton 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PQ 2011.L5E4 1901 
 
 3 1924 027 361 439 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027361439 
 
Copyright, 1901, 
 
 M. WALTER DUNNE, 
 
 PUBLISHER 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A Dream op the Orient . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Hand-painted photogravure after the painting 
 by Benjamin Constant 
 
 The Sword Dance . . . . . . .145 
 
 Photogravure after the painting by GSrome 
 
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 IF BVBR satire had a distinct call to duty it was daring 
 the Regency in France. The ruling class was honey- 
 combed with corruption. T he country was groanin g 
 under its monarchical afflictions. There seemed to be no 
 hope for the peoples salvation from disastrous fate. They 
 were patient, long-suffering beasts of burden, content to be 
 saddled, bridled, and ridden by a pestiferous breed of hea rt- 
 le ss incompetents, whose sole object in lifp was s plfisVi 
 pl>'g«;iirp at anyone's expense but their own ^_^The cauldron 
 was seething meanwhile, but did not boil over till near the 
 century end. 
 
 This was a splendid opportunity for great souls with great 
 courage, if any had existed. The old prophets of Israel 
 would have madie the hills echo with their ringing denuncia- 
 tions of wickedness in high places. Strong champions of 
 human rights would have flashed the sword and fired the 
 spirits of men worthy the name into triumphant vindication 
 of the common right to fair play. But the patriotism of 
 the period was a sorry substitute for the genuine thingc 
 It whined and whispered when it should have shouted. It 
 meekly accepted the r6le of the deaf and dumb Fenella, 
 popping out here and there with mysterious gesticulations 
 and enigmatical signalings, which conveyed meanings of 
 momentous importance, or none, according as one chose to 
 interpret them. The reformer spoke with a muzzle on his 
 mouth, and sometimes it was a golden one. 
 
 The satirist is usually a reluctant martyr. He seeks to 
 do good but prefers to do it by stealth and suggestion. 
 Montesquieu was more, or less, than a satirist. A man 
 of high education, versed in the theory and practice of 
 law, an aristocrat of title and wealth, occupying a public 
 position of great influence. He might have given bold 
 utterance to his sentiments and defied officialdom. Instead, 
 he chose the smoother path. He would poke mild - fun at 
 
 (ix) 
 
X PERSIAN AND CHINESE LETTERS 
 
 the abuses of the day. To do this in his own person might 
 not be so effective as if it purported to be the spontaneous 
 impressions of some foreign traveler. The^jOrientaJi mind 
 Tras^^knoffisJ»'i>e™siB®B;Ml3L«P,«0elraJax««^^ 
 at the gist of things and expressing keen judgments with a 
 suawfy''which Jorhade'"jke^^XS^kmg o£ offense. Bd'lvJonTgS- 
 quieu adopted the device of a series of familiar letters ex- 
 changed by t wp Persian travelers in France. They were 
 completed in |72i7~' 
 
 Popular taste was captivated by the wit and pleasantry of 
 the "I,etters." They gently satirized the abuses rife in church 
 and state; society was held up to ridicule for its pet sins, 
 and when an occasional thrust hurt too deeply, the gentle 
 satiris t administ grcd t'^"' pglliaAiia?. n£. A_drQlL-Bt<My,- to show 
 that censors, wete not necessarily jiscgtics. Voltaire was a 
 master in this department, as in so many others, and in 
 pride of conscious superiority he ventured to sneer at Mon- 
 tesquieu's appearance as a reformer in the masque of a 
 Persian philosopher. Anybody, said he, could have written 
 the "Persian I^etters," and straightway he betook himself to 
 the industry of concocting his serio-comic Oriental romances. 
 
 To Montesquieu, nevertheless, belongs the honor of pioneer- 
 ing the movement out of which grew the philosophical 
 dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and the literary crusade against 
 mental subjection. The quick popularity of the "Letters" 
 alarmed the court and its minions. Less was heard of the 
 book during several years preceding the publication of the 
 author's next and more serious work. Considerations sur ie /'. 
 Grandeur et la Dicadence des Remains, which appeared in "^ 
 1734. This was followed in fourteen years by ih& Esprit des 
 Lois, the work on which Montesquieu's philosophic reputa- 
 tion safely rests, as his lighter fame is upheld by the 
 "Persian Letters." Allowing for the changed times and 
 conditions, these are still enjoyable for their literary grace 
 and for the light they throw on frivolities and failings 
 which have not even yet wholly vanished from the earth. 
 
 Oriental letters being a literary fad of the day, it was in- 
 evitable that Oliver Goldsmith should indulge his whim of 
 " leaving scarcely any kind of writing untouched " ; hence 
 his series of Letters from Lien Chi Altangi, the Chinese 
 
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 philosoplier in London. Whether in these he justified the 
 rest of the clause in his famous epitaph and * touched 
 nothing that he did not adorn," each reader will decide for 
 himself. Goldsmith had the inestimable advantage over 
 Montesquieu of having lived, struggled, suffered, and tri- 
 umphed in the every-day world. The man born to wealth 
 and ease can at best only look at or into what the handi- 
 capped struggler actually and smartingly endures. To the 
 Grub Street starveling in Chinese petticoats life was more 
 real than to the rich Persian in Paris. Goldsmith was in 
 no disguise at all when posing as a philosopher. He was 
 never ^anything else, even when playing the fool with his 
 pen to earn those earlier pittances by stirring mirth that 
 always held the essence of tears. In picturing the lighter 
 follies of society, he never fails to wind imperceptibly right 
 into the core of the subject, and leaves us at the brink of 
 profound reflectiveness on the root-causes of evils at whose 
 superficial manifestations he has made us smile. 
 
 These Chinese letters are in the strictest sense by a wide- 
 experienced Citizen of the World. They photograph many 
 a quaint character whose types are as familiar to us as his 
 originals were to Goldsmith. The living portrait gallery 
 will fit generations yet to come. Not characters only but 
 movements, political and social, great problems in govern- 
 ment, art, education, and taste are mirrored and discussed 
 with a breadth and charm not found elsewhere. Gold- 
 smith's many-sidedness is displayed in these Ivctters, which 
 are occasionally elaborated in other of his writings. Inter- 
 est in each group of these I^etters, Persian and Chinese, 
 French and English, is enhanced by their juxtaposition in 
 this volume. They are the best examples of a passing 
 style in literature for which much could be said then, and 
 perhaps might be said now, if equally gifted observers with 
 equal charm of manner were to let us see ourselves as 
 others see us. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Introduction i 
 
 Some Reflections on the Persian Letters 25 
 
 Persian Letters 31 
 
 Chinese Letters 
 
 The Citizen of the World . 295 
 
 (xiii) 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 OF Aix, great French authors perhaps Montesquieu is the 
 least known in this country. It is more than a hun- 
 dred years since any work of his was translated into 
 English, and no greater sign of the neglect which has be- 
 fallen him could be instanced than the infrequency of the 
 appearance of his name in our periodical and journalistic 
 literature, at a time when our ideas of government are once 
 more in the crucible. The greater fame of Voltaire and 
 Rousseau, and the absorbing interest of the French Revo- 
 lution, are the principal causes of this neglect ; at the same 
 time, had there been anything in the shape of a true bio- 
 graphy of Montesquieu, a living picture of the man, the 
 operation of these causes might have been in some degree 
 obviated. 
 
 It was the custom under the ancien rigime in the great 
 law-families for the eldest son to compose a life of his 
 father : a document designed to hide the actual man behind 
 a mask of the domestic and legal virtues so effectually that 
 his friends and colleagues should be unable to recognize 
 him. Such a mSmoire pour servir in the highest style of 
 the art, Montesquieu's son prepared and published in 1755. 
 The eulogies of D'Alembert, Maupertuis, and the Chevalier 
 de Solignac, founded, all of them, so far as they refer to 
 Montesquieu's life, upon this filial effigy, represent only a 
 mask with the conventional air proper to a great and good 
 man. 
 
 This lack of a truthful picture has, of course, had a bad 
 effect on Montesquieu's fame in France as well as in Eng- 
 land, lycast known, until recently, as regards his life, of 
 all the great Frenchmen of the eighteenth century, he has 
 had perhaps the most varied fortune of all writers of that 
 or any other age. For about fifty years after his death, 
 his reputation was unrivaled ; but from 1789 till 1814, the 
 I (I) 
 
2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 alternations of feeling toward him in France were as ex- 
 travagant as if he had been a living agent in the Revolu- 
 tion and its sequel, "now extolled to the clouds as the 
 master of political science, as the man of genius who had 
 rediscovered the title deeds of the human race ; now de- 
 nounced as latidator temporis acti, the apostle of privilege, 
 and the defender of abuses." Abandoned and condemned 
 in evil times, he has always reappeared when France has 
 recognized its truest interests. Under the Consulate and 
 the First Empire he is intentionally forgotten, but in 1814 
 he comes to the front once more. Publishers and editors 
 were seized about that time with a *' sort of fury " for the 
 works of Montesquieu, and from 1819 till 1834 numerous 
 annotated editions appeared. Then again there came a 
 period of eclipse, and it was not until the close of the 
 Second Empire that France, once more free, resumed the 
 study of him who first tried to show it what freedom 
 meant. 
 
 In 1875 M. Edouard I^aboulaye's edition of Montes- 
 quieu's works, perhaps the best, was published in seven 
 volumes ; and in 1878 M. I^uis Vian issued his Histoire 
 de Montesquieu, the most important work on Montesquieu 
 that has yet appeared. M. Vian had access to much un- 
 published matter; and his book, which is the result of 
 fifteen years of study and research, supplies that biography 
 for want of which Montesquieu's personality has hitherto 
 been as vague as a spectre. In short, they seem at last in 
 France in a fair way to get something like the true focus 
 of Montesquieu, to have him placed in his proper niche : to 
 understand him, even to label him, for he is not one of the 
 very greatest whom it is criminal, and indeed impossible, to 
 docket and define until one can look at them through the 
 thought of many generations. 
 
 It is from M. Vian's biography that the material for this 
 introduction is mainly drawn. The writer is also indebted 
 to M. Albert Sorel's monograph on Montesquieu, and to 
 the prefaces of M. I^aboulaye. For the translation, the 
 editions used were those of M. I^aboulaye and M. Tour- 
 neux, the text of the former having been followed as a 
 rule : the notes in both have been found very serviceable. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 II 
 
 I^ike Montaigne, Montesquieu was a Gascon. His father, 
 Jacques de Secondat, married Marie- Frangoise de Penel, the 
 descendant of an English family which had remained in 
 France after the English rule had ceased there. She was 
 an only child, and her husband received with her the title 
 and barony of Iva Br&de, an estate in Gascony, with a fan- 
 tastic old Gothic donjon built in the thirteenth century. 
 Montesquieu was the second of six children. The date of 
 his birth is not known, but he was baptized on the i8th 
 of January, 1689. His godfather, like the godfathers of 
 Montaigne in 1553, of the lord of Beauvais in 1644, and 
 of the Comte de Buff on in 1742, was a beggar belonging 
 to the district chosen " in order that his godchild might 
 remember all his life that the poor are his brothers." He 
 was christened Charles-l/ouis, and bore, according to a 
 curious custom of the time, the surname of De la Brede, 
 the patronymic, De Secondat, being reserved for the head 
 of the house. 
 
 His nurse was a miller's wife, and the first three years 
 of his life were spent with her. Most of those wha 
 have written of Montesquieu have attributed his constant 
 use of the Gascon accent, and of certain idioms and sole- 
 cisms, to these three years. Is it likely, if he had not 
 heard the Gascon accent in his father's household, and prob- 
 ably from his father's lips, that the effect of his lisping in 
 a patois in his earliest infancy would have remained with 
 him all his life? If, however, he heard nothing in his 
 father's house but the best "French of Paris," his close and 
 lasting friendship with his foster brother, Jean Demarennes, 
 is a sufficient cause for the perpetuation of his Gasconisms. 
 But the point is of small moment. 
 
 Montesquieu's mother died when he was seven years old, 
 and four years after, in 1700, he was sent to the college of 
 the Oratorian Fathers at Juilly, near Meaux, in the de- 
 partment of Seine-et-Mame. There he remained till 171 1. 
 He was docile and diligent, and the solid foundation laid 
 in Juilly enabled him to become the best-informed writer 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of his time in France. In the year in which he left JuiUy 
 he wrote his first non-scholastic piece — the first, at least, 
 of which we know anything. It was a refutation, in the 
 
 fnr jji nt a 4 etter,. ^f the doctrine of the Ptprnal r^amTiatinTi 
 
 of idola ters : the substance of it he afterward incorporated 
 in the "Persian I<etters."* 
 
 Ill 
 
 On leaving college Montesqjjigu began to study law. It 
 was natural, as both his grandfathers had been presidents 
 of the Parliament of Guienne, and his uncle occupied a 
 similar position. Methodical in all things, he studied juris- 
 prudence according to a plan of his own, the draft of which 
 still exists; and found plenty of time to frequent the best 
 salons of Bordeaux, in which the rank of his family and 
 his own reputation as a young man of talent secured him 
 a welcome. The chief figure in Bordeaux society at that 
 time was J;he Duke of Berwick, f the son of Jaines II. and 
 MarlborougE^ sister. This careful Soldier and upright man, 
 t^Keoniy~eoot=Headed and thoroughly" sensible scion of the 
 House of Stuart, perceived the merit of Montesquieu, and 
 a friendship sprang up between them which ended only 
 with the Duke's death. Montesquieu cherished his memory, 
 and among his papers was found a warm and eloquent 
 eulogy of the victor of Almanza. 
 
 In 1 713 Montesquieu's father died, and his uncle, the 
 Baron de Montesquieu, took upon himself the duties of 
 guardian. Two months after his nephew had reached 
 his twenty-fifth year, he caused him to be appointed a lay- 
 councilor of the Parliament of Guienne; and a year later, 
 on the 30th of April, 17 15, Montesquieu married the girl 
 of his uncle's choice, the Demoiselle Jeanne lyartigue, a 
 plain-looking Calvinist, inclined to limp, J but frank, good 
 natured, and with a dowry of a hundred thousand livres. 
 I<ove had nothing to do with the marriage : Montesquieu's 
 wife was his housekeeper, and the mother of his heir. 
 
 * Letter XXXV. 
 
 + Governor of Guienne, 1716-1719. 
 
 tSee p. 29. 
 
INTRODUCTION j 
 
 In the beginning of 1716 his uncle died, leaving him 
 sole legatee on condition that he should call himself Mon- 
 tesquieu. Besides the name, which he had already adopted 
 on the day of his marriage, he inherited a house in Bor- 
 deaux, lands in Agenois, and the position oi. President ci 
 moriier va. the Parliament of Guienne. His installation 
 took place in July, 17 16, and he retained his presidentship 
 till 1728. 
 
 Of the twelve provincial parliaments of France, that of 
 Guienne, which sat at Bordeaux, ranked third with regard 
 to the extent of its jurisdiction. It was directed by six 
 presidents h mortier,^ and as it possessed political, religious, 
 administrative, and v judical attributes,~''the proper perfor- ' 
 mance of the duties of a president entailed considerable 
 study, and were in themselves by no means light. Mon- 
 tesquieu is believed to have given them suflScient attention, 
 although on his own showing,t he did not understand ' 
 legal procedure; but no trace remains of his judical func- 
 tions. 
 
 His official duties did not by any means occupy him 
 exclusively. After the Academies of Caen and Paris, that 
 of Bordeaux, having been established in 1712, is the most 
 ancient. Three years after its constitution, Montesquieu 
 was-,,,,^mittedT^,,afli4tJb6Saffie,_^9J5.t of its most enthusiastic 
 q i embers . Wherever he was, and in wE'afevSF he" migKT be 
 engaged, he had always time to attend to its interests. 
 More than once in acknowledgment of his many services 
 he was appointed president. Much of the work he pre- 
 pared for the Academy has been lost ; of the dissertation 
 which was considered the most remarkable, only the title 
 remains — "The Religious Policy of the Romany,, 'i ...^di- 
 cine, physics, natural history, were all studie d^ -.and 
 numSfous^ji^^J^es^^^SSEnT'T'Ee'CTect of these studies is 
 to be found throughout all his works, the principal defi- 
 nitions in U Esprit des Lois itself being, not those of a | 
 lawyeiw>r_Tnetaphysiciari, bf^t rat1ifir-j3£-.a.-ffeometer.,.and | 
 naturalist. 
 
 * So called because they wore a cap of the shape of a mortar, 
 made of black velvet, ornamented with a gold band, 
 t Pensies. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 IV 
 
 In all likelihood the idea of the " Persian Letters '* oc- 
 curred to Montesquieu before he left college. The first of 
 them, dated the 21st of the moon of Muharram (January), 
 171 1, was written in his twenty-second year ; the last in 
 his thirty-second. Reflections of his favorite reading are to 
 be found in their framework, and critics have pointed out 
 many resemblances to Dufresney's "Amusements," "The 
 Turkish Spy," "The Spectator," the "Decameron," with 
 borrowings from Erasmus and other less-known writers. 
 But Montesquieu has at least spoiled nothing that he has 
 used. The " Letters "j^re printed in Amsterdam, and pub- 
 lished anonymously (in iTgj) ; and at once, as a friend of 
 Montesquieu's had predicted, " they sold like loaves. " No 
 French writer had ever before said so perfectly what all 
 felt and were trying to say ; and it was done so skillfully, 
 sp pleasantly, like a man telling a story after supper. 
 /^ Kt the time they appeared the social order of the ancien 
 ' -rigjMe was beginning to crumble about the monarchy. 
 "Tne revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, by exiling 
 \/the Huguenots, had deprived the country of many of its 
 
 m gst industrious subj ects ^and struck a disastraus-blow at 
 
 its trade ; the power of France, built up peacefully by 
 Mazarin and Colbert, had been shattered at Ramilies and 
 Malplaquet ; and Xouis XIV. 's -acceptance of the Bull Uni- 
 4 zenitus directed^ against tha jansen ists, h ad_destr oyed the 
 last remnant of religious liberty. As for the parliaments, Z' 
 they were only able to mumble and grumble, endless edicts 
 having pulled their teeth, as it were, one by one ; and the 
 condition of the people was desperate in the extreme. . It 
 is no wonder that when Louis XIV. died, the middle and 
 lower classes thanked God with " scandalous frankness " as 
 for a long-expected and certain deliverance. The upper 
 classes were delighted also, although they hardly returned 
 thanks in the same quarter, nor for the same relief. It 
 was not a lightening of taxation. .some_, liberty of con- 
 sdeaceTuiore equal laws, that the latter .anticipated, but 
 the old liVpnsft, tVip ".-iiTipTigi'npH libftt^'t^igo » the idea of 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 which had never disappeared, but had been handed down, 
 as Sainte-Beuve says, in direct and uninterrupted descent 
 from the Renaissance to the Fronde, from the Fronde to 
 the Regency, through De Retz, Saint-Evremond, Vendome, 
 Bayle, to the Epicureans, Pyrrhonists, professors of an im- 
 perturbable impiety, the unbelievers, as full and certain in 
 their unbelief as Bossuet was in his faith, who made a by- 
 word of the eight years from the death of lyouis XIV. to his 
 successor's assumption of power. Grown sanctimonious i n 
 h is old a gp, T^fMiio y:T\z liad made his subjects hypocrites. 
 At his death the boast of vice succeeded to ostentatious 
 devotion ; the court like one man changed from Tartuffe 
 into Don Juan. All things were discussed, examined, and 
 torn to shreds. The intestine quarrels of the Church gave 
 scoffers the dgpOlfem'ty- they "would- have-made. 'Duboi^ 
 debauchfed^jaHticsT Ivaw,^'ffi^^ 
 
 bauched themselves : for gaming, which had before been 
 confined to people of quality, became the common amuse- 
 ment. Incest, too, was quite d la mode; and those who 
 could not be in the height of the fashion had to be satis- 
 fied with lesser vices. The autocratic rule of the Grand 
 Monarque gave^^ce^^,.Jlig,^'^,^:affV Or- 
 
 leans7'TEe""""un1believing Regent. " Hope, „4e,§j,re, -.-Specula- 
 tion, knew no' bounds, all" things in heaven above and in 
 the eariEK" beneath having become common and unclean. It 
 is this period that jg reflected and criticised in the " Per- 
 sian Iyetters."\^ 
 
 V 
 
 The " Persian letters " are the correspondence of several 
 Persians, on a visit to Europe, with each other and their , 
 friends in Ispahan. Rica, the younger of the two principal I 
 wr iters, is good hnmo r£d^,.saBa^ie,„,jaM-J:sPIg§ejQlS-,_,the I 
 ligStef side of Mo ntesquieu's„„natt^g;^JIis lively intellect 
 ma5:es°"Inm a keen olaserver ; his youth and health enable 
 him to go everywhere, see everybody,, and experience every- 
 thing. He describes the surface of society witl^ a quick 
 glance that sometimes pi^ri^es, deep enough, too.^The King 
 of FranceT^lmougiT he has no mines of gold and silver, 
 
i 
 
 ■'Ini 
 
 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 like the King of Spain, is much wealthier, deriving sup- 
 plie s from an inex;b aHS,lJhlP snnrf,S..Jhe_vanit3M>^--^*&--S"b- 
 ject&— He is likewise a magician, for his dominion extends 
 to the minds of his subjects. If he has a costly war on 
 and, and is short of money, he simply suggests that a 
 liece of paper is a coin of the realm, and h is^Bfiople are 
 tfaigKtway convinced of it. But this is a small matter. 
 There is a much more powerful magician, the Pope, to wit, 
 who sometimes makes the King believe that three are no 
 more than one ; that .the Jj^adhseats is not bread, and the 
 wine he_drinks„is_not,wine!^It is Rica who makes the dis- 
 I covery that the Christian /religion prac tically consists in the 
 \ nonfulfillment of an immense number of ieSious duties ; and 
 it is he who quotes the epitaph" on fhe~diner-out, which re- 
 calls by its numerical exactness Teufelsdrock's epitaph on 
 Philippus Zaehdarm. "Here,* it runs, "rests one who 
 never rested before. He assisted at five hundred and thirty 
 funerals. He made merry at the birth of two thousand six 
 hundred and eighty children. He wished his. friends joy, 
 always varying the phrase, upon pensions amounting to two 
 millions six hundred thousand livres ; in town he walked 
 nine thousand six hundred furlongs, in the country thirty- 
 six furlongs. His conversation was pleasing ; he had a 
 ready-made stock of three hundred and sixty-five stories ; 
 he was acquainted also from his youth with a hundred 
 and eighteen apophthegms derived from the ancients, which 
 he employed on special occasions. He died at last in 
 the sixtieth year of his age. I say no more, stranger ; 
 for how could I ever have done telling you all that 
 he did and all that he saw. * * It is Rica who sketches 
 the alchemist in his garret, praying fatuously that God 
 would enable him to make a good use of his wealth*" the 
 people whose conversation is a mirror which reflects only 
 ttieir own impertinent faces ; the professional wits planning 
 B. conversation of an hour's length to consist entirely of 
 Ppons mots; the compilers who produce masterpieces by shift- 
 Fg tEe booESTH^lTi^^^ram one " ji,fili to ano'therT the 
 universal "decider," who knew more about Ispahan than 
 his Persian inte.rlocutor ; t he French Academy, a body with 
 * Letter LXXXVIII. •"•--•~~-«--''~---™---.- ,,-..» — , ^ 
 
 •>>r " >< L ^ 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 fort y head^ all of theia chokeful of tropes, metaphors, and 
 antitheses; the geometer, a martyr to his own accuracy, 
 who was ofEeiided by a witty remark, as weak eyes are an- 
 noyed by too strong a light; the quidnuncs, petits-maitres, 
 lazxjoagistrateSijanaiJciergj bankrupts,, and operaldancers. 
 
 Usbek is older, graver, given to meditation and reflection.\/ 
 Although 'ff6m'Eis"eafIiest' youth a courtier, he has remained" 
 uncorrupted. As he could not flatter, his sincerity made 
 him enemies, and brought upon him the jealousy of the 
 ministers. His life being in danger, he forsook the court, 
 and retired to his country-house. Even there persecution 
 followed him, and he determined on the journey to Europe. 
 Rica went as his companion. 
 
 The opening paragraph of I^etter XI^VIII. , in which Usbek 
 characterizes himself, is undoubtedly descriptive of Montes- 
 quieu. "Although I am not employed in any business of 
 importance, I am yet constantly occupied. I spend my 
 time observing, and at night I write down what I have 
 noticed, what I have seen, what I have heard during the 
 day. I am interested in everything, astonished at every- 
 thing : I am like a child, whose organs, still oversensitive, 
 are vividly impressed by the merest trifles.* Usbek can be as 
 brilliant and satirical on occasion as his younger companion, 
 but his aim is to probe to the heart of things, and he / 
 knq ws that tr uth will only reveal itselOo a reverent search. ' 
 To iim all fefig!o5S? are worthy' of respect,"and their minis- 
 ters also, for " God has chosen for Himself, in every corner 
 of the earth, souls purer than the rest, whom He has sep- 
 arated from the impious world that their mortification and 
 their fervent prayers may suspend His wrath." He thinks 
 that t he s urest way to p lease God is to obey _the__laws of 
 ^'(ydiety, ' and to^d o^B^^roty''' toward me'nr Eveiy religion 
 as^!mes that God loves men, since He establishes a religion for 
 their happiness ; and since He loves men we are certain of 
 pleasing Him in loving them, too. UsBek^s prayer in I^etter 
 XIvVT. i^ hot yet "out of date."" "Lord, I do not understand 
 any of those discussions that are carried on without end re- 
 garding Thee : I would serve Thee according to Thy will ; 
 but each man whom I consult would have me serve Thee 
 according to his." He insists that religion is intended for 
 
/ 
 
 lo INTRODUCTION 
 
 man's happiness ; and that, in ordei to love it and fulfill its 
 behests ^t is no t ja eressarv to hat e-^and-per-seeate-these who 
 are opposed to our beliefs ;3;;^not, necessary .even to .attempt 
 to convert them. Indeed, he holds that variety, oLJbelief is 
 beneficial to a state. A new sect is always the surest 
 means of correcting the abuses of an old faith ; and those 
 who profess tolerated creeds usually prove more useful to 
 their country than those who profess the established religion, 
 /because, being excluded from all honors, their endeavor to 
 
 ^distinguish themselves by becoming wealthy improves trade 
 land commerce. Proselytism, with its intolerance, its afflic- 
 tion of the consciences of others, its wars and inquisitions, 
 is an epidemic disease which the Jews caught from the 
 Egyptians, and which passed from them to the Christians 
 and Mohammedans, a capricious mood which can be com- 
 pared only to a total eclipse of human reason. " He who 
 would have me change my religion is led to that, with- 
 out" doubt, because he would not change his own, although 
 force were employed ; and yet he finds it strange that I will 
 not do a"lhing" which 'ISO^it ^ippiywill n ot do. perhaps fo r 
 
 7 the. em pire of the wo rld."* Usbek is a sophist, but it is 
 quite evident that he is no bigot ; he even goes further 
 than Montesquieu himself, a wit of the Regency, felt to be 
 right ; and which he praises suicide as being no more a 
 disturbance of the order of Providence than the making a 
 round stone square, he is rapped over the knuckles with 
 the reminder that the preservation of the union of body and 
 soul is the chief sign of submission to the decrees of the 
 Gjreator. 
 
 / Usbek has his character sketches as well as Rica. He 
 gives a lively description of those geniuses who frequent 
 the coffeehouses, and on quitting them believe themselves 
 four times wittier than when they entered. The savage 
 king sitting on his block of wood, dressed in his own skin, 
 and inquiring of the sailors if they talked much of him in 
 France, is an illustration of his. One letter, the forty- 
 eighth, is quite a picture gallery. Usbek is in the country 
 at the house of a man of some note ; and he describes to 
 his friend Rhedi various members of the company he meets. 
 * Letter LXXXVI. 
 
INTRODUCTION ii 
 
 There are vulgar farmers-general wlio brag of their cooks ; 
 jaunty confessors, necessities of female existence, who can 
 cure a headache better than any medicine ; poets, the gro- 
 tesquest of humankind, declaring that they are born so; the 
 old soldier, who cannot endure the thought that France has 
 gained any battles without him ; and last, but not least, 
 the lady-killer who has a talk with Usbek. * < It is fine 
 weather,' he said. 'Will you take a turn with me in the 
 garden ? * I replied as civilly as I could, and we went out 
 together. * I have come to the country, ' said he, ' to please 
 the mistress of the house, with whom I am not on the 
 worst of terms. There is a certain woman in the world 
 who will be rather out of humor ; but what can one do ? 
 I visit the finest women in Paris ; but I do not confine my 
 attentions to one ; they have plenty to do to look after me, 
 for, between you and me, I am a sad dog.' *In that case, 
 sir,' said I, 'you doubtless have some office or employment 
 which prevents you from waiting on them more assidu- 
 ously?' *No, sir; I have no other business than to pro- 
 voke husbands, and drive fathers mad ; I delight in alarming 
 a woman who thinks me hers, and in bringing her within 
 an ace of losing me. A set of us young fellows divide up 
 Paris among us in this pursuit, and keep it wondering at 
 everything we do.' 'From what I understand,' said I, 
 *you make more stir than the most valorous warrior, and 
 are more regarded than a grave magistrate. If you were 
 in Persia you would not enjoy all these advantages ; you 
 would be held fitter to guard our women than to please 
 them,' The blood mounted to my face ; and I believe had 
 I gone on speaking, I could not have refrained from 
 affronting him." Then there are casuists, great lords, men 
 of sense and men of none, bishops, philosophers and philos- 
 •ophasters, all pricked off as deftly as any of Rica's 
 acquaintances, and with less exaggeration, if with more 
 sobriety. One brief dramatic sketch must not be omitted. 
 Has any one failed to meet the gentleman who says, " I 
 believe in the immortality of the soul for six months at a 
 time ; my opinions depend entirely on my bodily condition : 
 I am a._Sp inozist. a SociT^ifm r-a Catholic T^unpi- ndl v or-d^vout , 
 ^^'^';)rdiinfi:i.i?..t]2L.-?j"'^?. -gf- my animal smi it&r-tiie'''qiSlitv of 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 my digestion, the r arit y or heaviness .of _ the air X Jteathe, 
 t helRgEtness o r^lidijy ofj^eJogC J ^^.t " ?^^ 
 
 Montesquieu has distinguished the charaot&s of Rica and 
 Usbek with care ; and during the first months of their stay 
 in Europe, he succeeds with fair success in depicting their 
 state of mind in the midst of, what was to them, a new 
 world. Soon, however, they become in all except their 
 domestic matters merely mouthpieces for the author's satire 
 and criticism, and expounders of his theories. It is Usbek 
 who in several letters explains those ideas which Montes- 
 quieu afterward developed in U Esprit des Lois. On this 
 subject he writes as a legislator, with the well-balanced 
 judgment, the restraint and reserve which always temper 
 Montesquieu's enthusiasm and control his expressions of 
 opinion. Here in one sentence is the policy of U Esprit 
 des Lois: "I have often inquired which form of govern- 
 ment is most comformable to reason. It seems to me that 
 the most perfect is that which, obtains its object with the 
 least fric tion; so that the government which leads men by 
 following.^ Ibeii^-^irQpensities^nd mdi the most 
 
 perfect." t -And in the following has been detectedTthe 
 philosophy of Montesquieu's great book: "Nature always- 
 works tardily, and, as it were, thriftily ; her operations are 
 never violent ; even in her productions she requires temper- 
 ancej_§tie-nsser"W&Ffea bu-t-by, rule and measure ; if she be 
 hurried-^he-soon falls-iTito-— decline." J In fact, the latter 
 portion of the "Persian Letters" is edited from Montes- 
 quieu's commonplace book. It reveals his ideas on inter- 
 national law, on the advancement of science, and on the 
 origin of liberty ; and states those problems which were to 
 be the study of his life. 
 
 From the travels of Chardin and Tavemier, Montesquieu 
 derived his knowledge of Persia. To Chardin he is partic- 
 ularly indebted, not only for the background, but for his 
 theory of despotism § and his theory of climates. || The 
 story of the revolt of Usbek' s harem, though belonging to 
 a style long out of fashion, is skillfully told, and will be 
 
 * Letter I,XXV. t I/etter LXXXI. 
 
 t Letter CXV. ? Letters CIII., CIV. 
 
 \ Letter CXXII. 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 found to interest the most prudish reader in spite of some 
 disgust. The forsaken wives, and long-winded pedantic 
 eunuchs, are all French, of course, French people of the 
 Regency ; and Usbek himself is as jealous as a petit-maitre. 
 As for the story of Anais, and the sexual love of brother and sis- 
 ter in " Apheridon and Astarte, " all that need be said of 
 them is that they are characteristic of the mood of the Re- 
 gency. The translator gave a passing thought to the pro- 
 priety of omitting the former ; but the author did not omit 
 it, so it appears. One word more on this subject, and it 
 shall be a word from Montesquieu himself. He found his 
 daughter one day with the " Persian I^etters " in her hand. 
 **Ivet it alone, my child," he said. "It is a work of my 
 youth unsuited to yours." 
 
 VI 
 
 Soon after the publication of the " Persian Inciters" Mon- 
 tesquieu went to the capital to enjoy his reputation. There 
 he found society more agreeable in Paris than in Versailles, 
 because in the small world of the latter intrigue was the 
 rule, whereas in the former people amused themselves. He 
 became a member of the informal Club de V Entresol, 
 which met on Saturdays in the house of President H6nault. 
 Bolingbroke was the founder of this, club, and its most 
 distinguished member. Among those who frequented it 
 were the Abb^ de Saint-Pierre, D'Argenson, " secretary to 
 the Republic of Plato," and Ramsai. Probably the princi- 
 pal benefit which Montesquieu derived from his attendance 
 at the Entresol was his introduction to Ivord Chesterfield ; 
 but he continued a member until Cardinal Fleury inter- 
 dicted the club in 1730, on account of the active part it 
 began to take in politics. 
 
 With the aid of Mademoiselle de Clermont l/ouis XIV. 's 
 unspeakable tenth muse, Montesquieu was elected to the 
 Academy in 1725 ; but his election was invalidated on 
 account of his non-residence in Paris. He then returned to 
 Bordeaux, sold his presidentship, acquired the necessary 
 qualification, and, not without a questionable intrigue, was 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 elected in 1728 to the chair rendered vacant by the death 
 of De Sacy, a forgotten translator. 
 
 In the spring of the same year Montesquieu set out on 
 his travels with a nephew of the Duke of Berwick, whose 
 affairs called him to Vienna. It was during this journey 
 that he applied for nomination to some diplomatic post. In 
 urging his claim he pointed out that he was not duller 
 than other men ; that, being of independent means, honor 
 was the only reward he sought ; that he was accustomed 
 to society, and had toiled (beaucoup travailW) to make him- 
 self capable. The powers that then were, howevei, elected 
 to dispense with his services. 
 
 Montesquieu was much disappointed with his reception 
 at the hands of the great. On his first entrance into so- 
 ciety he had been announced as a man of genius, and had 
 been looked on favorably by people in place ; but when 
 the success of the " Persian Letters " proved that he actu- 
 ally had ability, and brought him the esteem of the public, 
 people in place began to be shy of him. It was no conso- 
 lation for him to tell himself that ofi&cialdom, secretly 
 wounded by the reputation of a celebrated man, takes 
 vengeance by humiliating him, and that he who can endure 
 to hear another praised must merit much praise himself.* 
 He was deeply disappointed. In his youth he had written, 
 "Cicero, of all the ancients, is he whom I should most 
 wish to be like." A public career was denied him and he 
 suffered, having set his heart on it ; but he was more of 
 an ancient Roman than Cicero, if that was his ambition ; 
 and it is surely better to be famous as the author of L' Es- 
 prit des Lois, than to be infamous as one of Louis XV. 's 
 ministers. 
 
 In Italy he found Lord Chesterfield. The two men had 
 already tested each other in the Entresol^ and they were 
 now glad to travel together. Journeying to Venice, they 
 met Law, the creator of credit, who, having preserved his 
 taste for speculation and a fine diamond, passed his time 
 in staking the latter at the gaming table. Montesquieu 
 had dealt severely with him in the " Persian Letters," but 
 that did not prevent Law from receiving him pleasantly ; 
 
 * Penskes 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 nor did the ruined financier's complaisance prevent Montes- 
 quieu from applying the lash again in U Esprit des Lois. 
 
 From Venice they went to Rome. Montesquieu frequented 
 the salon of Cardinal Polignac, the French ambassador; 
 and the city, both ancient and modern, had its due effect. 
 
 ( Before leaving it, he paid a visit to the Pope, Benedict 
 XIII., who said to him, "My dear president, I wish you 
 
 ' to carry away some souvenir of my friendship. To you 
 and yours I grant permission to eat meat every day for the 
 term of your natural lives." Montesquieu thanked the 
 Pope and withdrew. Next day they brought him the dis- 
 pensation with a note of charges. "The Pope," said Mon- 
 tesquieu, returning the papers, " is an honest man ; I will 
 not doubt his word ; and I hope God has no reason to doubt 
 it either." An answer becoming a shrewd economic Gascon. 
 After visiting Naples, Pisa, Florence, Turin, and the 
 Rhine country, they arrived at The Hague, where Ches- 
 terfield was English ambassador. From The Hague they 
 sailed to England, reaching lyondon in November, 1729. 
 
 VII 
 
 Although Montesquieu lived in England for eighteen / 
 months, there is but little to tell of his visit. According to 
 his custom he went everywhere, and saw, if not everybody, 
 certainly Walpole, Pope, and Swift. Montesquieu derived i 
 immense benefit from his travels, because he was always 
 pliant to the manners of the country in which he sojourned. 
 "When I am in France," he said, "I swear friendship with 
 everybody ; in England, with nobody ; in Italy, I do the 
 agreeable all round ; in Germany, I drink with the whole 
 world." He found England the most useful country to 
 visit. Germany, he thought, was made to travel in, Italy 
 to rest in, England to think in, and France to live in. 
 
 Montesquieu left behind him a set of notes on England,, 
 from which we can gather and condense his impressions. 
 
 In I^ondon the people eat much flesh-meat, with the result 
 that they t)ecome very stout, and collapse at forty or forty-five. 
 
1 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The streets of London are so bad, that it is advisable to 
 make one's will before taking a hackney coach. 
 
 The young English noblemen are divided into two classes : 
 those who, having been to the University, have some learn- 
 ing, and are consequently shamefaced and constrained ; and 
 the shameless ones who know nothing, and are the petits- 
 maitres of the nation. But the English in general are 
 modest. 
 
 Paris is a handsome city where there are ugly corners ; 
 London is a villainous place containing some very beautiful 
 things. 
 
 The complaints of foreigners, especially of the French, 
 in London, are lamentable. They say that they cannot 
 make a friend ; and that their overtures are received as in- 
 juries. But how can Kinski, the Broglies, and La Vilette, 
 with their profuse French manners, expect the English 
 to be like them? How should the English, who do not 
 love each other, love strangers? 
 
 I look on the King of England simply as a man who 
 has a pretty wife, a hundred servants, a handsome equi- 
 page, and a good table. People think him fortunate; but 
 when he is left alone, and his door closed, and he has to 
 quarrel with his wife and his servant, and swear at his 
 butler, he is not so much to be envied after all. 
 
 By dint of suspecting everybody, people grow hard 
 hearted here. 
 
 There are some Scotch members of parliament who can 
 get only two hundred pounds for their votes, and who sell 
 them at that price. 
 
 A minister thinks only of defeating the opposition ; and 
 to that end he would sell England — the whole world. 
 
 Extraordinary things are done in England for money. 
 The English do not even know the meaning of honor and 
 virtue. 
 
 I do not know what will be the upshot of European 
 emigration to Africa and the West Indies; but I am cer- 
 tain that England will be the first nation to be deserted by 
 its colonies. 
 
 The English make little effort at politeness, but are 
 never impolite. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 Women in England are reserved because they see little 
 of the men. If a foreigner speaks to them, they suspect 
 his intentions. " '■Je ne veux pas, ' disent-elles, GivB To him 
 
 BNCOTJRAGBMBNT. " 
 
 The]i:e.is, no religion in England. If reUgion is spoken 
 of everybody laughs. 
 
 England is at present the freest country in the world, 
 °%i^SSEfeS453L£?Ey^^^<=- -1.-^.™!! free, , besauge . unlim- 
 iteT^wer. . is JuDuthe- Jiands,-43£„±he.4Cing aadr-t-he - Earlia- 
 ment. A good English citizen will therefore endeavor to 
 protect liberty as much against the Commons as against 
 the King. 
 
 Montesquieu's impressions of England were written on 
 his lands as well as in his books ; for when he returned to 
 France he had his ancestral estate of I,a Br&de laid out in 
 the English style. 
 
 VIII 
 
 The rest of Montesquieu's life was spent at his estates in 
 the country and at Paris. 
 
 He made great improvements in his land, and increased 
 his revenues largely. At his death his income is said to 
 have been sixty thousand francs. He was not ambitious to 
 be rich ; but in all that he took in hand he wished to feel 
 and to see signs of his ability. He has been accused of 
 parsimony, but that is one of the commonest charges the 
 weak have to bring against the strong. Order was the law 
 of h jg.. being, and . prodig ality-aad^jdissipation, "as repugnant 
 to him as anything__el§fe.jdiaotic. Indeed there was always 
 too lutTe"cKaosabout Montesquieu.* He saw life steadily and \ 
 saw it whole, too soon, too easily ; and he took a part for 
 the whole^ But, to return, he was certainly not avaricious. 
 H is enlightened ben evolence appeared in the moderate rents 
 he charged.; .-and„4iiere 'are~"^verar"speciSc "sets' of "feneros- 
 ity recorded. 
 
 *His "tranquil chaos" was what Carlyle admired most in Ten- 
 nyson. 
 
 ; 
 
iS INTRODUCTION 
 
 Henry Sully, an English astrgnomer of note, being at 
 Bordeaux pursuing experiments in horology, received much 
 attention at the hands of Montesquieu, then President of 
 the Bordeaux Academy. One day Sully, reduced to his last 
 sou, «no uncommon thing with inventors," wrote Montes- 
 quieu a brief note, « very English and very artless » — « I 
 am in the mood to hang myself, but I don't think I should 
 do so if I had a hundred crowns." «I send you a hun- 
 dred crowns," replied Montesquieu, "don't hang yourself, 
 and come and see me." 
 
 In the winter of 1747-48, Guienne, on account of the war 
 with England, had been unable to import a sufficient 
 quantity of grain. On the 7th of December, Montes- 
 quieu, being at I^a BrMe, was told that the tenants on an 
 estate of his fifty leagues away were almost famine stricken. 
 He drove to the place at once with hardly a halt; sum- 
 moned the curis of "the four villages," and while waiting 
 for them examined the state of provisions. On their arrival 
 he said, " Gentlemen, I beg you to assist me in procuring 
 some help for your parishioners. You know those who are 
 in need of corn, or of money to buy it. I wish all the 
 grain in my barns to be distributed gratuitously. My stew- 
 ard will hand it out in quantities to be fixed in proportion 
 to the needs of those who are in want of it. It is not 
 right that any one should lack the necessaries of life on my 
 lands as long as I have a superabundance. Gentlemen, 
 you are good fellows. I trust to you entirely to make this 
 distribution. You will oblige me by carrying out my inten- 
 tions promptly ; and by keeping the thing a secret. " 
 
 Montesquieu then went away at once, to escape the thanks 
 of his tenants. According to the friend — of a scenic turn 
 of mind evidently — who accompanied him, wheat to the 
 value of 6400 livres was distributed by the curis. To pre- 
 vent the recurrence of the distress which he had so munifi- 
 cently relieved, Montesquieu established on his estates 
 granaries for the poor {greniers de charitS). 
 
 Montesquieu was, indeed, one of the best of landlords 
 and country gentlemen. He was looked upon in France as 
 a species of "Milord Anglais," as interested in men as in 
 books; and he was so — in the peasants of I/a Brfede, who 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 were **not learned enough to make the worse appear the 
 better reason," as well as in the wits of Paris. His habits 
 and manners were as simple as could be. He would go 
 about 1/3. Br&de all day long with a white cotton cap on 
 his head and a vine-pole over his shoulder ; in which guise 
 he was, of course, mistaken more than once for a vine- 
 dresser, and asked by those who came to offer him les hom- 
 mages de V Europe, if that " was the chateau of Montes- 
 quieu. " * A Genevese naturalist, Trembley, f whom he had 
 met in Kngland, wrote to a friend, after having passed 
 several days at I<a Brede in the autumn of 1752, "I can- 
 not describe the pleasure I enjoyed during my stay. How 
 beautiful, how charming the things I heard ! What do you 
 think of conversations which begin at one o'clock in the 
 day and last till eleven at night? Now there was talk 
 of the loftiest subjects; anon full-bodied laughter over some 
 delightful story. ... I talked much of agriculture with 
 M. de Montesquieu. In a conversation on that subject he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 < O fortunatos nifnium sua si bona norint 
 Agricolas ! > 
 
 adding, *I have often thought of putting these words on 
 the front of my house.'* 
 
 The Earl of Charlemont wrote requesting an audience. | 
 The reply was favorable, and he and his companion, so 
 excited were they at the prospect of seeing the great man, 
 arrived at his house before he was up. The servant put 
 them into the library, where ** the first thing we saw was an 
 open book lying on a table at which he had probably sat 
 on the preceding evening : the extinguished lamp was still 
 in position. Impatient to know the night reading of the 
 great philosopher, we stepped at once to the volume : it 
 was the ** Elegies of Ovid, " open at one of the most gal- 
 lant pages. We had not recovered from our surprise, when 
 it was increased by the entrance of the president, whose 
 appearance and manners were entirely opposed to the idea 
 which we had formed of him. Instead of a grave and 
 
 *Garat, Mimoires sur le Dix-huitiime Siicle. 
 tSayoux, Le Dix-huitiime Siicle & VEtranger. 
 JFr. Hardy, « Memoirs of Charlemont." 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 austere philosopher, whose very presence would have intim- 
 idated young folk like us, the person who addressed us 
 was a Frenchman," — even the French philosophers are 
 French ! — " gay, polished, full of vivacity, who, after a 
 thousand agreeable greetings, and a thousand thanks for 
 the honor which we did him, invited us to breakfast; 
 but "... in short, we went to walk instead. " At 
 the skirt of a fine wood, cut in alleys, surrounded by a 
 paling, and entered by a gate three feet high and fastened 
 with a chain, *Come on,' said he, after having searched in 
 his pocket, ' it is not worth while waiting for the key. 
 You can jump as well as I, I am sure, and it's not a gate 
 like that I'm afraid of.' So sashing, he ran at the gate 
 and leapt over it as light as you like. He had noticed our 
 embarrassment on first meeting him — for we were much 
 moved — and so he set to work, out of pure good nature, 
 to put us at our ease. I^ittle by little his age and his 
 genius disappeared so completely that the conversation be- 
 came as free and easy as if we had been his equals in 
 every respect. "We spoke of the arts and sciences. He 
 questioned us on our travels, and as I had visited the East 
 he addressed himself particularly to me, interesting himself 
 in the smallest details of the lands through which I had 
 traveled. I heard him say more than once that he regret- 
 ted not having seen these countries. . . . After having 
 made the tour of his estate, laid out in the English style, 
 we returned and were received by Madame la Baronne and 
 her daughter. . . . The meal was simple and abundant. 
 After dinner Montesquieu insisted that we should stay, and 
 he kept us for three days, during which his conversation 
 was equally amusing and instructive." This, though of 
 the gushing order, is evidently a true picture of the man 
 wh o said. « He „.jgho writes wpII >1»^g r,r.4.,T,.ff|^ as people 
 write, but_as he writes ; very often in talking badly such 
 a one writes well." To himself may be applied what he 
 said of Montaigne : « In most authors I see a writing 
 man; in Montaigne, a thinking man." He was always 
 saying, «The misfortune of certain books is the killing 
 work one has to do in condensing what the author took so 
 much trouble to expand." 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 IX 
 
 This simplicity was the great charm of the man, as it is 
 that of the writer. He never lectures the reader, he talks 
 with him ; " he makes him assist him in his composition. " 
 In Paris he was, a s i n the coun try, as in his books, even- 
 temgerecL^mple. and_jpleasantly tnerry. In the very heat 
 of conversation he never lost his equanimity. Simple, pro- 
 found, sublime, he charmed, instructed, without offense : 
 was even more marvelous in conversation than in his 
 works :* " and always that same energy when his hatred of 
 despotism lighted his face.^f Without bitterness, without 
 satire, full of wit and brilliant sallies, no one could tell a 
 better story, promptly, vividly, without premeditation. J 
 And he was always more willing to listen than to talk ; he 
 learned as much from conversation as from books. The 
 Duchess de Chaulnes said of him, "That man makes his 
 book in society : he remembers everything that is said to 
 him, and only talks with those who have something to tell 
 him worth remembering." Such a man requires the com- 
 pany of the best brains to bring him out ; with common- 
 place people he will be commonplace : and yet he could 
 find wit in those who were called dull.§ It was possible, 
 however, to bore him. On one occasion, when disputingf^ 
 with some portentous councilor who got warm and cried, 
 * M. le President, if it is not as I say, I will give you my 
 head, " he replied, coolly, " I accept ; little gifts are the 
 cement of friendship. "|| A certain young lady, un peu 
 galante, annoyed him with a torrent of questions one even- 
 ing. His opportunity came when she asked him in what 
 happiness consisted. " Happiness, " he replied, " means for 
 queens, fertility ; for maidens, sterility ; and for those who 
 are near you, deafness. * ^ . Still he delighted in the com- 
 
 * Maupertuis, £:ioge de Montesquieu. 
 
 t Garat, MSmoires sur le Dix-huitUme Siicle. 
 
 X D'Alembert, £loge de Montesquieu. 
 
 \ Pensies. 
 
 I Laplace, Piices intiressantes et peu connues. 
 
 IT Ibid. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pany and conversation of women, and in his younger days 
 did not object to be in their best graces. He tells us that 
 he attached himself to such as he thought loved him, and 
 detached himself as soon as he thought they didn't : * the 
 manners of the Regency being somewhat different from 
 ours. 
 
 X 
 
 The eighteenth century was in France the age of the 
 "monstrous regiment of women." The divine right of 
 kings, as it had done in Kngland half a century before, re- 
 solved itself into the divine right of mistresses. One legacy 
 bequeathed by them was the French Revolution ; modern 
 conversation was the other. In England conversation re- 
 mained among men, and produced clubs ; in France women 
 invaded it, and the salon was the result : the heyday past, 
 the Regent's mistress, the minister's mistress, opened a 
 salon, where Montesquieu and all celebrities might meet to 
 talk. Claudine Guerin de Tencin, saddened by the suicide 
 of a lover and the arrival of her forty -fifth year; Madame 
 Geoffrin, "whimsical and cross-grained," citizen's daughter, 
 millionaire's widow, who had the excellent talent of draw- 
 ing every one out in his own subject, and called her salon 
 " a shop " ; Marie de Vichy, Marquise du Deffand, whom 
 Massillon could not convert, who was interested in nothing, 
 and had neither temperament nor romance ; and the Duchess 
 de Chaulnes, the " intimate enemy " of Madame du Deffand, 
 "a typical woman of the eighteenth century," delighting 
 only in wit, bons-mots, and gallantry, and made piercingly 
 sagacious by her wicked life: these and others like them 
 kept salons, primarily for their own amusement. Jgamest 
 talk on momentous matters was the one thing forbidden. 
 Clear analysis of questions of finance, of moramyf^ of legis- 
 lation, clear mockery of the problems of human destiny, 
 and facile, brilliant, and winged talk, "on everything 
 h propos of nothing," was the order of the day. 
 
 Madame du Deffand was Montesquieu's favorite among 
 these. She gathered about her in her own phrase les trotn- 
 
 * Pensies. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 peurs, le tromph, et les trompettes — everybody connected 
 with diplomacy, in fact. In her salon the author of 
 V Esprit des Lois learned much. "I like that woman," he 
 said, " with all my heart ; she pleases me, amuses me ; it is 
 impossible to weary in her company." It was in this 
 society that Montesquieu " talked out " his books ; and the 
 reader should remember that it was for this society they 
 were written. 
 
 Montesquieu was often glad to retire from the "official 
 centres of conversation " to quieter houses, where he could 
 be more at home, and where he could meet such marvels of 
 the age as the two sisters of Madame de Rochefort, "the 
 Marquise de Boufflers, who was faithful to her lover, and 
 the Duchesse de Mirepoix, who was faithful to her hus- 
 band." But of all salons he preferred that of the Duchesse 
 d'Aiguillon. There he met the most interesting men of the 
 day of all nationalities, attracted by the impartiality of the 
 duchess, her abundant and original wit, her refined talk, 
 her obliging manners, and her ability to speak four lan- 
 guages. Gustavus III. called her the " living journal of the 
 court, the city, the provinces, and the Academy." But she 
 had judgment also ; and authors consulted her about their 
 works. Montesquieu liked her for herself, and also because 
 in her house he could meet Madame Dupr^ de Saint-Maur, 
 wife of the Intendant of Bordeaux, who was "equally 
 charming as mistress, as wife, and as friend." It was in 
 the arms of Madame Dupre de Saint-Maur that Montesquieu 
 died on the loth of February, 1755, in his sixty-sixth 
 year. 
 
 XI 
 
 Of L' Esprit des Lois, perhaps the greatest French book 
 of the eighteenth century. La Grandeur des Romains et 
 leur dicadence, and Montesquieu's minor works, it is not 
 necessary to speak here. It has been said that Montesquieu 
 only wrote one book, the " Persian Letters " and the " Gran- 
 deur and Decadence of the Romans" being studies for 
 L'Esprit des Lois; but with a master the sketch is as per- 
 fect a work of art as the completed picture. "Timidity"-^ 
 
24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Montesquieu was a severe judge of himself — "timidity has 
 been the curse of my life, " he said ; but his very dread of 
 being weak — which he never was — helped to make his 
 first work a masterpiece. 
 
 XII 
 
 Quesnay, the elder Mirabeau, Raynal, Morelly, Servan, 
 Malesherbes, Voltaire, Beccaria, Filangieri, Blackstone, Fer- 
 guson, all descend from Montesquieu ; and Gibbon found 
 "the strong ray of philosophic light," which "broke from 
 Scotland in our times " upon political economy, only a re- 
 flection, though with a far steadier and more concentrated 
 force, from the scattered but brilliant sparks kindled by 
 the genius of Montesquieu. Chateaubriand and Benjamin 
 Constant imitated him ; Talleyrand, the best servant France 
 ever had, was his disciple. Catherine of Russia said, 
 " His Esprit des Lois is the breviary of sovereigns. " The 
 men of the French Revolution swore by him. Robespierre 
 was parodying him when he said, "The principle of demo- 
 cratic government is virtue ; the means of its establish- 
 ment, terror ; " and Napoleon honored him by discarding 
 him as an ideologist. 
 
 France never had a wiser counselor, "his blood and 
 judgment were so well commingled ; » but he could not 
 prevent the Revolution any more than Horatio could have 
 saved Hamlet. 
 
 JOHN DAVIDSON. 
 London, September, 1891. 
 
SOME REFLECTIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE PERSIAN LETTERS* 
 
 NOTHING in the " Persian Letters " has been found more 
 attractive than the unexpected discovery of a sort of 
 story, which can be followed easily from beginning 
 to end. A chain of circumstance connects the various char- 
 acters. In proportion as their stay in Europe is extended, 
 the morals and manners of that part of the world appear 
 to them less wonderful and odd ; and the degree in which 
 they are affected by the marvelous and the eccentric depends 
 upon the difference in their dispositions. On the other hand, 
 the Asiatic seraglio f becomes more disorderly the longer 
 Usbek remains away — that is to say, in proportion as 
 frenzy increases and love abates. 
 
 Another cause of the success of romances of this kind 
 lies in the fact that events are described by the characters 
 themselves as actually happening. This produces a sensa- 
 tional effect unattainable in the narrative of an outsider ; 
 and it is to this that the popularity of certain works which 
 have appeared since the publication of the ** Persian Letters * 
 is mainly due. 
 
 Although in the regular novel, digressions are inadmis- 
 sible unless they themselves constitute a fresh romance, and 
 argudteafeiMve-discussion is" altog;ether beside the mark, since 
 the characters are^Tiot brought together forJ:he,.j)urpose of 
 chppping logic; yet, W the epistolary form, where accident 
 
 •These reflections first appeared as an introduction to the quarto 
 edition of the "Persian Letters » (1754), and have always been ascribed 
 to Montesquieu himself. 
 
 t A seraglio is a royal dwelling. Montesquieu uses the word as if 
 it were synonymous with harem, the name of that portion of an 
 oriental mansion in which the women are sequestrated. 
 
 (25) 
 
26 REFLECTIONS 
 
 selects the characters, and the subjects dealt with are in- 
 dependent of any design or preconceived plan, the author 
 is enabled to mingle philosophy, politics, and morality with 
 romance, and to connect the whole by a hidden and some- 
 what novel, bond. 
 
 So great was the sale of the "Persian Letters" when 
 they came out that publishers did their utmost to ob- 
 tain sequels. They buttonholed every author they met, and 
 entreated him to write "Persian Letters." 
 
 What I have just stated, however, should convince the 
 reader that they do not admit of a sequel,* still less of any 
 admixture with even the cleverest "letters" from the hand 
 of another, t 
 
 Some remarks have been found by many people suffi- 
 ciently audacious ; but I beg them to consider the nature of 
 the work. The Persians, who were to play so important a 
 part in it, found themselves suddenly in Europe, trans- 
 planted to all intents and purposes, into another world. It 
 was therefore necessary for some time to represent them as 
 ignorant and full of prejudices : J attention was bestowed 
 exclusively on the formation and development of their ideas. 
 Their first thoughts must have been exceptional. It seemed 
 to the author that all he had to do was to endow them 
 with singularity in as spirited a manner as he could ; and 
 to this end what more was necessary than to depict their 
 state of mind in presence of whatever appeared to them 
 extraordinary? Nothing was further from his thoughts 
 than the idea of compromising any principle of our religion 
 — he did not even suspect himself of the simplest indis- 
 cretion. What questionable remarks there are on religion will 
 always be found united with feelings of surprise and aston- 
 ishment, and not with any critical intention, still less with 
 that of censure. Why should these Persians appear better 
 
 I » Probably an allusion to Lord Lyttleton's « Letters of Selim,» pub- 
 ^ lished in English in 1735, and shortly afterward translated into French. 
 tA reference to the Lettres Turgues of Sainte-Foix, -which in the 
 edition of 1740 appeared collectively with the « Persian Letters." 
 
 tAt one time Montesquieu intended to remove what he called « cer- 
 tain y«w«z7w » from the « Persian Letters"; but the intention was 
 never carried out. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 27 
 
 informed when speaking of our religion, than when they 
 discuss our manners and customs? And if they do some- 
 times find our dogmas singular, it is always a proof of 
 their entire ignorance of the connection between those dog- 
 mas and other religious truths. 
 
 The author advances this justification out of his love for 
 these great truths, independently of his respect for the hu- 
 man race, whose tenderest feelings he certainly did not 
 intend to wound. The reader is, therefore, requested not 
 for one moment to regard the remarks referred to as other 
 than the result of amazement in people who could not fail 
 to be amazed, or as the paradoxes of men who were in no 
 condition to be paradoxical. The reader should also ob- 
 serve that the whole charm of the work lies in the con- 
 tinuous contrast between the existing state of things and 
 the remarkable, artless, or odd manner in which they are 
 regarded. Beyond a doubt, the nature and design of the 
 " Persian I^etters '* are so obvious that they can only de- 
 ceive those who are inclined to deceive themselves. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 1721 
 
 1AM not about to write a dedication, nor do I solicit pro- 
 tection for this work. It will be read, if it is good ; 
 and if it is bad, I am not anxious that it should be 
 read. 
 
 I have issued these first letters in order to gauge the public 
 taste ; in my portfolio I have a goodly number more which 
 I may hereafter publish.* 
 
 This, however, depends upon my remaining unknown : 
 let my name once be published and I cease to write. I 
 know a lady who walks well enough, but who limps if 
 she is watched, f Surely the blemishes of my book are 
 sufiicient to make it needless that I should submit those of 
 my person to the critics. Were I known, it would be 
 said, "His book is at odds with his character; he might 
 have employed his time to better purpose ; it is not worthy 
 of a serious man." Critics are never at a loss for such re- 
 marks, because there goes no great expense of brains to 
 the making of them. 
 
 The Persians who wrote these letters lodged at my 
 Tiouse, and we spent our time together : they looked upon 
 me as a man belonging to another world, and so they con- 
 cealed nothing from me. Indeed, people so far from home 
 could hardly be said to have secrets. They showed me 
 most of their letters, and I copied them. I also intercepted 
 some, mortifying to Persian vanity and jealousy, which 
 they had been particularly careful to conceal from me. 
 
 I am therefore nothing more than a translator : all my 
 endeavor has been to adapt the work to our taste and 
 manners. I have relieved the reader as much as possible 
 
 *Some of these letters were added in the edition of 1754. 
 fThis lady has been identified with the author's wife. 
 
 (29) 
 
30 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Asiatic phraseology, and have spared him an infinitude 
 of sublime expressions which would have driven him wild. 
 
 Nor does my service to him end there. I have curtailed 
 those tedious compliments of which the Orientals are as lavish 
 as ourselves ; and I have omitted a great many trifling mat- 
 ters which barely survive exposure to the light, and ought, 
 never to emerge from the obscurity proper to "small beer." 
 
 Had most of those who have given the world collections 
 of letters done likewise, their works would have disappeared 
 in the editing. 
 
 One thing has often astonished me, and that is, that these 
 Persians seemed often to have as intimate an acquaintance a& 
 I myself with the manners and customs of our nation, an 
 acquaintance extending to the most minute particulars and 
 not unpossessed of many points which have escaped the ob- 
 servation of more than one German traveler in France. This 
 I attribute to the long stay which they made, without 
 taking into consideration how much easier it is for an Asiatic 
 to become acquainted with the manners and customs of the- 
 French in one year, than it would be for a Frenchman to 
 become acquainted with the manners and customs of the 
 Asiatics in four, the former being as communicative as the 
 latter are reserved. 
 
 Use and wont permits every translator, and even the- 
 most illiterate commentator, to adorn the beginning of his 
 version, or of his parody, with a panegyric on the original, 
 and to extol its usefulness, its merit, and its excellence. It 
 should not be very difBcult to divine why I have not done 
 so. One very excellent reason may be given : it would 
 simply be adding tediousness to what is in itself necessarily 
 tedious, namely, a preface. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 
 
 IvETTER I 
 
 USBBK To HIS FRIBND RUSTAN, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 WE STAYED only one day at Koum. After having said 
 our prayers before the tomb of the virgin who 
 brought forth twelve prophets,* we resumed our 
 journey, and yesterday, the twenty-sixth day since our de- 
 parture from Ispahan, we came to Tauris. 
 
 Rica and myself are perhaps the first Persians who have 
 left their native country urged by the thirst for knowl- 
 edge ; who have abandoned the amenities of a tranquil life 
 for the laborious search after wisdom. 
 
 Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe 
 that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that 
 the lore of the Kast should alone enlighten us. 
 
 Tell me, without flattery, what is said of our journey : I 
 do not expect that it will be generally commended. Ad- 
 dress your letter to Erzeroum, where I shall stay for some 
 time. Farewell, my dear Rustan. Rest assured that in 
 whatever part of the world I may be, you have in me a 
 faithful friend. 
 
 Tauris, the 15th of the moon o4Saphar,t 17 11. 
 
 *Fatima, daughter of Mohammec^ and wife of Ali — according to 
 the Koran, one of the four perfect women. 
 
 tMore eorrectly Safar, the second month of the Persian year. 
 
 (31) 
 
32 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 USBBK TO THB CHIBF BLACK EuNUCH, AT HIS SBRAGLIO 
 
 IN Ispahan 
 
 You are the faithful keeper of the loveliest women in 
 Persia ; I have intrusted you with what in this world 
 is most dear to me; you bear the keys of those fatal 
 doors which are opened only for me. While you watch 
 ■over this precious storehouse of my affections, my heart, at 
 rest, enjoys an absolute freedom from care. You guard it 
 in the silence of the night as well as in the bustle of the 
 day. Your unrelaxing care sustains virtue when it wa- 
 vers. Should the women whom you guard incline to swerve 
 from their duty, you would destroy their hopes in the 
 bud. You are the scourge of vice, and the very monu- 
 ment of fidelity. 
 
 You command them and they obey. You fulfill implicitly 
 all their desires, and exact from them a like obedience to 
 the laws of the seraglio ; you take a pride in rendering 
 them the meanest services ; you submit to their lawful com- 
 mands with reverence and in dread ; you serve them like 
 the slave of their slaves. But, resuming your power, you 
 command imperiously, as my representative, whenever you 
 apprehend any slackening of the laws of chastity and 
 modesty. 
 
 Never forget that I raised you from the lowest position 
 among my slaves, to set you in your present place as the 
 trusted guardian of the dehghts of my heart. Maintain the 
 most humble bearing in the presence of those who partake 
 my love; but, at the same time, make them deeply con- 
 scious of their own powerlessness. Provide for them all 
 innocent pleasures ; beguile them of their anxiety ; entertain 
 them with music, dancing, and delicious drinks ; persuade 
 them to meet together frequently. If they wish to go into 
 the country, you may escort them thither ; but lay hands 
 on every man who dares to enter their presence. Exhort 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 33 
 
 them to that cleanliness which is the symbol of the soul's 
 purity; speak sometimes of me. I long to see them again 
 in that delightful place which they adorn. Farewell. 
 
 Tauris, the i8tli of the moon of Saphar, 1711. 
 
 IvETTER III 
 Zachi to Usbek, at Tauris 
 
 WE INSTRUCTED the chief of the eunuchs to take us 
 into the country ; he will inform you that we ar- 
 rived there without accident. When we had to leave 
 our litters in order to cross the river, we went, as usual, 
 into boxes : two slaves carried us on their shoulders, and 
 we were seen by nobody. 
 
 Dear Usbek, how can I endure existence in your seraglio 
 at Ispahan ! It recalls everlastingly my past happiness, 
 provoking daily my desires with renewed vehemence. 
 
 I wander from room to room, always searching for you, 
 and never finding you ; mocked at every turn by the cruel 
 memory of my vanished bliss. Sometimes I behold you in 
 that spot where I first received you in my arms ; again I 
 see you in the room where you decided that famous quar- 
 rel among your women. Each of us asserted a superiority 
 in beauty. We came before you, after having exhausted 
 our fancy in decking ourselves with jewelry and adorn- 
 ments. You noted with pleasure the marvels of our art ; you 
 were astonished at the height to which we had carried our 
 desire to please you. But you soon made those borrowed 
 gfraces give way to more natural charms; you destroyed 
 the result of our labors : we were compelled to despoil our- 
 selves of those ornaments, now become tiresome to you, 
 and to appear before you in the simplicity of nature. For 
 me, modesty counted as nothing; I thought only of con- 
 quest. Happy Usbek ! what charms did you then behold. 
 Ifing you wandered from enchantment to enchantment, 
 unable to control your roving fancy ; each new grace re- 
 quired your willing tribute ; in an instant you covered us 
 3 
 
34 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 all with your kisses ; your eager looks strayed into the 
 recesses of our charms ; you made us vary our attitudes a 
 thousand times ; and new commands brought forth new 
 obedience. I avow it, Usbek, a passion stronger even than 
 ambition filled me with a desire to please you. Gradually 
 I saw myself become your heart's mistress ; you chose me, 
 left me, returned to me, and I knew how to keep your 
 love : my triumph was the despair of my rivals. You and 
 I felt as if we were the sole inhabitants of the world : 
 nothing but ourselves deserved a moment's thought. 
 Would to Heaven my rivals had been brave enough to 
 witness all the proofs of love you gave me ! Had they 
 watched well my transports they would have felt the dif- 
 ference between their love and mine ; it would have been 
 plain to them that, though they might dispute the palm of 
 beauty, they could not vie with me in tenderness. . . . 
 But what is this? Where has this vain rehearsal led me? 
 It is a misfortune not to be loved, but to have love with- 
 drawn from one is an outrage. You abandon us, Usbek, 
 to wander in barbarous climes. What ! do you count it as 
 nothing to be loved ? Alas ! you do not even know what 
 you lose ! The sighs I heave there is none to hear ; my 
 falling tears you are not by to pity. Your insensibility 
 takes you further and further from the love that throbs 
 for you in your seraglio. Ah ! my beloved Usbek, if yon 
 only knew your happiness ! 
 
 Th« Seraglio at Patme, the 21st of the 
 moon of Maharram,* 1711. 
 
 A 
 
 I^ETTKR IV 
 Zephis to Usbkk, at Erzbroum 
 T LENGTH the black monster has resolved to drive me 
 
 to despair. He is absolutely determined to deprive me 
 of my slave, Zelida— Zelida, who serves me with such 
 
 affection, and at whose magical touch new charms appear. 
 
 , *-More correctly Muharram, the first month of the Persian year. 
 
 Zachi's letter was, therefore, written about a month before the two 
 
 that precede it. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 35 
 
 Nor is he satisfied with the pangs this separation causes me ; 
 he is bent on my dishonor. The wretch pretends to treat 
 as criminal the motives of my confidence, and because he 
 was weary of standing behind the door, where I always 
 tell him to wait, he dares to imagine that he heard or saw 
 things which my fancy cannot even conceive. I am very 
 unhappy ! Neither my isolation nor my virtue can secure 
 me from his preposterous suspicions. A vile slave would 
 drive me from your heart, and I am called on to defend 
 myself even in your bosom ! — But no ; I am too proud to 
 justify myself : you alone shall vouch for my behavior — 
 your love and my love, and — need I say it, dear Usbek? 
 — my tears. 
 
 The Seragwo at Fatmb, the 29th of the 
 moon of Maharram, 17 11. 
 
 IvETTER V 
 RusTAN TO Usbek, at Erzeroum 
 
 You are the one subject of conversation at Ispahan ; noth- 
 ing is talked of but your departure : some ascribe it to 
 a giddy spirit, others to some heavy affliction ; your 
 friends are your only defenders, and they make no converts. 
 People fail to understand why you should forsake your 
 wives, your relations, your friends, and your native country, 
 to visit lands of which Persians know nothing. Rica's 
 mother is inconsolable ; she wants her son again, whom, she 
 declares, you have decoyed away. As for me, my dear 
 Usbek, I am, of course, anxious to approve of all your 
 actions ; but I do not see how I am to pardon your ab- 
 sence, and, however good your reasons may be, my heart 
 will never appreciate them. 
 
 Ispahan, the 28th of the first moon of 
 Rebiab,* 1711. 
 
 '^ Rabi means «the spring » in Persian. Rabi-ul-awal, «the first 
 (month) of spring,® is the third of the Persian year. 
 
36 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER VI 
 
 USBEK TO HIS FRIEND NESSIR, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 AT THE distance of a day's journey from Erivan we left 
 Persian ground, and entered Turkish territory. Twelve 
 days after, we reached Erzeroum, where we stayed 
 three or four months. 
 
 I own, Nessir, I felt sorry, though I did not show it, 
 when I lost sight of Persia and found myself among the 
 treacherous Osmanli. It seems to me that I become more 
 and more of a pagan the further I advance into this 
 heathenish country. * 
 
 My fatherland, my family, and my friends caihe vividly 
 before me ; my affections revived ; and, to crown all, an 
 indefinable uneasiness laid hold of me, warning me that I 
 had ventured on too great an undertaking for my peace of 
 mind. 
 
 But that which afflicts me most is the memory of my 
 wives. I have only to think of them to be consumed with 
 grief. 
 
 Do not imagine that I love them : insensibility in that 
 matter, Nessir, has left me without desires. Living with 
 so many wives, I have forestalled love — it has indeed been 
 its own destruction ; but from this very callousness there 
 springs a secret jealousy which devours me. I behold a 
 band of women left almost entirely to themselves ; except 
 some low-minded wretches, no one is answerable for their 
 conduct. I would hardly feel safe, if my slaves were faith- 
 ful : how would it be if they were not so ? What doleful 
 tidings may I not receive in those far-off lands which I am 
 about to visit ! The mischief of this is, that my friends 
 
 •The Persians generally belong to the sect of Shiites, who consider 
 Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman, the first three successors of Moham- 
 med, as usurpers, and regard Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the 
 prophet, as the first true Iman, and equal to Mohammed. The Shiites 
 also reject as unworthy of credit the Sonna, a collection of traditions 
 which is the canon of the faith of the Sunites, the sect to which the 
 Turks belong. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 37 
 
 are unable to help me ; they are forbidden to inquire into 
 the sources of my misery ; and what could they do after 
 all? I would prefer a thousand times that such faults 
 should remain unknown because uncorrected, than that they 
 should become notorious through some cotidign punish- 
 ment ! I unbosom myself to you, my dear Nessir : it is 
 the only consolation left me in my misery. 
 
 Erzkroum, the loth of the second moon 
 of Rebiab, 171 1. 
 
 I.ETTER VII 
 Fatme to Usbbk, at Erzeroxim 
 
 You have been gone for two months, my dear Usbek, 
 and I am so dejected that I cannot 3'et persuade my- 
 self you have been so long away. I wander through 
 every corner of the seraglio as if you were there ; I cher- 
 ish that sweet delusion. What is there left to do for a 
 ■woman who loves you ; who has been accustomed to clasp 
 you in her arms ; whose only desire was to give you new 
 proofs of her affection ; who was born to the blessings of 
 freedom, but became a slave through the ardor of her pas- 
 sion? 
 
 When I married you, my eyes had not yet seen the face 
 of man ; and you are still the only man whom I have 
 been permitted to look on : * for I do not count as men 
 those frightful eunuchs whose least imperfection is that 
 they are not men. When I compare the beauty of your 
 countenance with the deformity of theirs, I cannot forbear 
 esteeming myself a happy woman : my imagination can 
 conceive no more ravishing idea than the bewitching 
 charms of your person. I pledge you my word, Usbek, 
 that were I allowed to leave this place in which the neces- 
 sity of my condition detains me; could I escape from the 
 guards who hem me in on all sides — even if I were 
 allowed to choose among all the men who dwell in this 
 
 *In Persia the women are confined much more closely than among 
 the Turks or Indians. — (M.) 
 
38 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 capital of nations — Usbek, I swear to you, I would choose 
 none but you : there is no man else in the wide world 
 worthy a woman's love. 
 
 Do not think that your absence has led me to neglect 
 those charms which have endeared me to you : although I 
 may not be seen by any one, and the ornaments with 
 which I deck myself do not affect your happiness, I strive 
 notwithstanding to omit no art that can arouse de- 
 light ; I never go to rest until I am all perfumed with 
 the sweetest essences. I recall that happy time when 
 you came to my arms ; a flattering dream deceives me, 
 and shows me the dear object of my love ; my fond im- 
 agination is whelmed in its desires ; sometimes I think 
 that, digusted with the trials of your journey, you are 
 hurrying home : between waking and sleeping the night 
 is spent in such vague dreams ; I seek for you at my side, 
 and you seem to flee from me ; until at last the very fire 
 which burns me disperses these unsubstantial joys, and I 
 am broad awake. Then my agitation knows no bounds. 
 . . . You will not believe me, Usbek, but it is impossi- 
 ble to live like this ; liquid fire courses in my veins : why 
 cannot I find words to tell you all I feel, and why do I feel 
 so deeply what I cannot utter ? In such moments, Usbek, I 
 would give the world for a single kiss. What an unhappy 
 woman is she who, having such passionate desires as these, 
 is deprived of the company of him who alone can satisfy 
 them ! Abandoned to herself, with nothing to divert her, 
 her whole live is spent in sighs and in the frenzy of a 
 goading passion. Instead of being happy, she has not even 
 the privilege of ministering to the happiness of another: a 
 useless ornament of a seraglio, she is kept for her husband's 
 credit merely, and not for his enjoyment ! You men are 
 the most cruel creatures ! Delighted when we have desires 
 that we cannot gratify, you treat us as if we had no emo- 
 tions — though you would be very sorry if that were so: 
 you imagine that our long repressed love will be quickened 
 when we behold you. It is very difficult for a man to make 
 himself beloved ; the easiest plan is to obtain from our con- 
 stitutional weakness what yon dare not hope to obtain 
 through your own merit. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 39 
 
 Farewell, my dear Usbek, farewell. Believe that I live 
 only to adore you : the thought of you fills my soul ; and 
 your absence, far from making me forget you, would make 
 my love more vehement, if that were possible. 
 
 Thb Sbraguo at Ispahan, the 12th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1711. 
 
 LETTER VIII 
 
 Usbek to his friend Rustan, at Ispahan 
 
 1G0T your letter at Erzeroum, where I am now. I was 
 quite certain that my departure would cause some stir, 
 but that gives me no trouble : which would you have 
 me obey — the petty maxims that guide my enemies, or the 
 dictates of my own free soul? 
 
 From my earliest youth I have been a courtier; and yet 
 I make bold to say that my heart has remained uncor- 
 rupted : indeed, I conceived the grand idea of daring to be 
 virtuous even at court. From the moment I recognized 
 vice, I withdrew from it ; afterward, when I approached it, 
 it was only to unmask it. I carried my veracity even to the 
 foot of the throne, and spoke a language never heard there 
 before ; I disconcerted flattery, amazing at the same time 
 the idol and its worshipers. 
 
 But when I saw that my sincerity had made me enemies, 
 and had brought upon me the jealousy of the ministers, 
 without attracting the favor of the prince, I determined to 
 forsake a corrupt court in which my unseconded virtue 
 could no longer maintain me. I feigned a mighty interest 
 in science; and, by dint of pretending, soon became reall3r 
 attached to it. I ceased to be a man of affairs, and retired 
 to a house in the country. But even here persecution fol- 
 lowed me ; the malice of my enemies almost deprived me of 
 the means of protecting myself. Information received in 
 secret led me to consider my position seriously : I resolved 
 to leave my native land, and my withdrawal from court 
 
40 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 supplied a plausible excuse. I waited on the king ; I em- 
 phasized the great desire I had to acquaint myself with 
 the sciences of the west, and hinted that my travels might 
 even be of service to him. I found favor in the king's 
 sight ; I set out, and snatched from my enemies their 
 expected victim. 
 
 Here, Rustan, you have the true motive of my journey, 
 lyet them talk in Ispahan ; say nothing in my defense ex- 
 cept to my friends. Leave the evil-disposed to their mis- 
 constructions ; I would be too happy if that were the only 
 harm they could do me. 
 
 They discuss me at present ; perhaps I shall soon be for- 
 gotten, and my friends. . . . But, no, I will not, Rustan, 
 resign myself to these sad thoughts: I will always be dear 
 to them ; I rely upon their faithfulness as upon yours. 
 
 BRZSKOtTM, the 2oth of the second moon 
 of Gemmandi* 1711. 
 
 I.ETTER IX 
 The Chief Kunuch to iBEi.f at Erzeroum 
 
 YOTJ follow your old master on his travels; you wander 
 through provinces and kingdoms; no grief can make 
 any impression on you; you see new sights all day 
 long; everything you behold entertains you, and you are 
 unconscious of the flight of time. 
 
 It is not so with me. Shut up in a hideous prison, I 
 am always surrounded by the same objects; there is no 
 change even in what vexes me. Weighed down by fifty 
 years of care and annoyance, I lament my wretched case: 
 all my life long I have never passed a single untroubled 
 day, or known a peaceful moment. 
 
 » The two Gemmadis, or Gemalis, are the fifth and sixth months 
 of the Persian year. Gemal-i-ul-awal is the first of these. 
 
 t This is the only letter To Ibbi, and there is only one from him, 
 the XXXIX. He must not be confounded with Ibben, to whom 
 many letters are addressed. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 41 
 
 When my first master formed the cruel design of intrust- 
 ing his wives to my care, and induced me by flattering 
 promises, supplemented by a thousand threats, to separate 
 myself forever from my manhood, tired of the toilsome 
 service in which I was engaged, I calculated that the sacri- 
 fice of my passions would be more than repaid by ease and 
 wealth. How unfortunate was I ! ■ Preoccupied with the 
 thought of the ills I would escape, I had no idea of the 
 others to which I fled : I expected that the inability to 
 satisfy love would secure me from its assaults. Alas ! al- 
 though passion had been rendered inefficient, its force re- 
 mained unabated ; and, far from being relieved, I found 
 myself surrounded by objects which continually whetted my 
 desires. When I entered the seraglio, where everything 
 filled me with regret for what I had lost, my agitation in- 
 creased each moment ; a thousand natural charms seemed 
 to unfold themselves to my sight only to tantalize me ; and 
 to crown my misery, I had constantly before me their for- 
 tunate possessor. While this wretched time lasted, I never 
 led a woman to my master's bed without feeling wild rage 
 in my heart, and despair unutterable in my soul. 
 
 And thus I passed my miserable youth, with no confidant 
 but my own bosom. Wearied with longing and sad as 
 night, there was nothing left but to endure in silence. I 
 was forced to turn the sternest glances on those very 
 women whom I would fain have regarded with looks of 
 love. It would have undone me had they read my thoughts : 
 how they would have tyrannized over me ! I remember 
 one day, as I attended a lady at the bath, I was so car- 
 ried away that I lost command of myself, and dared to lay 
 my hand where I should not. My first thought was that 
 my last day had come. I was, however, fortunate enough 
 to escape a dreadful death ; but the fair one, whom I had 
 made the witness of my weakness, extorted a heavy price 
 for her silence : I entirely lost command of her, and she 
 forced me, each time at the risk of my life, to comply 
 with a thousand caprices. 
 
 At length, the fire of youth burnt out, I grow old and 
 become, in that particular, at peace with myself. Women 
 I regard with indiS'erence, I pay them back for all their 
 
42 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 contempt, and all the torments which I suffered through 
 them. I never forget that I was born to command 
 them, and in the exercise of my authority I feel as if 
 I had recovered my lost manhood. I hate women now 
 that I can regard them without passion, and detect and 
 discuss all their weaknesses. Although I guard them for 
 another, I experience a secret joy in making myself obeyed. 
 When I take all their pleasures from them, I feel as if it 
 were at my behest alone ; and that always gives me satis- 
 faction more or less direct. The seraglio is niy empire ; 
 and my ambition, the only passion left me, finds no small 
 gratification. I mark with pleasure that all depends on 
 me, and that my presence is required at all times : I will- 
 ingly incur the hatred of all these women, because that 
 establishes me more firmly in my post. And they do not 
 hate me for nothing, I can tell you : I interfere with their 
 most innocent pleasures ; I am always in the way, an in- 
 surmountable obstacle ; before they know where they are 
 they find their schemes frustrated ; I am armed with re- 
 fusals, I bristle with scruples ; not a word is heard from 
 me but duty, virtue, chastity, modesty. I make them des- 
 perate by dinning them with the weakness of their sex, 
 and the authority of our master. Then I lament the neces- 
 sity which requires me to be so severe, and lead them to 
 believe that my only motives are their truest interest and 
 my profound attachment to them. 
 
 Do not suppose that in my turn 1 have not to suffer 
 endless unpleasantness. Every day these women seek occa- 
 sions to repay me with interest, and their reprisals* are 
 often terrible. Between us there goes on a constant inter- 
 change of ascendancy and obedience. They are always 
 putting me upon the meanest services ; they affect a sublime 
 contempt; and, regardless of my age, they force me to rise 
 ten times during the night for the merest trifle. I am worn 
 off my feet with endless commissions, orders, employments, 
 and caprices; one would think that they take turn about 
 
 * Revers in the original. M. Labovilaye asserts that Montesquieu 
 is the only writer who uses revers in the sense of revanche; but 
 Littrg gives examples of a similar use of the word in Moliere and 
 Bossuet. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 43 
 
 in inventing occupations for me. They often amuse them- 
 selves by making me doubly vigilant ; they give me imag- 
 inary confidences. Sometimes I am told that a young man 
 has been seen prowling around the walls, or a startling 
 noise has been heard, or some one is about to receive a letter. 
 All this bothers me, and amuses them ; they are delighted 
 when they see me tormenting myself. Sometimes they 
 station me behind the door, and keep me standing there 
 night and day. They well know how to pretend to be ill, 
 to swoon away, to be frightened out of their wits : they are 
 never at a loss to work their will on me. When they are 
 in this mood, implicit obedience, unquestioning compliance 
 are my only resources : a refusal from such a man as I am 
 would be a thing unheard of ; and if I were to hesitate in 
 obeying them, they would punish me at their discretion. I 
 would sooner die, my dear Ibbi, than submit to such hu- 
 miliation. 
 
 But this is not all. I am never for an instant sure of 
 my master's favor ; for each of his wives is an enemy who 
 never ceases to hope for my ruin. They take advantage 
 of certain snatches of time when I cannot be heard, when 
 he can refuse them nothing, and when I am always in the 
 wrong. I conduct to my master's bed women whose spite 
 is roused against me : do you imagine that they will move 
 a finger in my behalf, or say a single word in my favor? 
 I have everything to fear from their tears, their sighs, 
 their embraces, from their very pleasures ; it is their time 
 of triumph ; their charms are arrayed against me : their pres- 
 ent services obliterate in a moment all those rendered by 
 me in the past ; and nothing can plead for me with a 
 master who is no longer himself. 
 
 Many a time I lie down high in my master's favor, and 
 awake to find myself disgraced. The day on which they 
 whipped me so ignominiously round the seraglio, what had 
 I done? I leave a woman in my master's arms: when she 
 sees him impassioned she bursts into a torrent of tears, 
 and pours out complaints so skillfully that they become 
 more anguished in proportion as the love she causes grows 
 vehement. What could I do to defend myself at a crisis 
 of that kind? When I least expected it, ruin overtook 
 
44 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 me ; I was the victim of an amorous intrigue, of a treaty 
 sealed with sighs. Behold, dear Ibbi, the wretched plight 
 in which I have always lived. 
 
 What happiness is yours ! Your duties are confined to 
 attendance on Usbek. It is easy for you to please him, 
 and to retain his favor to your dying day. 
 
 Ths Seraguo at Ispahan, the last day of 
 the moon of Saphar, 171 1. 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 MiRZA TO HIS FRIEND USBEK, AT ErZEROUM 
 
 I 
 
 YOU alone could recompense me for the absence of Rica, 
 and it is only Rica who could console me for yours. 
 We miss you, Usbek ; you were the very life of our 
 circle. How hard it is to break away from those attach- 
 ments in which both the heart and the mind are engaged ! 
 We have great debates here ; our talk turns principally 
 on morality. We disputed yesterday whether true happi- 
 ^ness consists in pleasure and sensual gratification, or in the 
 practice of virtue. 
 
 I have heard you often affirm that men were made to 
 [be virtuous, and that justice is as indispensable to existence 
 as life itself. I beg you to explain to me what you mean 
 by this. 
 
 I have spoken of this to the moUahs,* but they exasper- 
 ate me with their quotations from the Koran ; for I do 
 not consult them as a true believer, but as a man, a citi- 
 zen, and the father of a family. Farewell. 
 
 Ispahan, the last day of the moon 
 of Saphar, 171 1. 
 
 •Montesquieu spells it «Mollaks.» In Persia the moUah is a 
 devotee ; in Turkey, a judge. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 45 
 
 LETTER XI 
 
 USBEK TO MiRZA, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 YOU waive your own judgment in deference to mine 
 you even deign to consult me ; you profess yc 
 belief in my ability to instruct you. My dear Mir; 
 if there is one thing which flatters me more than yc 
 good opinion of me, it is the friendship which prompts 
 
 In the fulfillment of the task you have prescribed n 
 I do not think there is any necessity for argument 
 an abstruse orderTKThere are certain truths which it is r 
 sufficient to know, but which must be realized : such s 
 the great commonplaces of morality. Probably the folio 
 ing fable will affect you more than the most subtle arg 
 ment : 
 
 Once upon a time there dwelt in Arabia a small tri 
 called Troglodites, descendants of the ancient Troglodit 
 who, if historians are to be believed, f were liker bea; 
 than men. They were not, however, counterfeit presei 
 ments of the lower animals. They had not fur like beai 
 they did not hiss like serpents ; and they did possess t 
 eyes : X but they were so malicious, so brutish, that th^j 
 lacked all notion of justice and equity. 
 
 A king of foreign origin reigned over them. Wishing to 
 correct their natural wickedness, he treated them with 
 severity ; but they conspired against him, slew him, and 
 exterminated his line. 
 
 They then assembled to appoint a governing body. After 
 many dissensions, they elected magistrates. These had not 
 been long in office, when they found them intolerable, and 
 killed them also. 
 
 Freed from this new yoke, the people were swayed only 
 by their sava g-e instin cts. Every man determined to do 
 
 *^*£ssayer la mienne^ a Gascon provincialism for USER, etc. The 
 meaning is, therefore, as above, and not «to test mine.» 
 
 t Herodotus, Plutarch, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny the Elder, are 
 the authorities for the Troglodites. 
 
 X Contradictions of assertions in Pomponius Mela. 
 
46 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 what was right in his own eyes ; and in attending to his 
 own interests, the general welfare was forgotten. 
 
 This unanimous decision gave universal satisfaction. They 
 said : " Why should I kill myself with work for those in 
 whom I have no interest? I will only think of myself: 
 ihow should the welfare of others afEect me? I will provide 
 for my own necessities ; and, if these are satisfied, it is no 
 concern of mine though all the other Troglodites live in 
 misery." 
 
 Each man said to himself in seedtime, " I shall till no 
 more land than will supply me with corn enough for my 
 wants. What use have I for any more? I am not going 
 to bother myself for nothing.* 
 
 The land in this little kingdom was not all of the same 
 quality : some of it was barren and mountainous ; and 
 other portions, lying low, were well watered. One year a 
 drought occurred, so severe, that the uplands bore no crop 
 at all, while those that were well watered brought forth 
 abundantly. In consequence of this, the highlanders almost 
 all died of hunger, because the people of the lowlands had 
 no mercy on them, and refused to share the harvest. 
 
 The year after, the weather being very wet, the higher 
 grounds produced extraordinary crops, while the lowlands 
 were flooded. Again half the people were famine stricken; 
 but the wretched sufferers found the mountaineers as hard 
 as they themselves had been. 
 
 One of the chief men of the country had a very lovely 
 wife. A neighbor of his fell in love with her, and carried 
 her off. This gave rise to a bitter quarrel ; and after many 
 words and blows, the parties agreed to submit their case to 
 the judgment of a Troglodite, who had been well esteemed 
 during the republic. Having gone to him, they were about 
 to argue the case before him, when he cried : « What does 
 it matter to me whose wife she is? My land waits to be 
 tilled ; and I am not going to waste my time settling your 
 quarrels and doing your business, when I might be attend- 
 ing to my own ; be kind enough to leave me alone, and 
 trouble me no more with your disputes." With that he 
 left them, and went to work in his fields. The ravishef, 
 who was the stronger man, swore he would sooner die than 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 47 
 
 give up the woman. The other, smarting under his neigh- 
 bor's ill treatment and the unfeeling conduct of the umpire, 
 was going home in despair, when he met a fine young 
 woman returning from the well. Having no longer a wife 
 of his own, he was attracted toward her ; and she pleased 
 him all the more when he learned that she was the wife of 
 him whom he had solicited to judge his case, and who 
 had proved so pitiless to him. He therefore seized the 
 woman and carried her to his house. 
 
 Another man, the owner of some fairly productive ground, 
 took great pains in its cultivation. Two of his neighbors 
 conspired to drive him from his house, and seize his lands. 
 They entered into a compact to oppose all who should try 
 to oust them, and they actually succeeded for several 
 months. One of the two, however, disgusted at having to 
 share what rriight be his own exclusively, killed the other, 
 and became sole master of the ground. But his reign was 
 soon over : two other Troglodites attacked him, and as he 
 was no match for them, they killed him. 
 
 Still another Troglodite, seeing some wool exposed for 
 sale, asked the price of it. The seller argued thus with 
 himself : " At the market price I should receive for my 
 wool as much money as would buy two measures of corn ; 
 but I will sell it for four times that sum, and then I can 
 buy eight measures." As the other wanted the wool, he 
 paid the price demanded. * Many thanks," said the vendor, 
 " I shall now buy some corn." " What," rejoined the buyer, 
 <* you want com ? I have some to sell ; but the price will 
 rather astonish you. You must know that, as there is a 
 famine in the land, corn is extremely dear. If you return 
 me my money, I will give you one measure of corn : I 
 would not give you a grain more for the price, though you 
 were to die of hunger." 
 
 Meantime a dreadful malady was ravaging the land. An 
 able physician came from a neighboring country, and pre- 
 scribed with such success that he cured all his patieHts. 
 When the plague ceased, he called for his fees, but was re- 
 fused by one and all. There was nothing for it but to 
 return to his own country, which he reached worn to a 
 skeleton by the fatigues of a long journey. Soon after he 
 
48 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 heard that the same disease had broken out afresh among 
 these thankless people, and with more virulence than be- 
 fore. This time they did not wait for him, but sent to 
 entreat his presence. "Begone," he cried, "unrighteous 
 men ! In your souls there is a poison more deadly than 
 that which you wish me to cure ; you are unworthy to live, 
 
 I for you are inhuman monsters, unacquainted with the first 
 principles of justice. I will not offend the gods who punish 
 you by opposing their just wrath." 
 
 Erzerotjm, the 3d of the second moOn 
 of Gemmadi,* 1711. 
 
 LETTER XII 
 UsBEK TO THE Same, at Ispahan 
 
 You have seen, my dear Mirza, how the Troglodites per- 
 ished in their sins, the victims of their own unright- 
 eousness. Only two families escaped the doom which 
 befell the nation. 
 
 In that country there lived two very remarkable men, 
 humane, just, lovers of virtue. United by their upright- 
 ness as much as by the corruption of their fellows, they 
 regarded the general desolation with hearts from which 
 pity expelled every other feeling; and their compassion 
 united them in a new bond. Together they labored for 
 their mutual benefit ; no dissensions arose between them 
 except such as may spring from the tenderest friendship. 
 In a secluded part of the country, far removed from those 
 who were unworthy of their companionship, they led a 
 calm and happy life. The earth, glad to be tilled by such 
 virtuous hands, seemed to yield her fruits of her own 
 accord. 
 
 They loved their wives, and were beloved most tenderly. 
 Their utmost care was given to the virtuous training of 
 their children. They kept before their young minds the 
 misfortunes of their countrymen, and held them up as a 
 
 * Gemal-i^l-sani, the sixth month of the Persian year. 
 
! 
 
 PERSIAN LETTERS C 49 
 
 most melancholy example. Above all, they led them t6 
 see that the interest of the individual was bound up in 
 that of the community ; that to' isolate oneself was to court 
 ruin ; that the cost of virtue should never be counted, nor 
 the practice of it regarded as troublesome ; and that in act 
 ing justly by others, we bestow blessings on ourselves. 
 
 They soon enjoyed the reward of ^l^tuous "parents, which 
 consists in having children like themselves. Happy mar- 
 riages increased the number of the young people who grew 
 up under their guidance. Although the community in- 
 creased, there was still but one interest ; and virtue, 
 instead of losing its force in the crowd, grew stronger by 
 reason of more numerous examples. 
 
 It is impossible to depict the happiness of these Troglo- 
 dites ! So upright a people could not faH . to be the special 
 objects of divine j:arer They were taught ta reverence the 
 gods with the first dawnin£_of intellect; and religion re- 
 fined manners that nature had leftjuntutored. 
 
 They established feasts in honor of the gods. Young 
 men and maidens, decked with flowers, worshiped them 
 with dances and rural minstrelsy. Banquets followed, in 
 which they struck a happy mean between mirth and fru- 
 gality. At these gatherings nature spoke its artless lan- 
 guage ; there the young folks learned how to make love's 
 bargain of hearts : trembling girls blushed to find on their 
 lips a promise which the blessing of their parents soon 
 ratified ; tender mothers delighted themselves in forecasting 
 happy marriages. 
 
 When they visited the temple it was not to ask of the 
 gods wealth and overflowing plenty ; these fortunate Trog- 
 lodites regarded such requests as unworthy of them ; if 
 they made them at all, it was not for themselves, but for 
 their countrymen. They approached the altar only to pray 
 for the health of their parents, for the unity of their 
 brethren, for the love of their wives, the affection and obe- 
 dience of their children. Thither the maidens came to offer 
 up the sweet sacrifice of their hearts, asking in return only 
 the right to make a Troglodite happy. 
 
 In the evening, when the flocks had left the fields, and 
 the weary oxen had returned from plowing, these people 
 4 
 
50 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 met together. During a frugal meal they sang of the 
 crimes of the first Troglodites, and their sad fate; of the 
 revival of virtue with a new race, and of its happiness. 
 Then they celebrated the greatness of the gods, abounding 
 in mercy to those who seek them, and visiting with inevit- 
 able judgments those who reverence them not. This would 
 be followed by a description of the delights of a country 
 life, and the happiness that springs from a .state of inno- 
 cence. Soon after they retired to rest, and their slumbers 
 were unbroken by care or anxiety. 
 
 The provision of nature was sufficient for both their 
 pleasures and their wants. A covetous man was unknown 
 in this happy country. When they made presents, the 
 giver always felt himself more blessed than the receiver. 
 The whole race looked upon themselves as one single fam- 
 ily ; their flocks were almost always intermixed, and the 
 only trouble which they usually shirked was that of sepa- 
 rating them. 
 
 ErzBROUM, the 6th of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 171 1. 
 
 IvETTER XIII 
 
 USBEK TO THE SaME 
 
 I CANNOT say half I wish to about the virtue of the Trog- 
 lodites. One of them once said, "To-morrow it is my 
 father's turn to work in the fields ; I shall rise two 
 hours before him, and when he comes to his work he will 
 find it all done." 
 
 Another said to himself, « I think my sister has taken a 
 fancy for a young cousin of mine. I must talk to my 
 father about it, and get him to arrange a marriage.** 
 
 Another, being told that robbers had carried off his herd, 
 replied, «I am very sorry, because it contained a white 
 heifer which I meant to offer to the gods." 
 
 * In Montesquieu's time it was not uncommon for parents of noble 
 descent to compel their daughters to enter a convent in order that the 
 eldest son might have greater means of display. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 51 
 
 One was heard telling another that he was bound for the 
 temple to return thanks to Heaven for the recovery from 
 sickness of his brother, who was so dear to his father, and 
 whom he himself loved so much. 
 
 This also was once said : "In a field adjoining my 
 father's, the workers are all day long exposed to the heat 
 of the sun. I shall plant some trees there that these poor 
 folks may sometimes rest in their shade." 
 
 On one occasion, in a company of Troglodites, an elderly 
 man reproached a young one with the commission of an 
 unworthy action. "We do not think him capable of such 
 a deed," said the young men ; "but if he has been guilty, 
 may he outlive all his family." 
 
 A Troglodite having been told that strangers had robbed 
 his house of all his goods, replied, " If they had not been 
 unrighteous men, I would have prayed the gods to give them 
 a longer use of them than I have had." 
 
 Their unexampled prosperity was not regarded without 
 envy. A neighboring nation gathered together, and on some 
 paltry pretext determined to carry off their cattle. As soon 
 as they heard of this, the Troglodites dispatched ambassa- 
 dors, who addressed their enemies in the following terms : 
 " What evil have the Troglodites done you ? Have they 
 carried off your wives, stolen your cattle, or ravaged your 
 lands? No; we are just men, and fear the gods. What, 
 then, do you require of us ? Would you have wool to make 
 clothes? Do you wish the milk of our cows, or the prod- 
 ucts of our fields ? I,ay down j'^our arms, then ; come with 
 us, and we will give you all j^ou demand. But we swear 
 by all we hold most sacred, that if you enter our territories 
 in enmity, we will regard you as dishonest men, and deal 
 with you as we would with wild beasts." 
 
 This speech was received with contempt ; and, believing 
 that the Troglodites had no means of defense except their 
 innocence, the barbarians invaded their territory in war- 
 like array. 
 
 But the Troglodites were well prepared to defend them- 
 selves. They had placed their wives and children in their 
 midst. Astonished they certainly were at the injustice of 
 their enemies, but not dismayed by their number. Their 
 
52 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 hearts burned within them with an ardor before unknown. 
 One longed to lay down his life for his father, another for 
 his wife and children, this one for his brothers, that one 
 for his friends, and all for each other. When one fell in 
 the fight, he who immediately took his place, besides fight- 
 ing for the common cause, had the death of his comrade to 
 avenge. 
 
 And so the battle raged between right and wrong. Those 
 wretched creatures, whose sole aim was plunder, felt no 
 shame when they were put to flight. They were forced to 
 yield to the prowess of that virtue, whose worth they were 
 unable to appreciate. 
 
 Brzeroum, the 9th of the second moon 
 of Gemtnadi, 171 1. 
 
 LETTER XIV 
 UsBBK TO THE Same 
 
 A^ 
 
 s THEIR numbers increased every day, the Troglodites 
 thought it behooved them to elect a king. They 
 judged it wise to confer the crown upon the justest 
 man among them ; and their thoughts turned to one, ven- 
 erable by reason of his age and his long career of virtue. 
 He, however, had refused to attend the meeting, and with- 
 drew to his house, oppressed with grief. 
 
 When deputies were sent to him to announce his election, 
 «The gods forbid," cried he, « that I should wrong the 
 Troglodites by permitting them to believe that there is no 
 man among them more just than I ! You offer me the 
 crown; and if you insist upon it absolutely, I cannot but 
 take it. Remember, however, that I shall die of sorrow, 
 having known the Troglodites freemen, to behold them sub- 
 jected to a ruler. » Having said this, he burst into a 
 torrent of tears. « Unhappy day!" he exclaimed. « Why 
 have I lived to see it?» Then he upbraided them. «I 
 see, » he cried, « O Troglodites, what moves you to this ; 
 uprightness becomes a burden to you. In your present 
 condition, having no head, you are constrained in your 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 53 
 
 own despite to be virtuous ; otherwise your very existence 
 would be at stake, and you would relapse into the wretched 
 state of your ancestors. But this seems to you too heavy 
 a yoke ; you would rather become the subjects of a king, 
 and submit to laws of his framing — laws less exacting 
 than your present customs. You know that then you would 
 be able to satisfy your ambition, and while away the time 
 in slothful luxury ; and that, provided you avoided the 
 graver crimes, there would be no necessity for virtue. " He 
 ceased speaking for a little, and his tears fell faster than 
 ever. " And what do you expect of me ? How can I lay 
 commands upon a Troglodite? Would one act more nobly 
 because I ordered him ? You forget that a Troglodite with^ 
 out any command J^es_what. is right from natural inclinav 
 tion? 
 
 " O Troglodites, my days are nearlj' done, my blood is 
 frozen in my veins, I shall soon join your blessed ances- 
 tors ; why would. ypu,_have me carry them the sad jnewsj 
 that you have submitted , to another Jaw than _that_ of 1 
 virtue ? " 
 
 Brzerouu, the loth of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 1711. 
 
 I^ETTER XV* 
 
 The first EtiNucH to Jaron, the bi,ack Eunuch, at 
 
 Erzeroum 
 
 MAY Heaven restore you to this country, and deliver 
 you from all danger ! 
 
 Although friendship is a bond almost unknown 
 to me, and although I am wrapped up in myself, yet you 
 have made me feel that I have a heart ; and while I was as a 
 bronze statue to the rest of the slaves who lived under my 
 rule, it was with pleasure that I watched your growth 
 from infancy. 
 
 The time came when my master threw his eyes on you. 
 Nature had not yet whispered her secrets, when the knife 
 * Letter XV. is the first of those added in the edition of 1754. 
 
54 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 separated you from her forever. I will not say whether I 
 pitied you, or whether I was glad to see you brought into 
 my own condition. I dried your tears and stilled your 
 cries. I imagined that I saw you born again, issuing from 
 a state of thraldom in which you would always have had to 
 obey, to enter into a service in which you would exercise 
 authority. I charged myself with your education. That 
 severity, without which instruction is impossible, kept you 
 long in ignorance of my love. You were dear to me, how- 
 ever ; and I assure you that I loved you as a father loves 
 his son, if the names of father and son can be applied to 
 such as you and I. 
 
 Since you are to travel in countries inhabited by unbe- 
 lieving Christians, it is impossible that you should es- 
 cape defilement. How shall the prophet look on you with 
 favor in the midst of so many millions of his enemies? 
 I hope my master, on his return, will perform the pilgrim- 
 age to Mecca : you would be purified in that blessed place. 
 
 Thb Seraglio at Ispahan, the loth of the second 
 moon of Gemmadi, 1711. 
 
 LETTER XVI 
 
 USBEK TO THE Moi,I,AH MBHEMET Aw, GuARDIAN OF 
 
 The Three Tombs* at Koum 
 
 WHY, divine Mollah, do you live in the tombs? You 
 are better fitted to dwell among the stars. Doubt- 
 less you hide yourself lest you should eclipse the 
 sun : unlike the day-star you have no spots ; but you 
 resemble him in your cloudy concealment. 
 
 Your knowledge is more abysmal than the ocean ; your 
 intellect, keener than Zufagar,t the twin-pointed sword of 
 
 *The three tombs are those of Fatima and two votaries of her 
 family. (See p. 31, Note.) 
 
 + Zufagar, or Zoulf egar, the name of a double-bladed sword given 
 by Mohammed to Ali. It was treasured for many years in the palace 
 of the califs, until one of the successors of AbdouUah II. broke it by 
 accident while hunting. A representation of this sword still appears 
 on the flag of the Turkish navy. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 55 
 
 Hali. You know the secrets of the nine orders of celestial 
 powers ; you read the Koran on the breast of our holy 
 Prophet, and when you come to an obscure passage, an 
 angel, by his order, spreads his rapid wings, and descends 
 from the throne to reveal to you its meaning. 
 
 I may, with your help, conduct a private correspondence 
 with the seraphim ; for, in short, O thirteenth Iman,* are 
 you not the centre where earth and heaven meet, the point 
 of communication between the abyss and the empyrean? 
 
 In the midst of a profane people, permit me to purify 
 myself through you. Suffer me to turn my face toward 
 the holy place in which you dwell ; mark me off from 
 ainong the wicked, as one distinguishes night from day ; f 
 aid me with your counsels ; be my soul's gxiardian ; feed 
 me with divine knowledge ; and let me humbly expose to 
 you the wounds of my spirit. Address your inspired letters 
 to Erzeroum, where I shall stay for a month or two. 
 
 ErzBROUM, the nth of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 171 1. 
 
 I^ETTER XVII 
 
 UsBBK TO THE Same 
 
 1AM powerless, divine Mollah, to calm my impatience ; 
 I do not know how I am to wait for your sublime answer. 
 I have doubts, which must be resolved^. I feel that 
 my reason has gone astray ; restore it to the right path. 
 
 Illumine"my darkness, O^ource of ligh t ! Annihilate with 
 the lightning of your divine pen the difficulties I am about 
 to propose to you ; enable me to commiserate myself, make 
 me ashamed of the questions I ask you. 
 
 •The first twelve successors of Mohammed were the Imans, or holy 
 men. To address any one as the "thirteenth Iman» is, therefore, a 
 high comphment. 
 
 tin the original, "as one distinguishes at daybreak the white 
 thread from the black.» According to the Mussulmans, day begins 
 when there is light enough to make this distinction. 
 
S6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Whence comes it that our lawgiver forbids the use of 
 swine's flesh, and of all those meats which he denominates 
 unclean? Why are we forbidden to touch a corpse, and 
 why for the purification of our souls is this endless wash- 
 ing of the body ordained? T o me it seems that things in 
 themse lves are n eitli£r-.clearL-a or unclean : I can conceive 
 oT^o inherent quality which makes them the one or the 
 other. The filthiness of filth consists in its offending our 
 sight or some other sense ; but in itself it is no dirtier 
 than gold or diamonds. The idea of uncleanness, resulting 
 from contact with a dead body, proceeds from a natural 
 repugnance with which it fills us. If the bodies of those 
 who do not wash offended neither the smell nor the sight, 
 how could we tell that they were unclean ? Should not, 
 
 (therefore, the senses. divine _Mollah... be the only~jndgps of 
 what is clean or unclgan ? Yet,^since the same objects 
 do not affect all men alike, that which is agreeable, to 
 one producing disgust in another, it follows that , tliejSOt- 
 ness" of the" senses is no sure guide in this matter, unless 
 we are permitted to decide the point, .each accor ding to h is 
 fancy, and to separate for our own behoof things that are 
 clean from those that are not. 
 
 But would not this, reverend Mollah, confound the dis- 
 tinctions established by our. holy Prophet, and overturn the 
 foun~dati6ns of that law which was written by angelic 
 hands ? 
 
 Erzbroum, the 2ot.h of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 1711. 
 
 IvETTER XVIII 
 Moi,i<AH MsHEMBT Ai,i, Servant of thb Prophets to 
 
 USBEK, AT ErzEROUM 
 
 You are always propounding questions that have been 
 laid before our holy Prophet thousands of times. 
 Why do you not read the traditions of the doctors? 
 Why not go to that pure fountain head of all intelligence? 
 There you would find all your doubts resolved. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 57 
 
 Unhappy man ! Constantly troubled about earthly things, 
 you have never looked with a single eye on those of hea- 
 _venj^ You reverence the life of the Mollahs, but you have 
 not the courage to embrace and follow it. 
 
 O profane ones who never enter into the secrets of the 
 Eternal, your light is as the darkness of the pit, and the 
 reasonings of your minds are no more than the dust which 
 rises as you walk, when the sun is at the highest pitch of 
 noon in the scorching month of Chahban.* 
 
 The very zenith of your understanding does not attain to 
 the nadir oTT&at of the least of the Imans : your vain phi- 
 losophy is but as the lightning which heralds the storm 
 and darkness : in the midst of the tempest, you are driven 
 by the wind and tossed. 
 
 Nothing is easier than the solution of your difficulty. 
 For that purpose it is sufficient to narrate what happened 
 once when our holy Prophet, tempted by the Christians 
 and pestered by the Jews, effectually silenced both parties. 
 
 The Jew, Abdias Ibesalon,t asked him why God had 
 prohibited the eating of swine's flesh. "There is good rea- 
 son for it," answered Mohammed. "The creature is un- 
 clean, and of that I will convince you." He took some 
 earth and shaped it into the figure of a man. Then he 
 threw it on the ground, and cried, "Arise." Immediately 
 a man stood up, and said, " I am Japhet, the son of 
 Noah." "Was your hair as white at your death as it is 
 now?" asked the holy Prophet. "No," replied he, "but 
 when you roused me I thought the day of judgment had 
 come ; and such fear laid hold of me that my hair turned 
 white on the instant." 
 
 "Now tell me," said the messenger of God, "the whole 
 history of Noah's ark." Japhet obeyed, and after having 
 minutely recounted all that passed during the first months, 
 he continued as follows : " All the excrement of the ani- 
 mals we cast on one side of the ark, which made it lean so 
 much that we were all in mortal terror, especially our 
 wives, who made a terrible outcry. Our father Noah 
 sought divine aid, and God commanded him to take the 
 
 *More correctly, Shaban, the eighth month of the Persian year. 
 
 t Mohammedan tradition. — (M.) 
 
58 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 elephant and place him with his head toward the side that 
 was overweighted. The excrement of the huge animal was 
 so plentiful that there came forth from it a pig." Do 
 you wonder, Usbek, that since then we have abstained 
 from swine's flesh, and have regarded the animal as un- 
 clean ? 
 
 "But, as the pig wallowed every day among the filth, 
 he caused such a stench in the ark that he was himself 
 compelled to sneeze ; and from his nose there dropped a 
 rat, which began to gnaw everything that came in his 
 way. This became so intolerable to Noah, that he once 
 more sought God's help in prayer. God commanded him 
 to strike the lion a heavy blow on the forehead, which 
 made him sneeze too, and from his nose there leapt a cat." 
 Are you yet persuaded that these animals are unclean? 
 How does it strike you? 
 
 When, therefore, you fail to understand the reason of 
 the uncleanness of certain things, it is because you are ig- 
 norant of much else, and have no acquaintance with what 
 has passed between God, the angels, and men. You know 
 not the history of eternity ; you have not read the writings 
 that were penned in heaven ; what has been revealed to 
 you is but an insignificant part of the divine library : nay, 
 those who, like us, have approached so near that they may 
 be said to live the heavenly life, are still in obscurity and 
 darkness. Farewell. May Mohammed be in your heart ! 
 
 KouM, the last day of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1711. 
 
 I/ETTER XIX 
 
 USBBK TO HIS FRIEND RuSTAN, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 WE STAYED only eight days at Tocat. After a journey 
 of thirty-five days, we are now at Smyrna. 
 
 Between Tocat and Smyrna we did not see a 
 single place worthy the name of town. I have marked 
 with astonishment the weakness of the empire of the 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 59 
 
 Osmanli : a diseased body, it is not supported by a plain 
 and temperate diet, but by violent remedies, which exhaust 
 and waste it away continually. 
 
 The pashas, who obtain office only by purchase, bank- 
 rupt when they enter their provinces, ravage them like 
 conquered countries. The insolent militia are governed 
 only by their own caprices. The towns are dismantled, 
 the cities deserted, the country desolate, agriculture and 
 commerce entirely neglected. 
 
 Impunity is the order of the day under this ruthless 
 government. The Christians who till the land, and the 
 Jews who collect the taxes, are exposed to a thousand out- 
 rages. 
 
 Property in land is uncertain ; and consequently the de- 
 sire to increase its value has diminished : neither title nor 
 possession is of any avail against the caprice of those in 
 power. 
 
 These barbarians have abandoned all the arts, even that 
 of war. While the nations of Europe become more refined 
 every day, these people remain in a state of primitive ig- 
 norance ; and rarely think of employing new inventions* 
 in war, until they have been used against them a thousand 
 times. 
 
 They have no experience of the sea, nor skill in naval 
 affairs. They say that a mere handful of Christians, de- 
 scending from a barren f rock, terrify the Ottomans, and 
 shake their ascendancy. 
 
 Although they are themselves unfit for commerce, it is 
 with great reluctance that they allow the Europeans, always 
 industrious and enterprising, to conduct their trade : they 
 think they are conferring a favor on these strangers in per- 
 mitting them to enrich themselves. 
 
 Throughout the wide stretch of country which I have 
 crossed, Smyrna is the only town which can be regarded 
 as rich and powerful ; and Smyrna owes its prosperity to 
 the Europeans : it is no fault of the Turks that it is not 
 like all the others. 
 
 *That is to say, the new inventions of the European nations, 
 t These are, apparently, the Knights of Malta. — (M.) 
 
6o MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Here you have, my dear Rustan, a correct idea of this 
 empire, which will be within two centuries the scene of 
 some conqueror's exploits. 
 
 Smyrna, the ad of the moon of 
 Rhamazan,* 1711. 
 
 LETTER XX 
 
 USBSK TO HIS WIFB ZaCHI, AT THE SERAGIvIO AT 
 
 Ispahan 
 
 You have offended me, Zachi ; and my emotions are such 
 as you should dread, did not my distance from you 
 afford you time to change your conduct, and set at 
 rest the fierce jealousy with which I am tormented. 
 
 I learn that you have been found alone with Nadir, the 
 white eunuch, who will pay with his head for his infidelity 
 and treachery. How could you forget yourself so far as 
 not to feel that it is forbidden you to receive a white 
 eunuch in your chamber, as long as you have black ones 
 at your service? You have been careful to tell me that 
 eunuchs are not men, and that your virtue raises you above 
 those thoughts which an imperfect likeness might arouse. 
 That is not enough either for you or for me: not enough 
 for you, because you have done that which the laws of the 
 seraglio forbid ; not enough for me, inasmuch as you have 
 robbed me of honor, in exposing yourself to the gaze — 
 what do I say? — perhaps to the attempts of a traitor who 
 would have defiled you Ly his misdeeds, and still more by 
 his repining and his impotent despair. You will doubtless 
 tell me that you have always been faithful. Yes, but hov,? 
 could you fail to be? Could you possibly deceive the vigi- 
 lance of the black eunuchs, who are so amazed at the life 
 you lead? Do you think you could force the doors that 
 keep you from the world? You boast of a virtue which is 
 not free; and perhaps your impure desires have robbed you 
 
 * More correctly, Ramazan, the ninth month of the Persian year ; 
 the Mohammedan Lent. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 6i 
 
 ain and again of the merit and the worth of your vaunted 
 
 elity. 
 
 I am persuaded that you are not guilty of all that might 
 
 laid to your charge : that the traitor did not lay his 
 :rilegious hands upon you ; that you were not so prodigal 
 
 to expose to him the delights of his master ; that, 
 rered with your garments, you allowed at least that 
 rrier to remain between you; that he, struck with rever- 
 t awe, cast down his eyes ; and that, his hardihood for- 
 king him, he trembled at the prospect of the punishment 
 
 had incurred. All this granted, it is none the less true 
 at you have failed in your duty. And, since you have done 
 fratuitous wrong, without accomplishing your sinful desires, 
 lat would you not do to satisfy them ? Still more, what 
 )uld you do if you could escape from that sacred place 
 lich seems to you a melancholy prison, but which your 
 mpanions find a happy asylum against the attacks of vice, 
 :onsecrated temple where their sex loses its weakness, and 
 comes invincible in spite of all its natural disadvantages? 
 hat would you do if, left to yourself, you had no 
 ler defense than your love for me, which is so sadly 
 aken, and your duty, against which you have so un- 
 irthily sinned? How immaculate are the manners of the 
 intry in which you live ! They protect you from the 
 empts of the vilest slaves ! You ought to be grateful to 
 ; even for the constraint in which you live, since it is 
 it alone which makes you worthy of life, 
 ^ou cannot endure the chief of the eunuchs because he is 
 ever watching your behavior, and giving you good ad- 
 e. His ugliness, you say, is so horrible that you cannot 
 k at him without suffering. As if one would place in 
 its of that kind, miracles of manly beauty ! No ; what 
 loys you is that you have not in his place the white 
 luch who dishonors you. 
 
 Jut what has your chief slave done to you? He has 
 i you that the familiarities which you have taken with 
 
 youthful Zelida were unbecoming : that is the cause of 
 ir hatred. C.Scv/e-'^c) ^--■'^ 
 
 )uty requires me, Zachi, to be an impartial judg^ I am, 
 irever, only a kind husband who seeks to find you inno- 
 
62 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 cent. The love which I bear Roxana, my new wife, has 
 not deprived me of the tenderness which is rightly due to 
 you, as being not less beautiful than she. I share my love 
 among you all ; and the only advantage possessed by Rox- 
 ana is that which virtue adds to beauty. 
 
 Smyrna, the 12th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, * 1711. 
 
 LETTER XXI 
 
 USBEK TO THE CHIEF WHITE EtTNTJCH 
 
 WHEN you open this letter you ought to tremble; or 
 rather you should have trembled when you per- 
 mitted the treachery of Nadir. You who, even in 
 the dullness and frigidity of old age, may not without guilt 
 raise your eyes toward the dread objects of my love ; you, 
 to whom it is forever forbidden to set a sacrilegious foot 
 across the threshold of that awful place which conceals 
 them from every eye : it is you who permit in those, 
 for whose conduct you are responsible, liberties which you 
 would not yourself dare to take ; and do you not quake at 
 the anticipation of the thunderbolt about to fall upon them 
 and you? 
 
 And what are you but vile instruments whom I may 
 destroy at my pleasure ; whose existence depends upon 
 obedience; who have been sent into the world to live under 
 my laws, or to die when I require it ; who will cease to 
 breathe as soon as my happiness, my love, my jealousy, 
 has no more need of your ignoble service ; who, in fine, 
 can have no other lot than submission, whose soul is my 
 will, whose only hope begins and ends in pleasing me? 
 
 I am aware that some of my wives are very fretful 
 under the strict laws of duty ; that the constant presence 
 of a black eunuch annoys them ; that they are weary of 
 those hideous objects, which are appointed to keep them 
 spotless for their husband ; I know it well. As for you, 
 
 '^More correctly Zilkaid, the eleventh month of the Persian year. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 63 
 
 who have abetted this disorder, you shall be punished in a 
 manner to strike terror into all those who abuse my con- 
 fidence. 
 
 I swear by all the prophets in heaven,* and by Hali, 
 the greatest of them, that if you swerve from your duty, 
 I will hold your life of no more account than that of the 
 insects which I tread upon. 
 
 Smyrna, the 12th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 171 1. 
 
 IvETTER XXIIf 
 
 JARON TO THE FIRST EuNUCH 
 
 THE further Usbek journeys from the seraglio, the more 
 he thinks of these devoted women : he sighs, he 
 weeps ; his grief becomes embittered, and his sus- 
 picions grow stronger. He wishes to increase the number 
 of their guardians. He intends to send me back, with all 
 the blacks who accompany him. It is not for himself he 
 fears, but for that which is to him a thousand times 
 dearer. 
 
 I return them to live under your laws, and to share your 
 cares. Great God ! what a world of things is necessary for 
 one man's happiness ! 
 
 Nature, which seems originally to have placed women in 
 a state of dependence, afterward withdrew them from it, 
 with the result that dissension arose between the sexes be- 
 cause of their mutual rights. The sexes now live in a new 
 kind of unity : hatred is the link between women and us 
 poor eunuchs ; between women and men, love is the bond. 
 
 My brow begins to wear a constant frown. My eyes 
 dart forth sombre glances, and joy forsakes my lips. Out- 
 wardly I appear calm ; within unrest reigns. Grief will 
 furrow my face long before the wrinkles of old age appear. 
 
 * According to the Persians there are a hundred thousand prophets 
 (See Letter XLI.) 
 
 I The second of those added in 1754. 
 
64 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I should have greatly enjoyed accompanying my master 
 in his western journey, but my will belongs to him. He 
 wishes me to guard his wives ; I shall watch over them 
 faithfully. I know how to behave toward that sex, which, 
 when not allowed to be vain, turns haughty, and which it is 
 easier to break than to bend. I prostrate myself before you. 
 
 Smyrna, the 12th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1711. 
 
 IvETTKR XXIII 
 
 USBBK TO HIS FRIEND IbBEN, AT SMYRNA. 
 
 WE HAVE now arrived at Leghorn after a forty days' 
 voyage. It is a new town and bears witness to the 
 genius of the dukes of Tuscany, who, from a 
 marshy village, have made it the most flourishing town in 
 Italy. 
 
 The women here enjoy much liberty : they are allowed to 
 look at men through a species of window called jalousie : 
 they have permission to go out every day in the company 
 of some old women : they wear only one veil.* Their 
 brothers-in-law, their uncles, and their nephews, are allowed 
 to visit them, and this hardly ever troubles their husbands. 
 
 The first sight of a Christian town is, for a Moham- 
 medan, a wonderful spectacle. I do not mean only those 
 things that strike the eye at once, such as the difference in 
 the buildings, the dresses, and the chief customs : there is, 
 even in the merest trifles, a singularity, which I feel, but 
 cannot describe. 
 
 We set out to-morrow for Marseilles, where our sojourn 
 will be brief. Rica's intention and mine is to get at once 
 to Paris, the capital of the European empire. Travelers 
 are always anxious to visit great cities, because they are a 
 sort of common country to all strangers. Farewell. Rest 
 assured that I shall never cease to love you. 
 
 Leghorn, the 12th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 171 2. 
 
 *The Persian women -wear four. — (M.) 
 
w 
 
 PERSIAN LETTERS 65 
 
 I^BTTER XXIV 
 
 Rica to Ibb:bn, at Smyrna 
 
 B HAVB now been a month at Paris, and all the time 
 constantly moving about. There is much to do 
 before one can get settled, find out the people with 
 whom one has business, and procure the many requisites 
 which are all wanted at the same time. 
 
 Paris is quite as large as Ispahan. The houses are so 
 high that you would swear they must be inhabited by as- 
 trologers. You can easily imagine that a city built in the 
 air, with six or seven houses one above the other, is 
 densely peopled ; and that when everybody is abroad, there 
 is a mighty bustle. 
 
 You will scarcely believe that during the month I have 
 been here I have not yet seen any one walking. There is no 
 people in the world who hold more by their vehicles than the 
 French : they run ; they fly : the slow carriages of Asia, the 
 measured step of our camels, would put them into a state of 
 coma. As for me, who am not made for such hurry, and 
 who often go a-foot without changing my pace, I am some- 
 times as mad as a Christian ; for, passing over splashing 
 from head to foot, I cannot pardon the elbowings I meet 
 with regularly and periodically. A man, coming up behind 
 me, passes me, and turns me half round ; then another, 
 crossing me on the opposite side, spins me suddenly round 
 to my first position. Before I have walked a hundred 
 paces, I am more bruised than if I had gone ten leagues. 
 
 You must not expect from me an exhaustive account of 
 the manners and customs of the Europeans : I have myself 
 but a faint notion of them yet, and have hardly had time 
 to, recover from my astonishment. 
 ■y / The King of France* is the most powerful of European 
 ^ potentates. He has no mines of gold like his neigh- 
 bor, the King of Spain; but he is much wealthier than 
 that prince, because his riches are drawn from a more 
 
 * Louis XIV. 
 5 
 
66 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 inexhaustible source, the vanity of his subjects. He has 
 undertaken and carried on great wars, without any other 
 suppUes than those derived from the sale of titles of 
 honor ; and it is by a prodigy of human pride that his 
 troops are paid, his towns fortified, and his fleets equipped. 
 
 Then again, the king is a great magician, for his dominion 
 extends to the minds of his subjects ; he makes them think 
 what he wishes. If he has only a million crowns in his 
 exchequer, and has need of two millions, he has only to 
 persuade them that one crown is worth two, and they be- 
 lieve it.* If he has a costly war on hand, and is short of 
 money, he simply suggests to his subjects that a piece of 
 paper is coin of the realm, and they are straightway con- 
 vinced of it. He has even succeeded in persuading them 
 that his touch is a sovereign cure for all sorts of diseases, 
 so great is the power and influence he has over their 
 minds. 
 
 What I have told you of this prince need not astonish 
 you : there is another magician more powerful still, who is 
 master of the king's mind, as absolutely as the kiSg^br 
 master of the min5s of his subjects. This magician is 
 called the Pope. Sometimes he makes the king believe 
 that three are no more than one ; that the bread which he 
 eats is not bread ; the wine which he drinks not wine ; 
 and a thousand things of a like nature. 
 
 And, to keep him in practice, and prevent him from 
 losing the habit of belief, he gives him, now and again, as 
 an exercise, certain articles of faith?? Some two years ago 
 he sent him a large document which he called " Constitu- 
 tion, "f and wished to enforce belief in all that it contained 
 upon this prince and his subjects under heavy penalties. 
 
 * The French kings regarded money as a mere symbol, the value 
 of which they could raise or lower at their pleasure. « Kings treat 
 men as they do pieces of money; they give them what value they 
 choose, and people are forced to accept them according to their cur- 
 rency, and not according to their true worth."— I,a Rochbfou- 
 
 CAUI,D. 
 
 tAn anachronism. The date of this letter is 1712, but the Bull 
 Unigenitus, which, under the name of the « Constitution," troubled 
 France during the greater part of the eighteenth century, was not 
 issued till 1713. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 67 
 
 He succeeded in the case of the king,* who set the example 
 of immediate submission ; but some of his subjects revolted, 
 and declared that they would not believe a single word of 
 what was contained in this document. The women are the 
 prime movers in this rebellion, which divides the court, 
 the kingdom, and every family in the land, because the 
 document prohibits them from reading a book which all 
 the Christians assert is of divine origin : it is, indeed, 
 their Koran. The women, enraged at this affront to their 
 sex, exert all their power against the " Constitution " ; and 
 they have brought over to their side all the men who are 
 not anxious about their privilege in the matter. And truly, 
 the Mufti does not reason amiss. By the great Hali ! he 
 must have been instructed in the principles of our holy re- 
 ligion, because, since women are inferior creatures compared 
 to us, and may not, according to our prophets, enter into 
 Paradise, why should they meddle with a book which is 
 only designed to teach the way thither? 
 
 Some things of a miraculous nature have been told me 
 of the king, which I am certain will appear to you hardly 
 cr^ible. 
 
 /it is said, that, while he was making war against such of 
 his neighbors as had leagued against him, there were in his 
 kingdom an infinite number of invisible foes surrounding 
 him on all sides, f They add, that, during a thirty years' 
 search, in spite of the indefatigable exertions of certain der- 
 vishes who are in his confidence, J not one of these have 
 ever been discovered. They live with him, in his court and 
 in his capital, among his troops, among his legislators ; and 
 yet it is believed that he will have the mortification of dy- 
 ing without having discovered them. They exist, as it 
 were, in general, but not in particular: they constitute a 
 body without members. Beyond a doubt, heaven wishes to 
 punish this prince for his severity to the vanquished, in 
 afflicting him with invisible enemies of a spirit and a destiny 
 superior to his own. 
 
 * Louis XIV. submitted the more readily because be required the 
 Pope's aid to terminate the theological quarrels which had become in- 
 sufEerable to him. 
 
 fThe Jansenists. t The Jesuits. 
 
68 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I will continue to write you, and acquaint you with mat- 
 ters differing widely from the Persian character and genius. 
 We tread, indeed, the same earth ; but it seems incredible, 
 remembering in the presence of the men of this country 
 those of the country in which you are. 
 
 Pakis, the 4th of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, * 1712. 
 
 I.ETTER XXV 
 UsBEK TO Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 IHAVS received a letter from your nephew, Rhedi, in 
 which he informs me that he has left Smyrna intending 
 to visit Italy ; and that the sole object of his voyage 
 is to improve himself, and so render himself worthier of 
 you. I congratulate you on having a nephew who will 
 some day be the consolation of your old age. 
 
 Rica tells me he wrote you a long letter full of details 
 about this country. The liveliness of his intellect makes 
 him a keen observer : I, whose mind moves slowly, am in 
 no case to write of anything. 
 
 We often speak of you with warm affection ; and are 
 never done recalling the welcome you gave us in Smyrna, 
 and the services your friendship rendered us daily. May 
 you, generous Ibben, find friends everywhere as grateful 
 and as faithful as we are ! 
 
 I hope to see you soon again, and to enjoy once more 
 those happy days which pass so pleasantly between two 
 friends. Farewell. 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, 1712. 
 
 » JRabi-ulsani, the second month of spring, and fourth of the Per- 
 sian year. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 69 
 
 I.ETTER XXVI 
 
 USBBK TO ROXANA, AT THE SERAGWO AT ISPAHAN 
 
 HOW happy you are, Roxana, to be in the delightful 
 country of Persia, and not in these poisoned regions, 
 where shame and virtue are alike unknown ! How 
 happy, indeed ! In my seraglio you live as in the abode of 
 innocence, inaccessible to the attacks of all mankind ; you 
 rejoice in the good fortune which makes it impossible for 
 you to fall ; no man has ever sullied you with a lascivious 
 look ; your father-in-law himself, even during the li- 
 cence of the festivals, has never beheld your lovely mouth, 
 for you have never neglected to conceal it with a sacred 
 veil. Happy Roxana ! In your visits to the country, 
 eunuchs have always walked before you to deal out death 
 to all those who dared to look at you. As for me, who re- 
 ceived you as a gift from heaven to increase my happiness, 
 what trouble did I not have in entering upon the possession 
 of that treasure which you defended with such constancy ! 
 How I was mortified, during the first days of our marriage, 
 when you withheld yourself from my sight ! How impa- 
 tient I was when I did see you ! You refused to satisfy 
 my eager longing ; on the contrary, you increased it by the 
 obstinate refusals of an alarmed modesty : you failed to dis- 
 tinguish between me and all other men from whom you al- 
 ways conceal yourself. Do you remember that day when I 
 lost you among your slaves, who betrayed me, and baffled 
 me in my search ? Or that other time, when, finding your 
 tears powerless, you employed your mother's authority to 
 stay the eagerness of my love ? Do you remember when all 
 your resources failed, except those which your courage sup- 
 plied? Seeing a dagger, you threatened to destroy a hus- 
 band who loved you, if he continued to demand the sacri- 
 fice of what was dearer to you than your husband himself. 
 Two months passed in this combat between love and mod- 
 esty ; and you carried your chaste scruples so far, that you did 
 not submit even after you were conquered, but defended to 
 
70 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 the last gasp a dying virginity. You regarded me as an enemy 
 who had outraged you, and not as a husband who loved 
 you. It was more than three months before you could look 
 at me without blushing ; your bashful glance seemed to re- 
 proach me for the advantage I had taken. I did not even 
 enjoy a quiet possession ; to the best of your ability you 
 robbed me of your charms and graces ; and without having 
 received the least favors, I was ravished with the greatest. 
 
 If you had been brought up in this country, you would 
 not have been so put about. The women here have lost 
 all reserve : they appear before the men with their faces 
 uncovered, as if they "sought their overthrow ; they watch 
 for their glances ; they accompany them to their mosques, 
 on their promenades, even to their rooms : the service of 
 eunuchs is quite unknown to them. In place of that noble 
 simplicity, that amiable modesty which reigjns among you, 
 a brute-like impudence prevails, to which one can never 
 grow accustomed. 
 
 Yes, Roxana, were you here, you would feel yourself 
 outraged at the dreadful ignominy in which your sex is 
 plunged ; you would fly from this abominable land, sighing 
 for that sweet retreat, where you find innocence and self- 
 security, where no danger makes you afraid ; where, in 
 short, you can love me, without fear of ever losing that 
 love which it is your dut}' to feel for me. 
 
 When you heighten the brilliance of your complexion 
 with the loveliest color, when you perfume your whole 
 body with the most precious essences, when you clothe 
 yourself in your most beautiful garments, when you seek 
 to distinguish yourself from your companions by your 
 gracefulness in the dance, and the sweetness of your song, 
 as you gently dispute with them in beauty, in tenderness, 
 in vivacity, I cannot imagine that you have any other aim 
 than to please me ; and, when I see you blushing modestly 
 as your eyes seek mine, as you wind yourself into my 
 heart with soft and flattering words, I cannot, Roxana, 
 sugpect your love. 
 
 /But what am I to think of the women of Europe? The 
 artful composition of their complexion, the ornaments with 
 which they deck themselves, the care they have of their 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 71 
 
 bodies, the desire to please which occupies them continu- 
 ally, are |o many stains on their virtue and affronts to their 
 husbandsA 
 
 It is not, Roxana, that I believe they carry their en- 
 croachment on virtue as far as such conduct might be ex- 
 pected to lead them, or that their debauchery extends to 
 such horrible excess as the absolute violation of their con- 
 jugal vow — a thought to make one tremble. There are 
 very few women so abandoned as to go that length : the 
 hearts of all of them are engraved from their birth with an 
 impression of virtue, which education weakens but cannot 
 destroy. Though they may be lax in the observation of 
 the external duties which modesty requires ; yet, when it 
 is a question of the last step, their better nature revolts. 
 And so, when we imprison you so closely, and have you 
 watched by crowds of slaves, when we restrain your desires 
 so forcibly lest they break beyond bounds; it is not because 
 we fear the final deed of infidelity, but because we know 
 that purity cannot be too immaculate, and that the slightest 
 stain would soil it. 
 
 I pity you, Roxana. Your long- tried chastity deserves a 
 husband who would never have left you, and who would 
 himself have restrained those desires which without him 
 your virtue must subdue. 
 
 Paris, the 7th of the moon of 
 Regeb,* 1712. 
 
 IvKTTKR XXVII 
 UsBBK TO Nessir, at Ispahan 
 
 WE ARE now at Paris, that proud rival of the city of 
 the sun.f 
 
 When I left Smyrna, I commissioned my friend 
 Ibben to forward to you a box, containing some presents 
 for you, which you will receive along with this letter. 
 
 *More correctly, Rejab, the seventh month of the Persian year, 
 t Ispahan. — (M.) 
 
72 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Although I am five or six hundred leagues distant from him, 
 we exchange news as easily as if he were at Ispahan and 
 I at Koum. I send my letters to Marseilles, whence ves- 
 sels are constantly sailing for Smyrna: from Smyrna he 
 dispatches those destined for Persia by the Armenian cara- 
 vans which start every day for Ispahan. 
 
 Rica enjoys the best of health : the strength of his con- 
 stitution, his youth, and his natural gayety enable him to 
 pass unhurt through every ordeal. 
 
 I, however, am far from well ; depressed both in body 
 and mind, I surrender myself to reflections which become 
 daily more melancholy. My impaired health makes me long 
 for my own land, and adds to the strangeness of this one. 
 
 But I conjure 5'ou, dear Nessir, on no account to let my 
 wives know how depressed I am. If they love me, I would 
 spare their tears ; and if not, I have no desire to increase 
 their frowardness. 
 
 If my eunuchs believed me in danger, if they dared to 
 hope that a base compliance: would pass unpunished, they 
 would soon cease to be deaf to the seductive voice of that 
 sex, which can melt rocks, and move inanimate things. 
 
 Farewell, Nessir. It is a great happiness to me that I 
 can confide in you. 
 
 Paris, the 5tli of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1712. 
 
 LKTTER XXVIII 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 Y^STBRDAY I witnessed a most remarkable thing, although 
 it is of daily occurrence in Paris. 
 
 In the evening, after dinner, all the people gather 
 together and play at a sort of dramatic game, which I have 
 heard them call comedy. The main performance takes place 
 upon a platform which is called the theatre.* On both 
 
 *«Come on, and let us get a seat on the theatre.— On the theatre, 
 replied my Siamese ; you're joking. We are not going to perform, 
 •we come to look on.— No matter, I said, let us go and loll there. We 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 73 
 
 sides may be seen in little nooks called boxes, men and 
 women who perform in dumb show, something after our 
 own style in Persia. 
 
 Here you see a languishing love-sick lady ; there, a 
 more animated dame exchanges burning glances with her 
 lover : their faces portray every passion, and express them 
 with an eloquence, none the less fervid because it is mute. 
 The actresses here display only half their bodies, and usu- 
 ally wear a modest muff to hide their arms. In the lower 
 part of the theatre there stands a crowd of people who 
 ridicule those who are seated on high ; the latter, in their 
 turn, laugh at those who are below. 
 
 /But the most zealous and active of all are certain people 
 wliose youth enables them to support fatigue. They are 
 obliged to appear everywhere ; they move through passages 
 known only to them, mounting with surprising agility from 
 story to story ; now above, now below, they visit every 
 box. They dive, so to speak ; are lost, and reappear ; 
 often they leave the place of performance, and carry on 
 the game in another. And there are some who, by a mir- 
 acle one would hardly have expected from the fact that 
 they carry crutches, perform prodigies similar to those I 
 have described. I^astly, there are the rooms where a pri- 
 vate comedy is played. Commencing with salutations, the 
 performers proceed to embrace each other: I am told that 
 the slightest acquaintance gives a man a right to squeeze 
 another to death. The place seems to inspire tenderness. 
 Indeed, it is said that the princesses who reign here are 
 far from cruel ; and, with the exception of two or three 
 hours during the day in which they are sufficiently hard 
 hearted, it must be admitted that they are uniformly very 
 tractable, their hardheartedness being a species of frenzy, 
 which goes as easily as it comes. 
 
 All this that I have described goes on in much the same ■ 
 style at another place called the Opera : the sole difference 
 being, that they speak at the one, and sing at the other. 
 One of my friends took me the other day to a box where 
 
 shall see nothing, and hear badly ; but it is the most expensive, and 
 consequently the most honorable place." — Dufresny's Amusements 
 strieux et comiques, chap. v. 
 
74 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 one of the principal actresses was undressing. We became 
 so well acquainted, that next morning I received the fol- 
 lowing letter from her : 
 
 "Sir, — I, who have always been the most virtuous ac- 
 tress at the Opera, am yet the most miserable woman in 
 the world. About seven or eight months ago, while I was 
 in the box where you saw me yesterday, and in the act of 
 dressing myself as priestess of Diana, a young Abb6 broke 
 in upon me. Undismayed by my white robe, my veil, and 
 my frontlet, he stole from me my innocence. I have tried 
 to persuade him of the greatness of the sacrifice I made ; 
 but he mocks me, and maintains that he found me very 
 profane. In the meantime my pregnancy is so apparent, 
 that I dare not show myself upon the stage ; for -I am, in 
 the matter of honor, extremely delicate, and always insist 
 that it is easier for a well-born woman to lose her virtue 
 than her modesty. You will readily believe that the young 
 Abb6 would never have overcome such exquisite modesty, 
 had he not given me a promise of marriage. Having such 
 a good reason to do so, I overlooked the usual petty form- 
 alities, and began where I should have ended. But, since I 
 am dishonored by his faithlessness, I do not wish to re- 
 main longer at the Opera, where, between you and me, 
 they scarcely give me enough for a livelihood ; because 
 now, as I grow older, and, on the one hand, begin to lose 
 my charms, on the other, my salary, which remains station- 
 ary, seems to grow less and less every day. I have learned 
 from a member of your suite, that, in your country, they 
 cannot make enough of a good dancer; and that, if I were 
 once at Ispahan, I would quickly realize a fortune. If you 
 would deign to take me under your protection, and carry 
 me with you to your country, you would do yourself the 
 credit of aiding a woman, whose virtuous behavior ren- 
 ders her not altogether unworthy of your good offices. I 
 am . 
 
 3t alti 
 
 ■y 
 
 Paris, the ad of tlie moon of 
 Chalval,* 1712. 
 
 * More correctly, Shawal, the tenth month of the Persian year. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 75 
 
 I.ETTER XXIX 
 Rica to Ibbsn, at Smyrna 
 
 l^ 
 
 THS Pope is the head of the Christians : an old idol, 
 kept venerable by custom. Formerly he was feared 
 even by princes ; for he deposed them as easily as 
 our glorious sultans depose the kings of Irimetta and Geor- 
 gia. He is, however, no longer dreaded. He declares himself 
 to be the successor of one of the first Christians, called Saint 
 Peter : and it is certainly a rich succession; for he possesses 
 immense treasures, and a large territory owns his sway. 
 
 The bishops are the administrators under his rule, and 
 they exercise, as his subordinates, two very different func- 
 tions. In their corporate capacity they have, like him, the 
 right to make articles of faith. Individually, their sole 
 ^l^^ILi?- i?- *^?-^P^'^^^ with the obseiv^nce^ of these articles. 
 For you must know that the Christian religion is burdened 
 with an immense~nQm'ber""oT ' very Tedious '"duties : and, as 
 it is tiSivefsally considered less easy To" fulfill these than to 
 have bishops who can dispense with their fulfillment, the 
 latter method has been chosen for the benefit of the public. 
 Thus, if any one wishes to escape the fast of Rhamazan,* 
 or is unwilling to submit to the formalities of marriage, or 
 wishes to break his vows, or to marry within the pre- 
 scribed degrees, or even to forswear himself, all he has to 
 do is to apply to a bishop, or to the Pope, who will at 
 ■once grant a dispensation. 
 
 The bishops do not make articles of faith for their own gov- 
 ernment. There are a very great number of learned men, for 
 the most part dervishes, f who raise new questions in religion 
 among themselves : they are left to discuss them for a long 
 time, and the dispute lasts until a decision terminates it. 
 
 I can also assure you that there never was a realm in 
 which so many civil wars have broken out, as in the king- 
 dom of Christ. 
 
 •Lent. 
 
 t Applied by Montesquieu's Persians to the friars, especially to the 
 Jesuits. 
 
76 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Those who first propound some new doctrine, are im- 
 mediately called heretics. Each heresy receives a name 
 which is the rallying cry of those who support it. But no 
 one need be a heretic against his will : he only requires to 
 split the difference, and allege some scholastic subtlety to 
 those who accuse him of heresy ; and, whether it be intel- 
 ligible or not, that renders him as pure as the snow, and 
 he may insist upon his being called orthodox. 
 
 What I have told you holds good only in France and 
 Germany : for I have heard it affirmed that in Spain and Portu- 
 gal there are certain dervishes who do not understand raillery, 
 and who cause men to be burned as they would burn 
 straw. Happy the man, who, when he falls into the hands 
 of these people, has been accustomed to finger little balls 
 of wood* while saying his prayers, who has carried on his 
 person two pieces of cloth attached to two ribbons, f and 
 who has paid a visit to a province called Galicia.J With- 
 out that, a poor devil is in a wretched plight. Although 
 he should swear like a Pagan that he is orthodox, they 
 may very likelj' decline to admit his plea, and burn him 
 for a heretic. Much good his .scholastic subtlety will do 
 him ! They will none of it ; he will be burned to ashes 
 before they would dream of even giving him a hearing. 
 
 Other judges assume the innocence of the accused ; these 
 always deem them guilty. In dubious cases, their rule is 
 ;o lean to the side of severity, apparently because they 
 ;hink mankind desperately wicked. And yet, when it suits 
 ;hem, they have such a high opinion df^ mankind, that they 
 hink them incapable of lying ; for they accept as wit- 
 hesses, mortal enemies, loose women, and people whose 
 rade is infamous. In sentencing culprits, they pay them a 
 little compliment. Having dressed them in brimstone shirts, 
 they assure them that they are much grieved to see them 
 in such sorry attire ; that they are tender-hearted, abhor- 
 ring bloodshed, and are quite overcome at having to con- 
 demn them. Then these heartbroken judges console 
 themselves by confiscating to their own use all the goods 
 of their miserable victims. 
 
 *A rosary. t A scapulary. 
 
 {The pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 77 
 
 Oh, happy land, inhabited by the children of the prophets ! 
 There such woeful sights as these are unknown.* There, 
 the holy religion which angels brought protects itself by 
 its innate truth ; it can maintain itself without recourse 
 to violent means like these^ 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1712. 
 
 IvETTER XXX 
 Rica to ths Samb, at Smyrna 
 
 TEB curiosity of the people of Paris exceeds all bounds. 
 When I arrived, they stared at me as if I had 
 dropped from the sky : old and young, men, women, 
 and children, were all agog to see me. If I went abroad, 
 everybody flew to the window. If I visited the Tuileries, 
 I was immediately surrounded by a circle of gazers, the 
 women forming a rainbow woven of a thousand colors. 
 When I went sight seeing, a hundred lorgnettes were 
 speedily leveled at me : in fact never was a man so stared 
 at as I have been. I smiled frequently when I heard peo- 
 ple who had never traveled beyond their own door, saying 
 to each other, " He certainly looks very like a Persian. " 
 One thing struck me : I found my portraits everywhere — 
 in all the shops, on every mantelpiece — so fearful were 
 they lest they should not see enough of me. 
 
 So much distinction could not fail to be burdensome. I 
 do not consider myself such a rare and wonderful specimen 
 of humanity ; and although I have a very good opinion of 
 myself, I would never have dreamed that I could have dis- 
 turbed the peace of a great city, where I was quite un- 
 known. I therefore resolved to change my Persian dress 
 for a European one, in order to see if my countenance 
 would still strike people as wonderful. This experiment 
 made me acquainted with my true value. Divested of 
 everything foreign in my garb, I found myself estimated 
 
 *The Persians are the most tolerant of all the Mohammed- 
 ans. — (M.) 
 
78 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 at my proper rate. I had reason to complain of my tailor, 
 who had made me lose so suddenly the attention and good 
 opinion of the public; for I sank immediately into the 
 merest nonentity. Sometimes I would be as much as an 
 hour in a given company, without attracting the least 
 notice, or having an opportunity given me to speak ; but, 
 if any one chanced to inform the company that I was a 
 Persian, I soon overheard a murmur all round me, " Oh ! 
 ah ! a Persian, is he? Most amazing ! However can any- 
 body be a Persian ? " 
 
 Paris, the 6th of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1712. 
 
 IvETTER XXXI 
 Rhedi to Usbbk, at Paris 
 
 I AM at present, my dear Usbek, at Venice. Although 
 one had seen all the cities of the world, there would 
 still be a surprise in store for him here. The sight of 
 a town whose towers and mosques rise out of the water, 
 and of an innumerable throng of people where one would 
 expect to find only fish, will always excite astonishment. 
 But this heathenish city lacks the most precious treasure 
 the world holds, pure water, to wit ; it is impossible to ac- 
 complish a single lawful ablution. The place is held in 
 abomination by our holy Prophet ; he never beholds it from 
 on high but with indignation. With that exception, my 
 dear Usbek, I would be delighted to live in a town where 
 my mind is developed every day. I am gaining an under- 
 standing of the secrets of commerce, of the affairs of 
 princes, and of their form of government. Nor do I neg- 
 lect European superstitions ; I apply myself to medicine, 
 physics, and astronomy ; I study the arts : in short, I am 
 couching my eyes of the film which covered them in my 
 native land. 
 
 VENICE, the i6th of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1712. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 79 
 
 IvETTER XXXII 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 1WBNT the other day to look through a house where a 
 meagre provision is made for some three hundred peo- 
 ple.* I was not long about it ; for the church and the 
 buildings do not deserve much attention. Those who live 
 in this establishment were quite cheerful ; many of them 
 played at cards, or other games of which I knew nothing. 
 As I left, one of the residents left also ; and having heard 
 me ask the way to the Marais, the remotest district of 
 Paris, " I am going there, " said he, * and will conduct you ; 
 follow me. " He guided me wonderfully, steered me through 
 the crowds, and protected me dexterously from carriages 
 and coaches. We had almost arrived, when curiosity got 
 the better of me. "My good friend,* I said, "may I not 
 know who you are?'* "I am blind, sir," he answered. 
 « What ! " I cried ; " blind ? Then why did you not ask the 
 good fellow who was playing at cards with you to be our 
 guide " ? " He is blind, too, * was the answer : " for four 
 hundred years there have been three hundred blind folks in 
 the house where you met me. But I must leave you. 
 There is the street you want. I am going with the crowd 
 into that church, where, I promise you, people will be less 
 in my way than I will be in theirs." 
 
 Paris, the 17th of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1712 
 
 * The almshouse of the " Quinze- Vingts, » founded at Paris, in 
 1254, by Saint Louis, on his return from Palestine, for three hundred 
 knights whose eyes had been put out by the Saracens. 
 
«o MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER XXXIII 
 
 USBBK TO RhEDI, at VBNIC^ 
 
 WINE is SO very dear in Paris, on account of the duties 
 laid on it, that it seems as if there were an intention 
 to fulfill the injunctions of the divine Koran, which 
 prohibits the use of strong drink. 
 
 When I consider the disastrous effects of that liquor, I 
 cannot help regarding it as the most baleful of nature's gifts 
 to men. If there is one thing that has soiled the lives and 
 the good fame of our monarchs, it has been intemperance ; 
 that is the chief and vilest source of their injustice and 
 cruelty. 
 
 To the shame of these men it must be said, that, though 
 the law prohibits them from using wine, they drink it to 
 an exce^ which degrades them beneath the lowest of man- 
 kind..^^ere, however, the princes are allowed to use it, 
 and no one has ever observed that it has caused them to 
 do wrong^^hejbuman jnind is inconsistency itself. In a 
 drunken "debauch, men break out madly against all precept ; 
 and^Jthe^ law, intended to make.for our righteousness, often 
 serves only to increase our guilt. 
 
 But, when I ^sapprove of the use of this liquor which 
 deprives men of their reason, I do not also condemn those 
 beverages which exhilarate the mind. The wisdom of the 
 Orientals shows itself in their search for remedies against 
 melancholy, which they prosecute with as much solicitude 
 as in the case of the most dangerous maladies. When any 
 misfortune happens to a European, his only resource is to 
 read a philosopher called Seneca ; but we Asiatics, more 
 sensible, and better physicians in this matter, drink an in- 
 fusion which cheers the heart and charms away the mem- 
 ory of its sufferings. 
 
 There is no greater affliction than those consolations 
 which are drawn from the necessity of evil, the inefficacy 
 of remedies, the inevitableness of destiny, the dispensations 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 8i 
 
 of Providence, and the wretched state of mankind generally. 
 It is mockery to think of lightening misfortune, by remem- 1 
 bering that we are born to misery; 4t is much wiser to 
 raise_the jnind above these reflections, to treat man as a j 
 being capable of feeling, and not as a mere reasoner. 
 
 The soul, while united to" the body, is a slave under a 
 tyrant. If the blood moves sluggishly, if our spirits are 
 not light enough, or high enough, we fall into dejection, 
 and grow melancholy ; but, if we drink what has the power 
 to change the disposition of our body, our soul becomes 
 capable of receiving delightful impressions, and experiences 
 an inward joy as its machine recovers, so to speak, life 
 and motion. 
 
 Paris, the 25th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1713. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV 
 UsBEK TO Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 THE Persian women are finer than the French women ; 
 but those of France are prettier. It is as difficult 
 not to love the Jformer, as it is to be displeased with 
 the latter : these attract by their tenderness and modesty, 
 while those conquer us with their sprightly humor. 
 
 That which preserves the beauty of the^women in Persia 
 is the regular life they lead : they neither gamble, nor sit 
 up late ; they drink no wine, and are never exposed to the 
 air. It must indeed be admitted that the life of the se- 
 raglio is more conducive to health than to happiness, it is 
 so dull and uniform. Everything turns upon discipline 
 and duty; the very pleasures are solemn, and mirth itself 
 is -sad.;, enjoyment js, hardly ever tasted except as an indi- 
 cation of authority and dependen ce. 
 
 Even the men are not so cheerful in Persia as in France : 
 one never sees that freedom of spirit, and that air of con- 
 tentment, which I find here among all sorts and conditions j 
 of men. -' 
 
 6 
 
 / 
 
82 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 It is still worse in Turkey. There, families may be 
 found, in which, from father to son, no soul has laughed 
 since the foundation of the monarchy. 
 
 This Asiatic gravity is the result of the unsocial life 
 which people lead : they never see each other except on 
 ceremonial occasions. Friendship, that dear solace of the 
 heart, the sweetener of our life below, is almost unknown 
 to them ; they withdraw into their houses, where they 
 always have the same companions ; and in this way each 
 family is, as it were, isolated. 
 
 One day, when I was discussing the subject with a 
 young man of this country, he said, "That which offends 
 me most among your customs is the necessity you are 
 under of living with slaves, whose thoughts and inclina- 
 tions are always subdued to the vileness of their condition. 
 1 These wr^tehed_creatureSp^-by^ whom you have -been beset 
 from infancy, jireaken- in you, and ultimately <iestroy, those 
 virtuous feelings which nature implants. 
 
 "For, in short, when you have cleared your mind from 
 prejudice, what is to be expected from an upbringing at 
 the hands of a wretch, who makes his honor consistent 
 with the guardianship of another's wives, and prides him- 
 self upon the most loathsome employment which society 
 affords; whose only virtue, his fidelity, is utterly despic- 
 able, because it is prompted by envy, jealousy, and de- 
 spair ; who, belonging to neither sex, burns to be avenged 
 on both, and yet submits to the tyranny of the stronger, 
 in order that he may afflict the weaker ; who, deriving 
 from his imperfection, his ugliness, and his deformity, all 
 the iclat of his position, is esteemed only because he is 
 unworthy ; who, finally, riveted forever to the gate which 
 he guards, harder than the bolts and bars which secure it, 
 brags of fifty years in this ignoble station, where, as the 
 minister of his master's jealousy, he has given the reign 
 to all his own vileness ? " 
 
 Paris, the 14th of the tnoon of 
 Zilhage,* 1713. 
 
 * More correctly, Zil Haj, the last month of the Persian year. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 83 
 
 I^ETTER XXXV 
 
 USBSK TO Gemchid, his Cousin, Dbrvish of thb gi,o- 
 Rious Monastery of Tauris 
 
 WHAT is your opinion, sublime dervish, of the Chris- 
 tians ? Do you think that at the day of judgment, 
 like the unbelieving Turks, who are to serve the 
 Jews for asses, they will be hurried ofE at the gallop into 
 hell ? I am well aware that their abode will not be with 
 the prophets, and that the great Mali's mission was not to 
 them. But, do you think they will be condemned to ever- 
 lasting punishment because they have not been fortunate 
 enough to find mosques in their country? Will God chas- \ 
 tise them for failing to practice a religion which He has 
 withheld from their knowledge? I may tell you, I have 
 often examined these Christians ; I have questioned them 
 to find out if they had any idea about the great Hali, who 
 was the most perfect of all men, and it is certain that they 
 have never even heard of him. 
 
 They are not like those infidels whom our holy prophets 
 put to the sword, because they refused to believe in the 
 miracles of Heaven : they are like those unfortunates who 
 lived in the darkness of idolatry, before the divine light 
 illumined the face of our great prophet. 
 
 Besides, an examination of their religion reveals the 
 presence of some of the rudiments of our doctrines. I have 
 often admired the secret workings of Providence, which 
 seems in this way to have prepared them for a general 
 conversion. One book of their learned men, entitled 
 "Polygamy Triumphant,"* of which I have heard, proves 
 
 *The full title of the book to which Usbek alludes is, Polygamia, 
 triumphatrix, id est discursus politicus de polygamia, audore Theo- 
 philo Aletheo, cum notis Athanasii Vincentii, om,nibus antipoly- 
 gamis, ubique locorum,, terrarum,, insularum, pagorum, urbium., 
 modeste et pie opposita. It was printed in Holland, probably in 
 Amsterdam, although the name of a Swedish town appears on the 
 title-page. Had it not suited Montesquieu's purpose to refer to it, 
 the very name of the book would now be unknown except to a few 
 specialists, as it is dull and uninteresting. 
 
84 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 that polygamy is enjoined upon Christians. Their baptism 
 is an emblem of our ablutions ; and their only error consists 
 in ascribing to that first ablution an efficacy which enables 
 them to omit all others. Their priests and friars pray, 
 like ours, seven times a day. They hope to inherit a-~ 
 paradise where, by means of the resurrection of the body, 
 they will enjoy a thousand delights. Like us also, they 
 have appointed fasts, and times of mortification, by which 
 they hope to move the divine clemency. They worship 
 good angels, and are in dread of evil ones. They believe 
 in miracles which God works by means of His servants. 
 iThey recognize,_as we_db,,jtheir. own un^wort_yjieaa^ the 
 ' need they^ k?;Y5 ^°^ 3V' intercessor with God. Throughout 
 their religion I find traces of Mohammedanism, although 
 there is no word of Mohammed. It has been well said; 
 that truth will break through the darkest clouds, The day- 
 is hastening when the Eternal will behold upon the earth 
 none but true believers. Time, which devours all, will 
 make away even with error. Men will be astonished to 
 find themselves all under the same standard : everything, 
 the law itself will be accomplished ; and the godly will be 
 taken from the earth, and carried to the mansions of the blest. 
 
 Paris, the 20th of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1713. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI ^ 
 
 USBBK TO RhEDI, at VENICB 
 
 COFFEB is very much used in Paris; there are a great 
 many public houses where it may be had. In some 
 of these they meet to gossip, in others to play at 
 chess. There is one* where the coffee is prepared in such 
 a way that it makes those who drink it witty : at least, 
 there is not a single soul who on quitting the house does 
 not believe himself four times wittier than when he en- 
 tered it. 
 
 *The Ca/i Procope, a rendezvous of the wits of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 85 
 
 •''But that which shocks me most in these geniuses, is, 
 that they are._£uite useless to their country, and amuse 
 their talents with puerilities. '~Fof~exampler"when I arrived 
 at Paris I found them warm in dispute over the most tri-^ 
 fling matter imaginable.* It was all about an old Greels: 
 poet, whose birthplace and time of dying no one has kno^n 
 for two thousand years. Both sides agreed that he was a 
 most excellent poet: it was only a question of the degree 
 of merit to be ascribed to him. Each wished to fix his 
 rank ; but among those apportioners of praise, some carried 
 more weight than others. Here you have the whole dis- 
 pute. It was a lively quarrel ; for both sides abused each 
 other most heartily with such gross aspersions, and such 
 bitter raillery, that I admired the conduct of the quarrel, as 
 much as the subject of it. " If any one, " said I to my- 
 self, " were fool enough to attack, in the presence of the 
 defenders of the Greek poet, the reputation of some honest 
 citizen, he would surely find a warm reception ; and, in- 
 deed, I believe that this extreme zeal for the reputation of 
 the dead, would blaze up to some purpose in defense of the 
 living. But, however that may be, " added I, '* God keep 
 me from ever drawing on myself the enmity of these cen- 
 sors of this poet, who has not been saved from their im- 
 placable hate even after having lain two thousand years in 
 his grave ! At present they fight the air ; but how would 
 it be, if their rage were animated by the presence of an 
 emeny ? " 
 
 Those of whom I have told you dispute in the vulgar 
 tongue ; and must be distinguished from another set of dis- 
 putants, who employ a barbarous language, f which seems 
 to increase the fury and the obstinancy of the combatants. 
 There- are plaees-f ■vdiere' these people are to be seen strug- 
 gliijg.-asH^ a .battler -dismal, and confused ; they are fed upon 
 subtleties, they live upon obscure, aiS^um.ents-aHdr false in- 
 ferences." This profession, although one would think its 
 followers would die of hunger, must pay in some way. A 
 
 *Tlie quarrel regarding the relative merits of the ancients and the 
 modems, in which Homer was the chief subject of dispute. 
 t The Latin of the schools. 
 tThe Sorbonne and the University, ifv 
 
86 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 whole nation, driven from their own country,* has been 
 seen to cross the sea and establish itself in France, carry- 
 ing with it no other means of providing for the necessities 
 of life, than a notable talent for debate. Farewell. 
 
 Paris, the last day of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1713. 
 
 IvETTER XXXVII 
 
 UsBEK TO Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 THB King of France is old.f We have no exaihples in 
 our histories of such a long reign as his. It is said 
 that he possesses in a very high degree the faculty 
 of making himself obeyed : he governs with equal ability 
 his family, his court, and his kingdom : he has often been 
 heard to say, that, of all existing governments, that of the 
 Turks, or that of our august Sultan, pleased him best : 
 such is his high opinion of Oriental statecraft. J 
 
 I have studied his character, and I have found certain 
 contradictions which I cannot reconcile. For example, he 
 has a minister who is only eighteen years old,§ and a mis- 
 tress who is fourscore ; 1 1 he loves his religion, and ^et he 
 cannot abide those who assert that it ought to be strictly 
 observed ; ^ although he flies from the noise of cities, an^T 
 is inclined to be reticent, from morning till night he is 
 ■engaged in getting himself talked about ; he is fond of 
 
 *An allusion to a seminary of Irish priests instituted in 1677 by 
 some refugees. 
 
 flvouis XIV. was then seventy- five years old, and had reigned for 
 seventy. 
 
 tWhen Louis XIV. was in his sixteenth year, some courtiers dis- 
 cussed in his presence the absolute power of the Sultans, who dispose 
 as they like of the goods and the lives of their subjects. "That is 
 something like being a king,* said the young monarch. Marshal 
 d'Estr^es, alarmed at the tendency revealed in that remark, rejoined, 
 «But, sire, several of these emperors have been strangled even in my 
 time.* 
 
 gBarbezieux, son of Louvois, I<ouis's youngest minister, held office 
 at twenty-three, not eighteen ; and he was dead in 1713. 
 
 I Madame de Maintenon 7 The Jansenists. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 87 
 
 trophies and victories, but he has as great a dread of see- 
 ing a good general at the head of his own troops, as at 
 the head of an army of his enemies. It has never I be- 
 lieve happened to any one but himself, to be burdened with 
 more wealth than even a prince could hope for, and yet at 
 the same time steeped in such poverty as a private person 
 could ill brook. 
 
 He delights to reward those who serve him ; but he 
 pays as liberally the assiduous indolence of his courtiers, 
 as the labors in the field of his captains ; often the man 
 who undresses him, or who hands him his serviette at 
 table, is preferred before him who has taken cities and 
 gained battles ; he does not believe that the greatnes of a 
 monarch is compatible with restriction in the distribution 
 of favors ; and, without examining into the merit of a , 
 man, he will heap benefits upon him, believing that his 
 selection makes the recipient worthy ; accordingly, he has 
 been known to bestow a small pension upon a man who 
 had run off two leagues from the enemy, and a good gov- 
 ernment on another who had gone four. 
 
 Above all, he is magnificent in his buildings ; there are 
 more statues in his palace garden* than there are citizens 
 in a large town. His bodyguard is as strong as that of 
 the prince before whom all the thrones of the earth trem-, 
 ble,t his armies are as numerous, his resources as great, 
 and his finances as inexhaustible. 
 
 Paris, the 7th of the moon of 
 Maharram, 1713. 
 
 I^ETTER XXXVIII 
 
 Rica to Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 IT IS an all-important question among men, whether it is 
 better to deprive women of their liberty, or to leave 
 them free. It seems to me that much is to be said on 
 both sides. When Europeans declare that it is most 
 tmgenerous to keep those whom we love in misery, we 
 •At Versailles. f The Shah of Persia. 
 
88 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Asiatics reply that men lower themselves by renouncing 
 the dominion which nature has given them over women. 
 If we are told how troublesome it must be to have a crowd 
 of women shut up together, our reply is, that ten women 
 who obey are less bother than one who does not. If we 
 object, in our turn, that Europeans cannot be happy with 
 women who are unfaithful to them ; they answer that the 
 fidelity we boast of does not prevent that disgust, which 
 always follows a surfeit of desire ; that our women belong 
 to us too absolutely ; that possession obtained so easily 
 leaves no scope for hope or fear ; that a little coquetry, 
 like salt, stimulates the appetite, and prevents corruption. 
 Perhaps even a wiser man than I would find this question 
 difficult to decide ; for, if the Asiatics do well in seeking 
 due means to quiet their uneasiness, the Europeans do 
 equally well in not being uneasy. 
 
 After all, say they, though we should be unfortunate as 
 husbands, we can always find compensation as lovers. A 
 man could have just reason to complain of the infidelity of 
 his wife only if there were no more than three people in 
 the world ; odd may be made even, as long as a fourth can 
 be found. 
 
 Another much-discussed question is, whether women are 
 intended by nature to be subject to men. *No," said a 
 very gallant philosopher to me the other day ; ** nature 
 never dictated such a law. The dominion which we exer- 
 cise over them is tyrannical ; they yield themselves to men 
 only because they are more tender-hearted, and consequently, 
 more human and more 'rational. These advantages, which, 
 had we been reasonable, would, without doubt, have given 
 them the superiority, have been the cause of their subor- 
 dination, because we are irrational. 
 
 " Now, if it is true that it is a tyrannical power which we 
 have over women, it is none the less true that they exer- 
 cise over us a natural dominion — that of beauty, which 
 nothing can resist. Our power does not extend to all 
 countries, but that of beauty is universal. Why, then, 
 should we have any privilege? Is it because we are 
 stronger than they? But that would be the height of in- 
 justice. We use every possible means to discourage them. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 89 
 
 Our powers would be found equal if we were educated 
 alike. Try women in those gifts which education has 
 not weakened, and we will soon see which is the abler 
 sex.» 
 
 It must be admitted, although shocking to our ideas of 
 propriety, that, among the most polite people, women have 
 always borne sway over their husbands ; their authority was 
 established by law among the Egyptians in honor of Isis, 
 and among the Babylonians in honor of Semiramis. It 
 was said of the Romans that they, who ruled all the 
 world, were ruled by their wives. I say nothing of the 
 Sauromates,* who were held in a state of slavery by 
 their women ; they were too barbarous to be cited as an ex- 
 ample. 
 
 You see, my dear Ibben, that I have fallen in with the 
 fashion of this country, where they are fond of defending 
 extraordinary opinions, _a,nd^_of reducing^everjttfeing;- to a 
 paradox. The prophet has decided this question, and has 
 settled the rights of both sexes. " Women, " he says, " ought 
 to honor their husbands ; and husbands, their wives : but 
 men are a degree higher in the scale of creation than 
 women." 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1713. 
 
 IvETTER XXXIX /- ' 
 
 t 
 
 HAGif Ibbi to thk Jew Bsn Joshua, Mohammedan 
 Proselyte, at Smyrna 
 
 IT seems to me, Ben Joshua, that prodigies always ac- 
 company the birth of extraordinary men, as if nature 
 suffered a convulsion, and the celestial power could not 
 bring forth without travail. 
 
 There is no birth so marvelous as that of Mohammed. 
 God, who, by the decrees of His providence, had determined 
 
 * Herodotus, iv. 110-47. 
 
 t A Hagi is a man who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.— (M.) 
 
90 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 from the beginning to send to men that great prophet for 
 the overthrow of Satan, created a light two thousand years 
 before Adam, which, passing from elect to elect through 
 the ancestors of Mohammed, reached him at last, as an au- 
 thentic sign of his descent from the patriarchs. 
 
 It was because of this very prophet that God willed that 
 no child should be conceived, that women should cease to 
 be unclean, and that men should be circumcised. 
 
 He came into the world circumcised already, and joy shone 
 upon his face from his birth. The earth shook three times, as if 
 she herself had brought forth ; all the idols fell forward, 
 and the thrones of kings were overturned. l/ucifer was cast 
 into the depths of the sea, and it was only after forty days' 
 immersion that he swam up from the abyss, and took ref- 
 uge on Mount Cabes, whence, with a terrible voice, he cried 
 to the angels. 
 
 That night, God placed a barrier between the man and 
 the woman, which neither of them could pass. The art of 
 the magicians and of the necromancers cease to avail. A 
 voice from heaven was heard crying, "I have sent into the 
 world my faithful friend." 
 
 According to the testimony of Isben Aben, all the birds, the 
 clouds, the winds, and the hosts of angels, met together to 
 bring up this child, and disputed who should have the prefer- 
 ence. The birds said in their warblings that it was proper 
 for them to have his upbringing, because they could so easily 
 gather a variety of fruits from many places. The winds 
 murmured and said, "To us rather he should be committed, 
 because we can bear him from all quarters the sweetest 
 odors." "No, no," cried the clouds; "no; it is we who 
 should have charge of him, because we can refresh him at 
 any moment with our showers." From on high the angels 
 indignantly exclaimed, "What will there be left for us to 
 do ? " But a voice from heaven silenced their disputes and 
 said, "He will not be withdrawn from mortal hands, be- 
 cause blessed shall be the breasts that suckle him, the hands 
 that touch him, the house wherein he lives, and the bed 
 on which he lies." 
 
 After so many striking testimonies, my dear Joshua, only 
 a heart of iron could refuse to believe his holy law. What 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 91 
 
 more could heaven itself have done to authorize his divine 
 mission, unless it had overturned nature, and destroyed the 
 very men whose salvation it desired. 
 
 Paris, the 20th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1713. 
 
 LETTER XI, 
 UsBBK TO Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 WHEN a great man dies, people assemble in a mosque 
 to hear his funeral oration pronounced — a discourse 
 in his praise from which it would be very difficult 
 to gather a true estimate of the deceased. 
 
 I would abolish all funeral pomp. Men should be be- 
 wailed at their birth and not at their death. What good 
 purpose do these ceremonies serve, with all the doleful 
 shows that are paraded before a dying man in his last 
 moments : the very tears of his family and the grief of his 
 friends exaggerate for him the loss he is about to sustain. 
 
 We are so blind that we know neither when to mourn, 
 nor when to rejoice ; our mirth and our sadness are nearly 
 always false. 
 
 When I see the Great Mogul foolishly place himself once 
 a year in a balance to be weighed like an ox; when I see 
 his people appla^id the increase in weight of their prince, 
 that is to say, the decrease in his capacitj'^ to govern them, 
 my heart, Ibben, bleeds for the extravagance of humanity. 
 
 Paris, the 20th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1713. 
 
 I^ETTER XI,I 
 The chief black Eunuch to Usbek 
 
 ISHMAEL, one of your black eunuchs, O magnificent mas., 
 ter, has just died ; and I tried to avoid any delay 
 in filling up his place. As eunuchs are very scarce 
 at present, I thought of making use of a black slave 
 whom you have in the country; but I have not yet sue- 
 
92 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 ceeded in persuading him to undergo the sacrifice necessary 
 for his consecration to that ofi&ce. Knowing that this 
 change would in the end work for his advantage, I wished 
 the other day to employ toward him a little violence; and, 
 in company with the superintendent of your gardens, I 
 commanded that, in spite of himself, he should be put into 
 a fit state to render you those services which most appeal 
 to your heart, and to live with me in those sacred quarters, 
 which, at present, he durst not even look at ; but he fell a 
 roaring, as if we wanted to flay him, and made such a to- 
 do that he escaped from our hands, and so avoided the fatal 
 knife. I have only now learned that he intends to write 
 you begging for mercy, and that he will urge in his de- 
 fense that this design has been conceived by me, only in 
 satisfaction of a relentless desire to be avenged for some 
 cutting sarcasms which he says he vented against me. 
 However, I swear to you by the hundred thousand prophets, 
 that in this matter I have acted entirely for the benefit of 
 your service, the only thing which is dear to me, beyond 
 which I have not a single thought. I prostrate myself 
 at your feet. 
 
 The Seraguo at Fatme, the 7th of the 
 moon of Maharram, 1713. 
 
 I^ETTER XIvII 
 Pharan to Usbek, his Sovbreign I^ord 
 
 IF YOU were here, magnificent lord, I would appear to 
 you clad from head to foot in white paper;* and even 
 that would not be enough to contain a description of 
 all the insults which your first black eunuch, the most ma- 
 lignant of men, has heaped upon me since your departure. 
 Under pretext of some sarcasms which he pretends I 
 aimed at his unfortunate lot, he makes me the victim of 
 an inisatiable vengeance. He has stirred up against me the 
 cruel superintendent of your gardens, who, ever since you 
 
 *A "sublime expression" which the reader is NOT spared. (See 
 Introduction. ) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 93 
 
 left, has laid upon me impossible tasks, in attempting which 
 I have a thousand times taken leave of life, although I 
 never for an instant lost my ardor in your service. 
 Many a time have I said to myself, " I who have the 
 gentlest of masters, am yet the most miserable slave on the 
 face of the earth ! '* 
 
 I confess, most generous lord, that I did not believe my- 
 self destined to still greater miseries ; but this felonious 
 eunuch had yet to fill up the measure of his wickedness. 
 Some days ago, on his unsupported authority, he destined 
 me to the guardianship of your sacred wives ; that is to 
 say, to a punishment which to me would be a thousand 
 times more cruel than death. Those who, at their birth, 
 have had the misfortune to undergo such treatment at the 
 hands of their cruel parents, may perhaps comfort them- 
 selves with the thought that they have never known any 
 other condition ; but were I to lose my place among men, 
 and be deprived of that which makes me human, I should 
 die of grief, if I survived the barbarous knife. 
 
 I kiss your feet, sublime lord, in the deepest humility. 
 Grant that I may feel the effects of your revered virtue. 
 I,et it not be said that, at your command, there is upon 
 the earth one more unhappy being. 
 
 The Gardens oe Fatme, the 7th of the 
 moon of Maharram, 1713. 
 
 LETTER XLIII 
 
 USBBK TO PhARAN, at THE GARDENS OF FaTME 
 
 REJOICE in your heart, and acknowledge these sacred 
 characters. Let the chief eunuch and the superin- 
 tendent of my gardens kiss this letter. I prohibit 
 them from attempting anything against you : tell them to 
 purchase the eunuch they require. Do your duty, as if 
 you had me always before you ; for know, that as my 
 bounty is great, so, if you abuse it, will the measure of 
 your punishment be. 
 
 Paris, the 25th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1713. 
 
94 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER XI^IV 
 USBEK TO Rhedi, at Venice 
 
 /r-pHERE are in France threejri vileged classes : the c hurch, 
 
 I the sword, .and^ the gown. Each has such a sovereign 
 
 contempt for the other two, that sometimes a mau 
 
 who deserves to be looked down upon because he is a fool, 
 
 I is despised only because he is a lawyer. 
 
 All classes, including the meanest workmen, contend for 
 the excellence of the craft they have chosen ; each man 
 exalts himself at the expense of some other of a different 
 profession, according to the idea which he has formed of 
 the superiority of his own.\ 
 
 They all resemble, morg^r less, a certain woman of the 
 province of Erivan, who, having received some favor from 
 one of our monarchs, wished a thousand times, in the bless- 
 ings she showered upon him, that Heaven would make him 
 governor of Erivan. 
 
 I have read in a history, how some men belonging to the 
 crew of a French vessel which had anchored off the coast 
 of Guinea, went ashore in order to buy some sheep. They 
 were led before the king, who was administering justice to 
 his subjects under a tree. He sat upon his throne, that is 
 to say, upon a block of wood, as proudly as if it had been 
 the seat of the Great Mogul. His guard consisted of three 
 or four men armed with pointed staves ; an umbrella served 
 as canopy to protect him from the heat of the sun ; for 
 ornaments, he and his consort wore nothing but their own 
 black skins and some rings. This prince, whose vanity was 
 greater even than his poverty, asked the strangers if they 
 talked much of him in France. He imagined that his 
 fame must have gone forth to the ends of the earth ; and, 
 unlike that conqueror of whom it is said that he had si- 
 lenced all the earth, he for his part believed that he kept 
 the whole world chattering. 
 
 When the Khan of Tartary has eaten, a herald announces 
 that all the princes of the earth may now go to dinner if 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 95 
 
 they wish ; that barbarian, whose food is milk, who has no 
 house, and who lives only by brigandage, looks upon all 
 the kings of the world as his slaves, and insults them reg- 
 ularly twice a day. 
 
 Paris, the 28th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1713. 
 
 IvETTER XI,V 
 Rica to Usbek, at * * * 
 
 YBSTBRDAY morning, as I lay in bed, I heard a violent 
 knocking at my door, which was suddenly opened, or 
 driven in, by a man with whom I have some slight 
 acquaintance, and who appeared to me to be quite beside 
 himself.* 
 
 His dress was, to say the least, very homely ; his wig, 
 all askew, had not even been combed; he had not had 
 time to mend his black waistcoat ; and he had, for that 
 day, omitted the wise precautions with which he was in 
 the habit of concealing the dilapidation of his attire. 
 
 *Rise,* he said; *I shall want you all day. I have a 
 thousand purchases to make, and it will be a great con- 
 venience to me to have you with me. First of all, we 
 have to go to the Rue Saint Honore to see a notary, who 
 is commissioned to sell an estate worth five hundred thou- 
 sand livres. On my way here, I stopped a moment in 
 the Faubourg Saint Germain, where I hired a house at 
 two thousand crowns ; I hope to sign the contract to- 
 day." 
 
 As soon as, or rather before, I was dressed, my gentle- 
 man hurried me downstairs. " I,et us start, " said he, ** by 
 buying and setting up a coach." As a matter of fact, we 
 bought, not only a coach, but — and that in less than an 
 hour — a hundred thousand francs' worth of goods : all 
 
 * In this letter Montesquieu was probably thinking of a physician 
 named Boudin, who imagined that he had rediscovered the secrets of 
 the alchemists. Saint-Simon has an admirable description of this 
 man. 
 
96 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 this was done with promptitude, because my gentleman 
 haggled about nothing, kept no account, and paid no 
 money. I reflected upon it all ; and, when I examined 
 this man, I found in him such an extraordinary mixture 
 of indications of both wealth and poverty, that I knew not 
 what to think. But at last I broke silence, and taking 
 him aside, I said, "Sir, who is to pay for all this?" "My- 
 self," said he. "Come to my room, and I will show you 
 immense treasures, and riches envied by the greatest kings 
 — but not , by you, because you will always share with me. " 
 I followed him. We climbed up to his fifth story, and by 
 means of a ladder hoisted ourselves to a sixth, which 
 was a closet open to all the winds, and contained nothing but 
 two or three dozen earthenware basins filled with different 
 liquors. "1 rose very early," he said, "and, as I have 
 done every morning for the last twenty-five years, I paid a 
 visit to my work. I saw that the great day had come, 
 the day which would make me the richest man in the 
 whole world. Do you see this ruddy liquor? It possesses 
 at present all the qualities required by philosophers for the 
 transmutation of metals. I have collected those grains 
 which you see, and which are, as their color shows, pure 
 gold, although they are a little deficient in weight. This 
 secret, which Nicholas Flamel discovered, but which Ray- 
 mond IvuUy * and a million others have sought in vain, has 
 been revealed at last to me ; and to-day I find myself a 
 happy adept. May God grant that with the treasures 
 which He has committed to me I may do nothing but for 
 His glory ! " 
 
 Transported with anger, I left the room, and descended, 
 or rather threw myself down the stairs, and left this man of 
 boundless wealth in his garret. Farewell, my dear Usbek, 
 I will visit you to-morrow, and, if you wish, we can 
 return to Paris together. 
 
 Paris, the last day of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1713. 
 
 * Nicholas Flamel, a citizen of Paris (1330-1418), was regarded as 
 an alchemist by those who envied his great fortune. Rajrmond I/ully, 
 a Spanish savant (1235-1315), was considered, rightly or wrongly, one 
 of the most famous alchemists. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 97 
 
 IvETTER XLVI LufS ^ 
 
 USBEK TO RhKDI, at VENICB 
 
 I MEET here certain people who are never done discussing 
 rehgion, but who seem at the same time to contend as 
 to who shall observe it least. 
 
 These disputants are, however, no better Christians, nor 
 even better citizens, than others ; and that it is that moves 
 me : for the^ principal part of any religion consists in obedi- 
 ence to the laws, in loving mankind, and in revering _pne'j 
 parents. 
 
 Indeed, ought it not to be the chief aim of a religious man 
 to please the Deity who has founded the religion which he 
 professes? But the surest way to please God is, without 
 doubt, to obey the laws of society, and do our duty to- 
 vy-ard_men. For, whatever religion we may profess, as soon 
 as we grant its existence, it becomes at once necessary to 
 assume that God loves men, since He establishes a religion 
 for their happiness: then, since He loves men, we are 
 certain of pleasing Him in loving them too — in other 
 words, in fulfilling all the duties of charity and hu- 
 manity, and in breaking none of the laws under which 
 men live. 
 
 We are much more certain of pleasing God in this way, 
 than in the observance of this or that ceremony ; ,for cere- 
 monies have no goodness in themselves ; they are only rela- 
 tively good, and on the supposition that God has com- 
 manded them. But this is a subject which might be dis-^ 
 cus sed endless ly ; and one could easily deceive oneself 
 regarding;_it,-becinE^^Tt is~hecessary to choose the rites of 
 ongjifiiigiSn' from among those of two thousand. 
 
 A man prayed to God daily in the following terms: 
 "I<ord, I do not understand any of those discussions that 
 are carried on without end regarding Thee : I would serve 
 Thee according to Thy will ; but each man whom I consult 
 would have me serve Thee according to his. When I de- 
 sire to pray, I know not in which language to address 
 7 
 
98 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Thee. Nor do I know what posture to adopt : one bids 
 me pray standing ; another, sitting ; and another requires 
 me to kneel. That is not all : there are some who insist 
 that I ought to wash every morning in cold water ; others 
 maintain that Thou regardest me with horror if I do not 
 remove a certain small portion of my flesh. I happened 
 the other day to eat of a rabbit in a caravansary : three 
 men who were present made me tremble: all three main- 
 tained that I had grievously offended Thee ; one * because 
 that animal was unclean ; another,! because it had been 
 strangled; and the third, J because it was not a fish. A 
 Brahman who was passing by, and whom I asked to be our 
 judge, said to me, *They are all wrong, for it appears that 
 you did not kill the animal yourself.* *I did, though,* 
 said I. 'Ah, then, you have committed an abominable act, 
 which God will never pardon,* said he to me, in a severe 
 tone. * How do you know that the soul of your father had 
 not passed into that beast?' All these things, O I/Drd. 
 trouble me beyond expression. I cannot move my head 
 but I am threatened with Thy wrath. Nevertheless I would 
 please Thee, and devote to that end the life which Thou 
 hast given me. I may be deceiving myself; but I think 
 
 , that the best means to accomplish this aim is to live as a 
 good citizen in the society where Thou hast placed me, and 
 
 [as a good father in the family which Thou has given me.** 
 
 Paris, the Sth of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1713. 
 
 I.ETTER XI.VII 
 Zachi to Usbsk, at Paris 
 
 1HAVB great news for you. Zephis and I are reconciled, 
 and the seraglio, which had taken sides in our quarrel, 
 is reunited, i need nothing now in this abode of peace 
 but you. Come, my dear Usbek, come to me, and let love 
 be triumphant. 
 
 *A Jew.— (M.) tATurk— (M.) J An Armenian.— (M.) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 99 
 
 I made a great feast in honor of Zephis, to which your 
 mother, your wives, and your principal concubines were 
 invited ; your aunts and some of your female cousins also 
 came ; they arrived on horseback, covered by the dark 
 cloud of their veils and garments. 
 
 Next day we set out for the country, where we hope to 
 have greater liberty. We mounted our camels, four in each 
 palanquin. As the party had been improvised, we had not 
 time to send round the courouc,'^ but the chief eunuch, 
 always attentive, took another precaution : to the cloth 
 which hid us from sight, he attached a curtain so thick, 
 that we could positively see nobody. 
 
 When we reached that river which we have to cross, 
 each of us went, in the usual way, into a box which was 
 transported in the ferry boat ; for we were told that there 
 were a great many people on the river. One inquisitive 
 person who approached too near the place where we were 
 shut up, received a mortal blow, which cut him off forever 
 from the light of day ; another, who was found bathing naked 
 on the bank, met the same fate : those two wretches were 
 sacrificed by your faithful eunuchs to your honor and to ours. 
 
 But listen to the rest of our adventures. When we had 
 reached the middle of the river, so violent a wind arose, and 
 such a dense cloud covered the sky, that our sailors began 
 to lose hope. Terrified at the danger, we nearly all swooned 
 away. I remember that I heard the voices of our eunuchs 
 in dispute. Some of them said that, to save us from dan- 
 ger, we must be set at liberty ; but their chief insisted, un- 
 falteringly, that he would sooner die than permit his 
 master to be so dishonored, and that he would plunge a dagger 
 into the breast of any one who should dare to make such 
 proposals. One of my slaves, quite beside herself and all 
 undressed, came running to my assistance ; but a black 
 eunuch seized her brutally, and thrust her back whence 
 she had come. Then I swooned away, and returned to 
 myself only after the danger was past. 
 
 How distressing journeys are for us poor women ! Men 
 are exposed only to those dangers which threaten their 
 
 * Courouc (back ! back !) is the cry of the eunuchs ■who accom- 
 pany the women's litters. 
 
loo MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 lives ; but we are in constant terror of losing either life or 
 virtue. Farewell, my dear Usbek, whom I shall always 
 .adore. 
 
 Jhe Seraguo at Fatme, the 2d of the 
 moon of Rhamazan, 1713. 
 
 IvETTER XI^VIII 
 Usbek to Rhbdi, at Venice 
 
 THOSE who take pleasure in their own instructic 
 never idle. Although I am not employed oy any 
 business of importance, I am yet constantly occupied. 
 I spend my time observing, and at night I write down 
 what I have noticed, what I have seen, what I have heard, 
 during the day. I am interested in everything, astonished 
 at everything : I am like a child, whose organs, still over- 
 sensitive, are vividly impressed by the merest trifles.* 
 
 You would scarcely believe it, but we have been well re- 
 ceived in all circles, and among all classes. This is largely 
 owing to the quick wit and natural gayety of Rica, which 
 lead him to seek out everybody, and make him equally 
 sought after. Our foreign aspect offends nobody ; indeed, 
 we are delighted at the surprise which people show on find- 
 ing us not altogether without manners ; for the French 
 imagine that men are not among the products of our 
 country. Nevertheless, I must admit that they are well 
 *orth undeceiving. 
 
 I spent some days in the country near Paris at the house 
 
 of a man of some note, who delights in having company 
 with him. He has a very amiable wife, who, along with 
 great modesty, possesses what the secluded life they lead 
 stifles in our Persian women, a charming gayety. 
 
 Stranger as I was, I had nothing better to do than to 
 study the crowd of people who came and went without 
 ceasing, affording me a constant change of subject for con- 
 
 *Montesquieu describes himself in this passage. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS lot 
 
 templation. I noticed at once one man, whose simplicity 
 pleased me ; I allied myself with him, and he with me, 
 in such a manner that we were always together. 
 
 One day, as we were talking quietly in a large company, 
 leaving the general conversation to the others, I said, " You 
 will perhaps find in me more inquisitiveness than good man- 
 ners ; but I beg you to let me ask some questions, for I am 
 wearied to death doing nothing, and of living with people 
 with whom I have nothing in common. My thoughts have 
 been busy these two days ; there is not one among these 
 men who has not put me to the torture two hundred times ; 
 in a thousand years I would never understand them ; they 
 are more invisible to me than the wives of our great king. " 
 "You have only to ask," replied he, **and I will tell you 
 all you desire — the more willingly because I think you a 
 discreet man, who will not abuse my confidence." 
 
 "Who is that man," said I, "who has told us so much 
 about the banquets at which he has entertained the great, 
 who is so familiar with your dukes, and who talks so often 
 to your ministers, who, they tell me, are so difficult of ac- 
 cess ? He ought surely to be a man of quality ; but his 
 aspect is so mean that he is hardly an honor to the aris- 
 tocracy ; and, besides, I find him deficient in education. I 
 am a stranger ; but it seems to me that there is, generally 
 speaking, a certain tone of good breeding common to all 
 nations, and I do not find it in him. Can it be that your 
 upper classes are not so well trained as those of other na- 
 tions?" "That man," answered he, laughing, "is a farmer- 
 general ; he is as much above others in wealth, as he isj 
 inferior to us all by birth. He might have the best peo- 1 
 pie in Paris at his table, if he could make up his mind 
 never to eat in his own house. He is very impertinent, as 
 you see ; but he excels in his cook, and is not ungrateful, 
 for you heard how he praised him to-day." 
 
 "And that big man dressed in black," said I, "whom 
 that lady has placed next her? How comes he to wear a 
 dress so solemn, with so jaunty an air, and such a florid 
 complexion ? He smiles benignly when he is addressed ; 
 his attire is more modest, but not less carefully adjusted 
 than that of your women." "That," answered he, "is a 
 
I02 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 preacher , and, which is worse, a confessor. Such as he is, 
 he knows more of their own affairs than the husbands ; he 
 is acquainted with the women's weak side, and they also 
 know his." "Ha!" cried I, "he talks forever of some- 
 thing h6 calls Grace?" "No, not always," was the reply; 
 " in the ear of a pretty woman he speaks more willingly of 
 the Fall : in public, he is a son of thunder ; in private, as 
 gentle as a lamb." " It seems to me," said I, " that he 
 receives much attention, and is held in great respect." "In 
 great respect ! Why ! he is a necessity ; he is the sweet- 
 ener of solitude ; then there are little lessons, officious 
 cares, set visits ; he cures a headache better than any man 
 in the world ; he is incomparable. " 
 
 "But, if I may trouble you again, tell me who that ill- 
 dressed person is opposite us? He makes occasional grim- 
 aces, and does not speak like the others ; and without wit 
 enough to talk, he talks thajt he may have wit." "That," 
 answered he, " is a p oe t, the most grotesque of human kind. 
 These sort of people declare that they are bom what they 
 are ; and, I may add, what they will be all their lives, 
 namely, almost always, the most ridiculous of men ; and so 
 nobody spares theim ; contempt is cast upon them from 
 every quarter. Hunger has driven that one into this house. 
 He is well received by its master and mistress, as their good 
 nature and courtesy are always the same to everybody. 
 He wrote their epithalamium when they were married, and 
 it is the best thing he has done, for the marriage has been 
 as fortunate as he prophesied it would be. 
 
 "You will not believe, perhaps," added he, "prepossessed 
 as you are in favor of the East, that there are among us 
 happy marriage^, and wives whose virtue is a sufficient 
 guard. This couple, here, enjoy untroubled peace ; every- 
 body loves and esteems them ; only one thing is amiss : in 
 their good nature they receive all kinds of people, which 
 makes the company at their house sometimes not altogether 
 unexceptionable. I, of course, have nothing to say against 
 it ; we must live with people as we find them ; those who 
 are said to be well bred are often only those who are ex- 
 l quisite in their vice? ; and perhaps it is with them as with 
 'poisons, the more subtle, the more dangerous." 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 103 
 
 « 
 
 "And that old man," I whispered, * who looks so morose ? 
 I took him at first for a foreigner ; because, in addition to 
 being dressed differently from the rest, he condemns every- 
 thing that is done in France, and disapproves of your gov- 
 ernment." "He is an old soldier," said he, *who makes 
 himself memorable to all his hearers by the tedious story 
 of his exploits. He cannot endure the thought that France 
 has gained any battles without him, nor hear a siege 
 bragged of at which he did not mount the breach. He be- 
 lieves himself so essential to our history that he imagines 
 it came to an end when he retired ; some wounds he has 
 received mean, simply, the dissolution of the monarchy ; 
 and, unlike the philosophers who maintain that enjoyment 
 is only in the present, and that the past is as if it had not 
 been, he, on the contrary, delights in nothing but the past, 
 and exists only in his old campaigns ; he breathes the air 
 of the age that has gone by, just as heroes ought to live 
 in that which is to come." "But why," I asked, "has he 
 quitted the service?" "He has not quitted it, but it has 
 quitted him. He has been employed in a small post, where 
 he will retail his adventures for the rest of his days ; but 
 he will never get any further ; the path of honor is closed 
 to him. " " And why ? " asked I. " It is a maxim in 
 France," replied he, " never to advance officers whose patience 
 has been worn out as subalterns ; we look upon them as 
 men whose minds have been narrowed by detail ; and who, 
 through a constant application to small things, are become 
 incapable of great ones. We believe that a man who, at 
 thirty, has not the qualities of a general, will never have 
 them ; that he, whose glance cannot take in > at once a 
 tract of several leagues as if from every point of view, who 
 is not possessed of that presence of mind which in victory 
 leaves no advantage unimproved, and in defeat employs 
 every resource, will never acquire such capacity. Therefore 
 we employ in brilliant .services tho.se great, those sublime 
 men, on whom Heaven has bestowed not only the courage, 
 but the genius of the hero; and in inferior services those 
 whose talents are inferior. Of, this number are such as 
 have grown old in obscure warfare ; they can succeed only 
 at what they have been doing all their lives ; and it would 
 
104 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 be ill-advised to start them on fresh employment when age 
 has weakened their powers." 
 
 A moment after, curiosity again seized me, and I said, 
 " I promise not to ask another question if you will only 
 answer this one. Who is that tall young man who wears 
 his own hair, and has more impertinence that- wit ? How 
 comes it that he speaks louder than the others, and is so 
 charmed with himself for being in the world?" "That is 
 a great lady-killer," he replied. With these words some 
 people entered, others left, and all rose. Some one came 
 to speak to my acquaintance, and I remained in my igno- 
 rance. But shortly after, I know not by what chance, the 
 young man in question found himself beside me, and began 
 to talk. "It is fine weather," he said. "Will you take a 
 turn with me in the garden?" I replied as civilly as I 
 could, and we went out together. "I have come to the 
 country," said he, "to please the mistress of the house, 
 with whom I am not on the worst of terms. There is a 
 certain woman in the world who will be rather out of 
 humor ; but what can one do ? I visit the finest women in 
 Paris ; bttt I do not confine my attentions to one ; they have 
 plenty to do to look after me, for, between you and me, 
 I am a sad dog." "In that case, sir," said I, "you doubt- 
 less have some office or employment which prevents you 
 from waiting on them more assiduously?" "No, sir; I 
 have no other business than to provoke husbands, and 
 drive fathers to despair ; I delight in alarming a woman 
 who thinks me hers, and in bringing her within an ace of 
 losing me. A set of us young fellows divide up Paris 
 among us in this pursuit, and keep it wondering at every- 
 thing we do." "From what I understand," said I, "you 
 make more stir than the most valorous warrior, and are 
 more regarded than a grave magistrate. If you were^in 
 Persia, you would not enjoy all these advantages ; you 
 would~be nelff^frtter-^fTjaiaJPl- oux„ women— tha4i--ta_^ease 
 them. " The blood mounted to my face ; and I believe, 
 had I gone on speaking, I could not have refrained from 
 kffronting him. 
 
 I What say you to a country where such people are tol- 
 rated, and where a man who follows such a profession is 
 
 If 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 105 
 
 allowed to live? Where faithlessness, treachery, rape, de- 
 ceit, and injustice lead to distinction? Where a man is es 
 teemed because he has bereaved a father of his daughter ,li( ' 
 a husband of his wife, and distresses the happiest and pur- 
 est homes? Happy the children of Hali who protect their 
 families from outrage and seduction ! Heaven's light is 
 not purer than the fire that burns in the hearts of our 
 wives ; our daughters think only with dread of the day 
 when they will be deprived of that purity, in virtue of 
 which they rank with the angels and the spiritual powers. 
 My beloved land, on which the morning sun looks first, 
 thou art unsoiled by those horrible crimes which compel 
 that star to hide his beams as he approaches the dark 
 West! 
 
 Paris, the 5th of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1713. 
 
 LETTER XLIX v 
 Rica to Usbek, at * * * 
 
 As I WAS in my room the other day, there came to me 
 a dervish amazingly dressed. His beard descended 
 to his rope girdle ; his feet were naked ; his gown 
 gray, coarse and peaked in places. The whole appeared to 
 me so odd that my first idea was to send for a painter to 
 make a sketch of it. 
 
 First of all he paid me a prolonged compliment, in which 
 he informed me that he was a man of merit, and^a Capu- 
 chin to boot. "They tell me, sir," continued he, "that 
 you return soon to the court of Persia, where you hold 
 high rank. I have come to ask your protection, and to 
 beg you to obtain for us from the king a small establish- 
 ment in the neighborhood of Casbin for two or three 
 friars." "Father," said I, "do you then wish to go to 
 Persia?" "Me, sir," cried he ; "I shall take better care 
 of myself. I am Provincial here, and I would not exchange 
 my place for that of all the Capuchins in the world." 
 
io6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 " Then why the devil do you make this request ? " " Be- 
 cause," said he, "if we had this monastery, our Italian 
 fathers would send out two or three friars. " " You know 
 those friars, of course," said I. "No, sir, I do not." 
 " 'Sdeath ! " cried I, " of what consequence is it to you that 
 they should go to Persia then ? A charming project, in- 
 deed, to send two Capuchins to take the air in Casbin ! 
 How useful that will be to Europe and to Asia ! and how 
 important it is to interest monarchs in it ! So, this is what 
 is meant by your admirable colonies ! Begone ; you and 
 your fellows were not made to be transplanted ; and you 
 had best continue to crawl about the places in which you 
 were engendered." 
 
 Paris, the 15th of the moon of 
 Khamazan, 1713. 
 
 LETTER h 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 1HAVB met some people to whom virtue was so natural 
 that they were not even conscious of it ; they applied 
 themselves to their duty without any compulsion, and 
 were led to it instinctively ; far from making their own ad- 
 ( I mirable qualities a subject of conversation, it seemed as if 
 , i they were quite ignorant of their existence. Such people 
 \ I love ; not those men who seem to be astonished at their 
 1 own virtue, and who look upon a good deed as a marvel 
 the relation of which should excite wonder. 
 
 If modesty is a necessary virtue in those to whom Heaven 
 has given great talents, what is to be said of those insects 
 who dare to exhibit a pride which would dishonor the 
 greatest men? 
 
 Ori every hand I meet people who talk constantly about 
 themselves; their conversation is a mirror which reflects 
 janljr their impertinent faces ; they will tell you of the 
 merest trifles that happen to them, and expect the interest 
 they take in them to magnify their importance in your 
 eyes; they have done everything, seen everything, said 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 107 
 
 everything, thought everything ; they are a pattern to 
 all mankind, a subject of inexhaustible comparisons, a 
 source of precedents which never dries up. Oh ! how in- 
 sipid is self-praise ! 
 
 Some days ago a man of this type worried us for two 
 hours, about himself, his worth, his talents ; but, since 
 there is no such thing as perpetual motion, he had to cease. 
 It was then our turn to talk, and we took it. 
 
 A man, who seemed sufficiently splenetic, commenced to 
 grumble at the tediousness of conversation. " What ! are 
 there none but fools, who describe their own character, and 
 bring everything home to themselves?" "You are right," 
 replied our tattling friend, abruptly. " Nobody does as I 
 do ; I never praise myself ; I have means, am well-born, 
 spend freely, and my friends say that I have some wit ; but 
 I never talk of all that; if I have any good qualities, that 
 which I set most store by, is my modesty." 
 
 I wondered at this malapert ; and while he was talking 
 very loud, I whispered, " Happy is he who has enough 
 of vanity never to boast of his own qualities, who dreads 
 the ridicule of his audience, and never hurts the pride of 
 others by exalting himself ! " 
 
 Paris, the 20tli of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1713. 
 
 I^ETTER I.I 
 
 Nargum, Pbrsian K^PVOY in Muscovy, to Usbek, at 
 
 Paris 
 
 THE news has come from Ispahan, that you have left 
 Persia, and are actually in Paris. Why was I left to 
 learn these tidings from another than yourself? 
 By order of the king of kings I have now been five 
 years in this country, where I have concluded several im- 
 portant transactions. 
 
 {/You know that the Czar is the only Christian prince^ 
 whose interests are allied to those of Persia, because, like 
 us, he is the enemy of the Turks. 
 
loS MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 His empire is larger than ours, for the distance between 
 Moscow and the extremities of his dominions on the Chi- 
 nese frontier measures a thousand leagues. 
 
 He is absolute master of the lives and goods of his sub- 
 jects, who are all slaves, with the exception of four fam- 
 ilies. The vicar of the prophets, the king of kings, whose 
 footstool is the sky, does not wield a scepter more puis- 
 sant. 
 
 In view of the frightful climate of this country, one 
 would never think that exile could be a punishment for a 
 Muscovite : nevertheless, when a man of consequence is 
 disgraced, he is banished to Siberia. 
 
 It is the law of our prophet which forbids us to drink 
 wine, it is that of their prince which forbids the Musco- 
 vites. 
 
 They receive their guests in a style very unlike the Per- 
 sians. When a stranger enters a house, the husband 
 presents his wife to him, and he kisses her : this is counted 
 an act of courtesy to the husband. 
 
 Although fathers, in arranging their daughters' marriages, 
 usually stipulate that the husband shall not whip them, yet 
 you would hardly believe how dearly the Muscovite women 
 like to be beaten ; * they are unable to understand how they 
 can possess their husband's love, if he does not thrash them 
 in proper style. If he is slack in this matter, it is an unpar- 
 donable indication of coldness. Here is a letter which a 
 Muscovite wife recently wrote to her mother : — 
 
 " My Dear Mother, — I am the most wretched woman 
 in the world. I have left nothing undone to make my 
 husband love me, and I have never been able to succeed. 
 Yesterday, having a thousand things to attend to in the 
 house, I went out and stayed away all day. I expected on 
 my return that he would beat me severely, but he did not 
 say a single word. My sister fares much better ; her hus- 
 band beats her every day ; he knocks her down at once if 
 she only looks at a man : they are very affectionate, and 
 there is between them the best understanding in the 
 world. 
 
 * These manners have changed. — (M.) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 109 
 
 " It is that which makes her so proud, but I will not 
 allow her to triumph over me any longer. I am resolved 
 to make my husband love me, whatever it may cost : I will 
 so anger him that he will be forced to give me marks of his 
 afEection. No one shall say that I am not beaten, and that 
 I am of no consequence in my own house. I will cry out 
 with all my might at the least touch, so that people may 
 think that all goes well ; and if any of my neighbors should 
 come to my aid, I feel as if I would strangle them. I wish, 
 my dear mother, you would point out to my husband how 
 unworthily he treats me. My father is a gentleman, and 
 behaved differently ; indeed, if I remember rightly, when I 
 was a little girl he used to love you too much. I embrace 
 you, my dear mother." 
 
 The Muscovites may not leave their country, even in 
 order to travel ; and so, separated from other nations by 
 the law of the land, they have become attached to their 
 ancient customs, all the more warmly, that they do not 
 think it possible to have others. 
 
 But the reigning prince* wishes to change everything; 
 he had a great quarrel with his subjects about their beards ; 
 the clergy and the monks defended their ignorance with 
 equal obstinacy. 
 
 He is bent on the improvement of the arts, and leaves 
 nothing undone to spread throughout Europe and Asia the 
 fame of his nation, till now forgotten, and hardly even 
 known to itself. 
 
 Restless, and always occupied, he wanders about his vast 
 dominions, leaving everywhere tokens of his savage nature. 
 
 Then he quits them, as if they were too small to con- 
 tain him, and goes to Europe exploring other provinces 
 and new kingdoms. 
 
 I embrace you, my dear Usbek, and beg you to send me 
 your news. 
 
 Moscow, the 2d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1713. 
 
 * Peter the Great. 
 
no MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER I.II 
 Rica to Usbek, at * * * 
 
 I WAS much amxtsed in a certain house the other day. 
 There were present women of all ages ; one of eighty 
 years, one of sixty, and one of forty ; the last had 
 with her a niece of from twenty to twenty-two. Instinct 
 led me to choose the company of the youngest. She whis- 
 pered to me, * What do you think of my aunt ? Old as she 
 is, she still tries to pass for a beauty, and wishes to have 
 lovers. " " She is wrong, " said I ; " such an intention is 
 becoming only in you." A moment after, I found myself 
 beside her aunt, who said to me, " What do think of that 
 woman ? Although she is at least sixty years old she has 
 spent hours to-day over her toilet." " It was a waste of 
 time," said I, "which only such charms as yours could 
 have excused." I crossed over to the unfortunate dame of 
 threescore, and was pitying her in my heart, when she 
 whispered to me, " Did you ever see anything so ridiculous ? 
 Fancy a woman of eighty wearing flame-colored ribbons ! 
 She would like to be young, and she succeeds, for that is 
 childish." 
 
 " Good Heavens ! " I exclaimed to myself ; " must we be 
 forever blind to our own folly? Perhaps, after all," I ar- 
 gued, "it is a blessing that we should find consolation in 
 the absurdities of others." However, I was bent on being 
 amused, and I said, still to myself, "This is surely high 
 enough ; let us descend, beginning at the summit. " So I ad- 
 dressed the lady of fourscore. "Madam," I said, "you are so 
 wonderfully like that lady, whom I have just left to speak to 
 you, that I am certain you must be sisters — I should say 
 about the same age." "Indeed sir," she rejoined, "when 
 one of us dies, the other will not have long to live; I do 
 not believe there is two days' difference between us. " Hav- 
 ing left my decrepit dame, I went again to her of sixty. 
 " Madam, you must decide a bet I have made. I have 
 wagered that you and that lady," indicating her of forty, 
 "are of the same age." " Well," said she, "I believe there 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS iii 
 
 is not six months' difference. " Good, so far ; let us get on. 
 Still descending, I returned to the lady of forty. " Madam, 
 have the goodness to tell me if you were jesting when you 
 called that young lady at the other table, your niece. You 
 are as young as she ; there is even a touch of age in her 
 face, which you certainly have not ; and the brilliancy of 
 your complexion . . ." "Listen," she said; "I am her 
 aunt ; but her mother was at least twenty-five years older 
 than me. We are not even children of the same marriage ; 
 I have heard my departed sister say that her daughter and 
 I were born in the same year. " " I was right, then, ma- 
 dam, and you cannot blame me for being astonished. * 
 
 My dear Usbek, women who feel that the loss of their 
 charms is aging them before their time, long ardently to be 
 young again ; and why should we blame them for deceiving 
 others, since they take such trouble to deceive them- 
 selves, and to dispossess their minds of the most painful of 
 all thoughts? 
 
 Paris, the 3d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1713. 
 
 IvETTER I.III 
 Zews to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 No PASSION was ever stronger or more vehement than 
 that of Cosrou, the white eunuch, for my slave Ze- 
 lida ; he has asked her in marriage with such per- 
 sistence, that I can no longer refuse him. And why should 
 I object, when her mother does not, and since Zelida her- 
 self seems satisfied with the idea of this mock union, and 
 the empty shadow which it offers her? 
 
 "What does she want with this wretched creature? She 
 is marrying jealousy personified, a husband who is no hus- 
 band; who will only exchange his coldness for an impotent 
 despair ; who, by perpetually recalling the memory of what 
 he was, will but remind her of what he no longer is ; who, 
 always ready to possess, but never possessing, will forever 
 
112 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 deceive himself and her, keeping her constantly alive to the 
 wretchedness of her condition. 
 
 And then ! to be always in dreams and fancies ; to live 
 only in imagination ; to be always on the threshold, and 
 never in the abode, of pleasure ; languishing in the arms 
 of impotence, responding, not to happy sighs, but to vain 
 regrets ! 
 
 How one ought to despise a man of that kind, made only 
 to guard and not to own ! I seek love, and cannot find it ! 
 
 I speak to you freely, because you love my artlessness, 
 and prefer my frankness and amorous disposition to the 
 affected modesty of my companions. 
 
 I have heard you say a thousand times that eunuchs do 
 enjoy a certain pleasure with women, which we know 
 nothing of ; that nature compensates them for their loss, 
 having means with which to amend their unfortunate con- 
 dition ; that one may cease to be a man, but not to feel 
 desire ; and that in that state one acquires a third sense, 
 and exchanges, as it were, one pleasure for another. 
 
 If that be so, Zelida will have less to complain of. It 
 is something to live with people who are not, after all, so 
 miserable. Send me your instructions in the matter, and 
 let me know if you wish the marriage to take place in the 
 seraglio. Farewell. 
 
 The Seragwo at Ispahan, the 5th of tlie 
 moon of Chalval, 1713. 
 
 LETTER LIV 
 Rica to Usbek, at * * 
 
 x^ 
 
 w 
 
 Y ROOM is, as you know, separated from the others only 
 by a slim partition, which is broken here and there, 
 so that one can hear what is said next door. This 
 morning I overheard a man, pacing rapidly up and down, 
 and saying to another, *I don't know how it is, but every- 
 thing seems to go against me. For more than three days 
 I have said nothing which can do me honor ; and I find 
 myself entirely lost among the crowd of talkers ; no one 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 113 
 
 pays the least attention to me, no one speaks to me twice. 
 I had prepared some brilliant passages to lighten my con- 
 versation; not once was I allowed to get them off. I had 
 a charming story to tell ; but always when I found an op- 
 portunity for it, people evaded it, as if on purpose. I have 
 nursed some witticisms in my head for four days without 
 being able to make the least use of them. If this continues, 
 it will end in my becoming a fool ; I cannot avoid it ; it 
 seems to be my fate. Yesterday I had hoped to shine in 
 the company of four old ladies, who certainly had no idea 
 of imposing on me. I had some of the most charming 
 things to say imaginable; but it took me more than a 
 quarter of an hour to bring the conversation round, and 
 even then they failed to follow me ; like the fatal sisters, 
 they cut the thread of my discourse. Shall I tell you? It 
 is most difficult to support the character of a man of wit. 
 I fail to comprehend how you obtained it." 
 
 "I have an idea," replied the other. "I,et us help each 
 other to gain this reputation : suppose we form a partner- 
 ship for the purpose. Every day we shall tell each other 
 what we intend to say ; and we shall help each other so 
 well, that if any one attempts to interrupt the flow of our 
 ideas, we shall inspire him with admiration ; and if he re- 
 fuses to be fascinated, then he will be coerced. We shall 
 have the points fixed at which to approve ; and where to 
 smile, and where to burst out into a roar of laughter, will 
 all be arranged beforehand. You will see that we shall 
 give the tone to conversation, and that everybody will ad- 
 mire the nimbleness of our wit, and the felicity of our 
 repartees ; and we shall have a code of head shakes for our 
 mutual protection. To-day you will shine, to-morrow you 
 will be my foil. We shall go together to a house, and I 
 shall exclaim, indicating you, *I must tell you the delight- 
 ful reply my friend made just now to a man we met in 
 the street.' I shall then turn toward you and say, *He 
 did not expect this. You see how astonished he is.' I 
 shall repeat some of my verses, and you will say, *I was 
 present when he made them ; at a supper, it was ; he 
 turned them off in an instant.' Sometimes we shall rally 
 each other, and then people will exclaim, 'Look, how they 
 8 
 
1 14 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 attack each other, how they defend themselves ; this is no 
 child's play ; let us see how he will come out of that. 
 Wonderful, what presence of mind ! Why, this is a down- 
 right battle ! ' But no one will dream how we practiced it 
 all beforehand. We shall have to buy certain books, re- 
 positories of wit composed for the use of those who, having 
 none, would fain appear as if they had : all depends on the 
 pattern. I should say, that before six months are out we 
 should be able to keep up a conversation of an hour's 
 length, entirely consisting of bons-mots. But we shall have 
 to be very careful of one thing, and that is, the fate of 
 our witticisms : it is not enough to make a brilliant remark, 
 it must be sown broadcast ; without that, it is as good as 
 lost ; and I confess there is nothing so heartrending as to see 
 a smart thing that one has said die in the ear of the fool 
 who hears it. • For misfortunes of that kind we have often, 
 it is true, a sort of compensation in the speedy oblivion 
 which overtakes the foolish things we say. Here, my dear 
 sir, is the part we must play. Do as I have suggested, 
 and I promise you, before six months, a place in the 
 Academy. You see the time of toil will not be long ; and 
 then you can abandon your art as soon as you like ; but 
 you will always be a man of wit, no matter what you do. 
 They say, that in France, when a man enters any circle 
 of society, he catches at once what is called l' esprit du 
 corps : this you will do, and the only thing I dread is, 
 that you will be overwhelmed with applause." 
 
 Paris, the 6tli of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1714. 
 
 IvFTTER I.V 
 Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 AMONG the Europeans, the first quarter of an hour of 
 marriage settles all difficulties; the last favors are 
 always contemporary with the marriage blessing. The 
 women here are not like those of Persia, who sometimes 
 dispute the ground for months together. They give them- 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 115 
 
 selves at once ; and if they lose nothing, it is because they 
 have nothing to lose. One shameful result of this is, that 
 one can always tell the moment of their defeat ; and, with- 
 out consulting the stars, it is possible to predict to the 
 very hour the birth of their children. 
 
 TJlie__Fr^ich seldom speak of their wives : * they are 
 afraid to^o-so "Before p£opIe~wEQ"~"may know them better 
 than— th&mselwes. 
 
 There are, among the French, a set of most miserable 
 men, whom nobody comforts — jealous husbands, to wit ; 
 there are among them those whom everybody hates — 
 namely, jealous husbands ; there are men whom the whole 
 world despises — once more, jealous husbands. 
 
 And so, there is no country where there are so few of 
 them as in France, Their peace of mind is not based upon 
 the confidence which they have in their wives ; but on the bad 
 opinion which they have of them. All the wise precautions 
 of the Asiatics ; the veils which cover them, the prisons in 
 which they are kept, the eunuchs who guard them, seem to 
 the French only so many obstacles better fitted to exercise 
 than to tire the ingenuity of women. Here, husbands ac- 
 cept their lot with a good grace, and the infidelities of their 
 wives seem to them as inevitable as fate. A husband, who 
 would wish to monopolize his wife, would be looked upon 
 as a disturber of the pleasure of the public, as a lunatic 
 who wanted to enjoy the light of the sun to the exclusion 
 of everybody else.. 
 
 Hexe_JL.husband who loves Jiis^wife is a ma^ has 
 
 n(^_e.nqugh merit .tO-^engage the, affections of some other 
 woman r-^P makes a bad use of the power given him by 
 the law to supply those pleasures which he can obtain in 
 no other way ; who claims all his rights to the prejudice of 
 the whole community ; who appropriates to his own use 
 that which he only holds in pawn ; and who tries, as far 
 as he can, to overturn the tacit agreement, in which the 
 happiness of both sexes consists. The fame, so little de- 
 sired in Asia, of being married to a beautiful woman, is 
 
 * It was a rule of good society. « Most men understand that they 
 should say very little about their wives ; but few know that they 
 should talk still less about themselves. »— La Rochefoucaui,d. 
 
ii6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 here the source of no uneasiness. No one has ever to seek 
 far for entertainment. A prince consoles himself for the 
 loss of one place by taking another^ when Bagdad fell to 
 the Turks, were we not taking from the Mogul the fortress 
 of Candahar? 
 
 Generally speaking, a man who winks at his wife's infi- 
 delities, does not lose respect ; on the contrary, he is 
 praised for his prudence : dishonor only attaches to special 
 cases. 
 
 Not that there are no virtuous women ; there are, and 
 they may be said to be distinguished too. My conductor 
 always took care to point them out ; but they were all so 
 ugly that one would require to be a saint not to hate virtue. 
 
 After what I have told you of the morals and manners 
 of this country, you will easily imagine that the French do 
 not altogether plume themselves upon their constancy. 
 They believe that it is as ridiculous to swear eternal love 
 to a woman, as to insist that one will always be in the 
 best of health, or always as happy as the day is long. 
 When they promise a woman to love her all their lives, 
 they suppose that she on her side undertakes to be always 
 lovable ; and if she breaks her word, they think that they 
 are no longer bound by theirs. 
 
 Paris, the 7th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1714. 
 
 LETTER LVI 
 
 USBEK TO IbBEN, at SMYRNA 
 
 / •'NAMING is very common in Europe. To be a gamester 
 •^-Ij is to have a position in society, although one is 
 I neither well-born, wealthy, nor a man of integ- 
 
 J rity: it entitles one, without any inquiry, to rank as a 
 gentleman. All know that it is often a most untrustworthy 
 credential, but people have made up their minds to be de- 
 ceived. \ 
 
 Above all, the women follow it. It is true that the at- 
 tractions of a dearer passion prevent them from giving it 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 117 
 
 much attention in their youth ; but as they grow old, their 
 love of gaming seems to grow young, and when all others 
 are decayed, that passion fills up the void. 
 
 Their desire is to ruin their husbands ; and for that pur- 
 pose they have means suitable to all ages, from the ten- 
 derest youth to the most decrepit age ; dress and luxury 
 begin the disorder, which gallantry increases, and gaming 
 completes. 
 
 I have often seen nine or ten women, or rather, nine or 
 ten centuries, seated round a table ; I have watched them 
 hoping, fearing, rejoicing — above all, in their transports of 
 anger : you would have said that they would never grow 
 calm again, and that life would leave them before their 
 despair ; you would have been in doubt whether they were 
 paying their creditors or their legatees. 
 
 It seems to have been the chief aim of our holy Prophet 
 to restrain us from everything that might disturb the rea- 
 son : he has prohibited the use of wine, which steals away 
 man's brains ; by a special law he has forbidden games of 
 chance ; and where the cause of passion could not be 
 removed he has subdued it. I,ove among us brings with 
 it no trouble, no frenzy : it is a languid passion which 
 leaves our souls serene : plurality of wives saves us from 
 the dominion of women, and tempers the violence of our 
 desires. 
 
 Paris, the loth of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 17 14. 
 
 LETTER IvVII 
 
 USBEK TO RhEDI, at VENICS 
 
 AN IMMENSE number of courtesans are maintained by 
 the libertines of Paris, and a great crowd of dervishes 
 by its bigots. These dervishes take three oaths : of 
 [obedience, of poverty, and of chastity. They say that the 
 first is the best observed of the three; as to the second, it 
 lis not observed at all ; you can form your own opinion 
 ^with regard to the third. 
 
ii8 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 But whatever the wealth of these dervishes may be, they 
 always profess poverty, just as our glorious Sultan would 
 never dream of renouncing his magnificence and sublimity ; 
 and they are right, for their reputation as paupers prevents 
 ;lhem from being poor. 
 
 The physicians and some of these dervishes, called con- 
 ■fessors, are always either highly esteemed, or treated with 
 contumely : yet it is said that heirs, on the whole, prefer 
 physicians to confessors. 
 
 The other day, I visited a convent of dervishes. One of 
 them, whose white hair made him venerable, received me 
 very courteously. He showed me over the whole house, 
 and then we went into the garden, and had some talk. 
 * Father," said I, "what is your employment in the com- 
 munity ? " "Sir," replied he, evidently well pleased with my 
 question, "I am a casuist." "A casuist," e:^claimed I. 
 "During my stay in France I have not heard of this pro- 
 fession till now. " " What ! You do not know what a cas- 
 uist is ? Very well, listen ; I will give you an explanation 
 which will leave nothing to be desired. ^There are two de- 
 scriptions of sin : that called mortal, which excludes the 
 sinner forever from Paradise ; and venial sin, which cer- 
 tainly offends God, but does not excite Him to that pitch 
 of wrath which can be satisfied only by depriving the sin- 
 ner of felicity. Now, all our art consists in carefully dis- 
 tinguishing these two descriptions of sin ; for, with the 
 Exception of some libertines, all Christians wish to go to 
 ^Tieaven; but there is hardly one among them who would 
 I not , prefer to get- there at as cheap a rate as possible. 
 When they thoroughly understand which sins are mortal, 
 they try not to commit them ; and their business is done. 
 There are some who do not aspire to such a high degree 
 of perfection ; and, having no ambition, they do not care 
 for the first places : accordingly they would enter Paradise 
 as easily as possible ; provided they get there, they are sat- 
 isfied : that is their aim, neither more nor less. There are 
 people who would take heaven by storm rather than not 
 obtain it, and who would say to God, *I<ord, I have ful- 
 filled the conditions exactly ; you cannot refuse to keep 
 your word : as I have done no more than you have 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 119 
 
 required, I expect no more from you than you have prom- 
 ised.' 
 
 "Therefore, sir, we casuists are a necessity. This is not 
 all, however ; you shall learn something further. The deed 
 does not constitute the crime, but the knowledge of him 
 who commits it : he who does what is wrong, so long as 
 he can believe that it is not so, has a safe conscience ; and, as 
 there are an immense number of ambiguous actions, a casuist 
 can endue them with a degree of goodness which they have not, 
 simply by pronouncing them good ; and, provided he can 
 convince people of their harmlessness, such sins lose their 
 deadliness entirely. 
 
 "This is the secret of the craft in which I have grown 
 old ; I have shown you its nicety : all things, even such as 
 may seem most refractory, are susceptible of the required 
 twist." 
 
 "Father," said I, "this is admirable; but how do you 
 reconcile yourself with heaven ? If the Sophy had at his 
 court a man who dealt with him as you deal with God, 
 who played fast and loose with his commandments, and 
 taught his subjects when they ought to obey them, and 
 when they might break them, he would have him impaled 
 at once. I salute you, master dervish," and I left him 
 without waiting for his reply. 
 
 Paris, the 23d of the moon of 
 Maharram, 17 14. 
 
 I.ETTKR I.VIII 
 
 Rica to RH:eDi, at Vbnicb 
 
 MY d:sar Rhedi, there are in Paris a great many trades. 
 Some good-natured creature will offer you for a little 
 money the secret of making gold. Another promises 
 you the love of the spirits of the air, if you will see no women 
 for a small trifle of thirty years. 
 
 Then you will meet with wizards so skillful, that they 
 can tell you all your life, with the simple proviso of a quar- 
 ter of an hour's conversation with your servants. 
 
I20 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Adroit women turn virginity into a flower, which withers 
 and blooms again every day, and is gathered for the hun- 
 dredth time with more anguish than the first. 
 
 There are other women as skillful, who, repairing by the 
 force of their art all the ravages of time, know how to re- 
 store to a face beauty enough to strike one blind, and even 
 to summon a woman from the very end of life's journey 
 back to its tender youthful opening. 
 
 All these people live, or seek a livelihood, in this great 
 city, the mother of invention. 
 
 The incomes of the citizens cannot be farmed : they con- 
 sist only in skill and industry : each has his own, and 
 makes the best of it. 
 
 He who would wish to count the dervishes who run 
 after the revenue of some mosque, might as well attempt 
 to number the sands of the sea, or the slaves of our 
 monarch. 
 
 An infinite number of professors of languages, of arts, 
 and of sciences, teach what they do not know ; and their 
 talent is not by any means despicable ; for much less wit 
 is required to exhibit one's knowledge, than to teach what 
 one knows nothing of. 
 
 One cannot die here, except suddenly : death is left no 
 other method of exercising his power ; because, in every 
 hole and corner, people are ready with infallible cures for 
 every imaginable disease. 
 
 All the shops are hung with invisible nets, in which the 
 customers are snared. Sometimes, however, one gets off 
 with a good bargain. A shopgirl will wheedle a man for 
 a stricken hour, and all to luake him buy a packet of 
 toothpicks. 
 
 Every one who goes from this city, leaves it a warier 
 man than when he entered : by dint of throwing away his 
 means on others, he learns how to keep it to himself — 
 the only benefit a stranger carries away from this sorceress 
 of a city. 
 
 Paris, the loth of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1714. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 121 
 
 LETTER LIX 
 Rica to Usbek, at * * * 
 
 THB other day I visited a house, where the company was 
 of the most miscellaneous description. I found the 
 conversation monopolized by two old women, who had 
 labored in vain all morning to rejuvenate themselves. "I 
 must say, '* remarked one of them, " that the men of to-day 
 are very different from those we knew in our youth : they 
 were refined, courteous, obliging ; but now, I find their 
 coarseness intolerable." "All is altered," said a man, who 
 appeared to be crippled with gout. "Things are not as 
 they used to be forty years ago. People were healthier ; 
 affairs went well ; and everybody was cheerful ; nobody 
 asked for anything better than to dance and sing. Now, 
 you won't see a single cheerful face." A moment after, 
 the conversation turned to politics. " 'Sdeath ! '* said an 
 old lord ; *' the state is no longer governed. Where will 
 you find now a minister like M. Colbert? I knew him 
 well, M. Colbert ; he was a friend of mine ; he always 
 made them pay me my pension before it was due : he was 
 such a capital financier ! Everybody was comfortable ; but 
 now I am ruined^" "Sir," said an ecclesiastic, "you are 
 speaking of the most wonderful period of our invincible 
 monarch's reign : could anything be more magnificent than 
 what he then did to extirpate heresy ? " * " And does the 
 abolition of dueling count for nothing ? " f asked a self- 
 satisfied man who had not yet spoken. " A most judicious 
 remark," whispered some one in my ear. "That man is 
 delighted with the dueling law ; and he observes it so 
 faithfully, that six months ago he took a sound drubbing, 
 rather than violate it." 
 
 It seems to me, Usbek, that our opinions are always in-' 
 fluenced by a secret application to ourselves. , I am not 
 
 *The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. 
 + Edicts of 1654 and of 1679. 
 
122 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 surprised that negroes paint the devil with a complexion of 
 dazzling whiteness, and their gods as black as coal ; that 
 the Venus of certain races has breasts that hang down to 
 her thighs; and finally, that all idolaters have represented 
 their god's in the likeness of men, and have ascribed to 
 them all their own passions. It has been very well said, 
 that if triangles > were to make to themselves gods, they 
 would give them three sides. 
 
 My dear Usbek, when I behold men, mere crawlers on 
 this atom, the earth, which is but a point in the universe, 
 proposing themselves as exact models for Providence, I 
 know not how to harmonize such extravagance with such 
 littleness. 
 
 Paris, the 14th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1714. 
 
 I.KTTER I.X 
 Usbek to Ibbsn, at Smyrna 
 
 You ask me if there are Jews in France. Know that 
 wherever there is money, there are Jews. You ask 
 me what they do. Kxactly what they do in Persia : 
 nothing is liker an Asiatic Jew than a European one. 
 
 They exhibit among the Christians, as among ourselves, 
 an invincible attachment to their religion, amounting to 
 folly. 
 
 The Jewish religion is like the trunk of an old tree 
 which has produced two branches that cover the whole 
 earth — I mean Mohammedanism and Christianity : or rather, 
 she is the mother of two daughters that have loaded her 
 with a thousand bruises;* for, in religious matters, the 
 nearest relations are the bitterest foes. But however badly 
 her daughters have treated her, she ceases not to glory in 
 having brought them forth : she has made use of both of 
 
 * Voltaire, in his article on the Jews in the "Philosophical Dic- 
 tionary,* has reproduced this idea of Montesquieu's -without acknowl- 
 edging it. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 123 
 
 them to encircle the whole earth, just as her venerable age 
 embraces all time. 
 
 The Jews therefore regard themselves as the fountain of 
 all holiness, the source of all religion : us they look upon 
 as heretics who have changed the law, or rather as rebel 
 Jews. 
 
 If the change had been made gradually, they imagine 
 that they might have been easily led away ; but as it took 
 place suddenly, and with violence, and as they can mark 
 the day and the hour of the birth of both daughters, they 
 mock at religions that have had beginnings, and cling to 
 one that is older than the world itself. 
 
 They have never been freer from molestation in Kurope 
 than they are now. Christians are beginning to lose the 
 spirit of intolerance which animated them : experience has 
 shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 
 and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose 
 belief differed a little from that of the king. They have 
 realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is differ- 
 ent from a due attachment to it ; and that in order to love 
 it and fulfill its.„ behests^ it is -not- necessary to hate and 
 persecute those who- are opposed to it. 
 
 It is much to be desired that our Mussulmans regarded 
 this matter as rationally as the Christians, and that peace 
 were established in all good faith between Hali and Abu- 
 beker,* leaving God to decide the merits of these holy 
 prophets. I would nave them honored by acts of venera- 
 tion and respect, and not by foolish preferences. Let us 
 seek to merit their favor, whatever place God has given 
 them ; whether it be at His right hand, or beneath the 
 footstool of His throne. 
 
 Paris, the i8th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1714. 
 
 *Abu Bekr, father-in-law of Mohammed, was proclaimed Caliph 
 on the death of the prophet, in 632. According to the Persians, this 
 nomination was a usurpation of the rights of Ali, the cousin and son- 
 in-law of Mohammed. (See Note, p. 36.) 
 
124 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTKR LXI 
 Usbe;k to Rhbdi, at Vbnicb 
 
 I WENT the other day into a famous church called Notre 
 Dame. While I was admiring this magnificent building 
 I had an opportunity of conversing with an ecclesiastic, 
 led there, like myself, by curiosity. . The conversation turned 
 upon the peaceful life enjoyed by those of his profession. 
 " Most people," said he, * envy the happiness of our condi- 
 tion, and they are right. However, it has its disadvan- 
 tages : although we are in a measure separated from the 
 world, yet a thousand things require our presence in it ; 
 and in this way we have a very difl&cult part to fill. 
 
 " Worldly people are truly astonishing : they can endure 
 neither our praise nor our blame : if we desire to admonish 
 them, they think us ridiculous ; if to commend them, they re- 
 gard us as undignified. Nothing can be more humiliating 
 than the thought that one has offended even the wicked. We 
 are therefore compelled to adopt an ambiguous method, and to 
 influence libertines, not by a direct appeal, but by the un- 
 certainty in which our manner of receiving their remarks 
 leaves them. This requires abundance of talent, it is so 
 difficult to maintain a neutral attitude : men of the world 
 who risk everything, who give themselves up to all their 
 fancies, dropping them or pursuing them, according to their 
 felicity, succeed much better. 
 
 "This is not all. ^We cannot preserve in thejworid^ that 
 liaBpy,P£aceful state "which IF'so loudIy"4jraised. As soon 
 as we appear there,' we afe~Torced into argument : for ex- 
 ample, we have to undertake to prove to a man who does 
 not-believe~in_JGedT-the-Tefficacy of prayer j of the necessity 
 otjasting;_to_a5other jyho all hisiife has denied the im- 
 mortality of the soul : the task is heavy, and the laughter 
 ~is not on our^side. Besides this, a desire to convert others 
 to our own opinions, which belongs, as it were, to our 
 '. profession, torments us endlessly ; and is as ridiculous as if 
 I Europeans, anxious to improve human nature, were to try 
 Ito change the Ethiopian's skin. We disturb the state, and 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 125 
 
 torment ourselves to enforce points of religion which are 
 not fundamental : we are like that conqueror of China, who j 
 drove his subjects to a general revolt, by insisting that 
 they should cut their hair or their nails. 
 
 " The zeal which we have to secure the fulfillment of the 
 duties of our holy religion on the part of those over whom we 
 are placed, is often dangerous, and cannot be accompanied 
 by too much prudence. An emperor, called Theodosius, 
 put to the sword all the inhabitants of a certain town, 
 even to the women and children. Immediately afterward, 
 as he was about to enter a church, a bishop, Ambrose by 
 name, shut the doors against him as a sacrilegious mur- 
 derer : in doing so he performed an heroic action. This 
 emperor, having shortly done the penance which such a 
 crime required, and being admitted into the church, the 
 same bishop made him come from among the priests with 
 whom he had seated himself : that was the action of a fa- 
 natic. Thus you see how true it is, that one should not 
 be over-zealous. Of what importance was it to religion or 
 to the state, whether this prince had, or had not, a place 
 among the priests?" 
 
 Paris, the ist of the first moon of 
 Rebiab, 1714. 
 
 I.ETTER IvXII 
 
 Zelis to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 YOUR daughter having attained her seventh year, I have 
 judged it time to remove her to the inner apartments 
 of the seraglio, and not to wait till she should be 
 ten to intrust her to the care of the black eunuchs. It is 
 impossible to deprive a young girl too soon of the liberty 
 of childhood, and to give her a holy upbringing within 
 those walls sacred to modesty. 
 
 For I am not of the opinion of those mothers who only 
 sequester their daughters when they are about to bestow 
 them in marriage, who sentence, rather than consecrate 
 
126 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 them, to the seraglio, and force them to embrace a manner 
 of life which they ought to have taught them to love. 
 Must we expect everything from the compulsion of reason, 
 and leave nothing to the gentle influences of habit? 
 
 We are in vain told of the state of subjection in which 
 nature has placed us. It is not enough to make us realize 
 this ; we must be made to practice submission, in order 
 that we may be upheld at that critical time when the pas- 
 sions begin to awaken, and that we may learn voluntary 
 subordination. 
 
 Were we only attached to you by duty, we miglrt some- 
 times forget it ; or if it were inclination alone that bound 
 us, a more potent feeling might perhaps weaken it. But, 
 when the laws bestow us on one man they withdraw us 
 from all others, and place us as far from them as if a 
 hundred thousand leagues intervened. 
 
 Nature, diligent in the service of men, has been no nig- 
 gard in her dowry of desire ; to women also she has not 
 been unkind, and has destined us to be the living instru- 
 ments of the enjoyment of our masters ; she has set us on 
 fire with passion in order that they may live at ease ; 
 should they quit their insensibility, she has provided us 
 to restore them to it, without our ever being able to taste 
 the happiness of the condition into which we put them. 
 
 Yet, Usbek, do not think that your situation is happier 
 than mine ; I have experienced here a thousand pleasures 
 unknown to you. My imagination has labored without 
 ceasing to make me conscious of their worth ; I have lived, 
 and you have only languished. 
 
 Even in this prison where you keep me I am freer than 
 you. You can only redouble your care in guarding me, 
 that I may rejoice at your uneasiness ; and your suspicions, 
 your jealousy, your annoyance, are so many marks of your 
 dependence. 
 
 Continue, dear Usbek, to have me watched night and 
 day ; take no ordinary precautions ; increase my happiness 
 in assuring your own ; and know, that I dread nothing ex- 
 cept your indifference. 
 
 The Seraglio at Ispahan, the ad of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1714. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 127 
 
 I^ETTKR I.XIII 
 Rica to Usbbk, at * * * 
 
 Do YOU mean to spend your whole life in the country? 
 At first I was to lose you only for a day or two, 
 but now fifteen have passed since I last saw you. 
 I know that you are living in a delightful house where 
 the company suits you, where you can speculate at your 
 ease: nothing more is required to make you forget the 
 whole universe. 
 
 For myself, my life moves on pretty much as it did when 
 we were together. I go into society and try to understand 
 it; my thought loses gradually all that remained of its 
 Asiatic cast, and conforms without effort to European 
 manners. I am no longer amazed to find in one house > 
 half a dozen women with as many men ; indeed, I begin to 
 think it not altogether a bad idea. 
 
 This I will say: I knew nothing of women until I came 
 here; I have learned more about them in one month of 
 Paris, than I could have done in thirty years of a seraglio. 
 
 With us, character is uniform, because it is constrained ; 
 we do'^not^'see people as they are, but as" they are obliged < 
 to be; in "that slavery of heart and mind, it is only 
 fear 2that._u tt^s.II!a~^ull--roa.tiii&- of words, -very -different 
 from the language of nature which expresses itself so va- 
 riously. 
 
 Dissimulation, that art so practiced and so necessary with 
 us, is here unknown; they say everything, see everything, 
 and hear everything; hearts are as open as faces; in 
 manners, in virtue, even in vice, one detects always a cer- 
 tain artlessness. 
 
 In order to gratify women a talent is necessary different 
 from that other gift which pleases them still more ; it con- 
 sists in a sort of playfulness of mind, which entertains 
 them, as it seems to promise them every moment what one 
 cannot perform except occasionally. 
 
128 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 This gayety of mind naturally adapted to the dressing- 
 room * seems to be forming the general character of the 
 nation : they trifle in council, at the head of an army, with 
 an ambassador. Professions appear ridiculous only in pro- 
 portion to the professional gravity adopted : a doctor would 
 be less absurd if his dress were more cheerful, and if, 
 while killing his patients, he jested pleasantly. 
 
 Paris, the loth of the first moon of 
 Rebiab, 1714. 
 
 I^ETTER LXIV 
 The Chibf of the black Eunuchs to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 I CANNOT tell you, magnificent lord, how deeply perplexed 
 I am. Appaling disorder and confusion prevail in the 
 seraglio : war reigns among your wives ; your eunuchs 
 are divided ; nothing is heard but murmurs, complaints, 
 reproaches ; my remonstrances are despised : everything 
 seems to be permitted in this time of license, and I am 
 nothing but a name in the seraglio. 
 
 There is not one of your wives who does not deem her- 
 self superior to the others by her birth, her beauty, her 
 wealth, her intellect, or her love ; and who does not claim 
 every preference on the score of the value she sets upon 
 one or other of these titles to respect. I lose every mo- 
 ment that long-suffering patience, with which, nevertheless, 
 I have had the misfortune to displease them all : my pru- 
 dence, even my kindness, so rare and strange a virtue in 
 the post which I occupy, have been useless. 
 
 Is it your pleasure that I should disclose to you, magnifi- 
 cent lord, the cause of all these disorders? It is in your 
 heart alone, in the tender affection which you have for 
 them. If you did not withhold my hand ; if, instead of 
 remonstrating, you would allow me to punish ; if, rather 
 than suffer them to soften you by their complaints and 
 
 * Drawing-room we would say to-day. In the eighteenth century 
 it was in their elegant cabinets de toilette that ladies received visitors. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 129 
 
 tears, you would send them to weep before me, whom 
 nothing can move, I would soon fashion them to the yoke 
 they ought to bear, and weary out this proud and inde- 
 pendent temper. 
 
 Stolen, at the age of fifteen years, out of the heart of 
 Africa, my native country, I was at first sold to a master, 
 who had more than twenty wives, or concubines. Judging 
 from my grave and taciturn air, that I would be an acqui- 
 sition in the seraglio, he ordered that I should be prepared 
 for it, and made me undergo an operation, painful at first, 
 but fortunate in its results, because it has given me the 
 ear and the confidence of my masters. I entered the se- 
 raglio, to me a new world. The first eunuch, the sternest 
 man I ever knew, governed there with undisputed sway. 
 Nothing was ever heard of divisions or of quarrels: pro- 
 found silence reigned everywhere : all these women were put 
 to bed at the same hour, and wakened at the same hour, 
 from one year's end to the other : they entered the bath in 
 turn, and left it at the slightest sign made by us : the rest of 
 the time they were almost always shut up in their rooms. 
 He had one rule, which exacted the observance of the 
 greatest neatness, and he was in this matter inexpressibly 
 careful : the least refusal of obedience was punished without 
 mercy. "I am," said he, "a slave; but the slave of a man 
 who is your master and mine; and I use the power which 
 he has given me over you : it is he who chastises you, not 
 I; I only lend my hand." These women never entered my 
 master's chamber but when they were summoned ; that 
 favor they welcomed gladly, and saw themselves deprived 
 of it without a murmur. As for myself, the least of the 
 blacks in that peaceful seraglio, I was a thousand times 
 more respected than I am in yours, where I command 
 all. 
 
 As soon as the chief eunuch had recognized my genius, 
 he regarded me with favor, and spoke of me to his master 
 as of one able to carry out his views, and to succeed him in 
 the post which he filled : he was not afraid of my great 
 youth, believing that my application would make up for my 
 want of experience. Shall I tell you? I advanced so rap- 
 idly in his confidence that he went the length of intrusting 
 ' 9 
 
I30 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 me with the keys of those dreadful places, which he had 
 guarded for so long a time. It was under this great mas- 
 ter that I learned the difficult art of commanding, and that 
 I was formed according to the maxims of an inflexible gov- 
 ernment : I studied under him the heart of women : he 
 taught me to take advantage of their weaknesses, and not 
 to be dismayed by their arrogance. Often he amused him- 
 self by watching me drive their obedience to the very last 
 verge; he then made them return gradually, and required 
 that I for some time should appear to yield. But he should 
 have been seen at those times when, now beseeching, now 
 reproaching, they were driven almost to despair : he beheld 
 their tears unmoved, rejoicing in his triumph. " See, " said 
 he, with a satisfied air, " how women must be governed : 
 their number does not trouble me ; I could manage in the 
 same way all those of our great king. How can a man 
 hope to win their hearts, if his faithful eunuchs have not 
 begun by breaking their spirits ? '* 
 
 He was not only a man of resolution, but also of pene- 
 tration. He read their thoughts and their dissemblings : 
 their studied gestures, their made-up looks, concealed noth- 
 ing from him. He knew all their most hidden actions, 
 their most secret words. He obtained his information by 
 making them tell on each other ; and it was his pleasure to 
 reward the most insignificant confidence. As they never 
 approached their husband except when they were ordered, 
 the eunuch summoned whom he liked, and directed the at- 
 tention of his master to those whom he wished to please; 
 and this distinction was the reward for the revelation of 
 some secret. He had persuaded his master that it was 
 of the first importance that the choice should be left to 
 him, as it would give his authority much greater weight. 
 That was the method of government, magnificent lord, in 
 a seraglio, which was, I believe, the best regulated in all 
 Persia. 
 
 Give me a free hand, allow me to make myself obeyed, 
 and eight days will see order take the place of confusion ; 
 this, your glory demands, and your safety requires. 
 
 Yotm Seraguo at Ispahan, the 9th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1714. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 131 
 
 lyETTER LXV 
 XJSBEK TO HIS Wives, at the Seragwo at Ispahan 
 
 1 UNDERSTAND that the seraglio at Ispahan is in disorder, 
 that it is full of quarrels, and intestine divisions. At 
 my departure did I not recommend you to be at peace 
 and maintain a good understanding? 
 
 You promised this ; was it to deceive me ? 
 
 It is you who will be deceived, if I choose to follow the 
 counsels of the chief eunuch ; if I choose to employ my 
 authority to make you live as I exhorted you to do. 
 
 I do not, however, see why I should make use of those 
 violent means until I have tried all others. Do, then, 
 for your own sakes, what you have not cared to do for 
 mine. 
 
 The first eunuch has a great subject of complaint : he 
 says that you pay no attention to him. How can you 
 harmonize that behavior with the modesty which should 
 belong to your condition ? Is not your virtue confided to 
 him during my absence? It is a sacred treasure, of which 
 he is the guardian. But the contempt with which you 
 treat him, makes it apparent that those who are charged 
 to lead you in the paths of honor are irksome to you. 
 
 Change your behavior then, I beg you ; and see to it 
 that I may be able still to reject the proposals which have 
 been made to me against your freedom and your tran- 
 quillity. 
 
 For I wish you to forget that I am your master, and to 
 be remembered only as your husband. 
 
 Paris, the sth of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1714. 
 
132 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER lyXVI 
 
 Rica to * * * l- 
 
 PBOPLB are very much devoted to the sciences here, but 
 I question if they are very learned. He who, as a 
 plijl osopher, dqa ^|5.uiL^jL dar e deny nothing as a 
 theologian : the mconsisjtent. man is-always- well pleased with 
 himself provided you agree with him. 
 
 The passion of nearly every Frenchman, is to pass for a 
 wit ; and the passion of those who wish to be thought wits, 
 is to write books. 
 
 There never was such an erroneous idea : it seems to be 
 a wise provision of nature that the follies of men should be 
 short lived ; but books interfere and immortalize them. A 
 fool, not content with having bored all those who have 
 lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come ; 
 he would have his folly triumph over oblivion, which should 
 have been as welcome to him as death ; he wishes posterity 
 to be informed of his existence, and he would have it re- 
 membered forever that he was a fool. 
 
 Of all authors, there are none whom I despise more than 
 compilers. They crowd from all quarters to pick up the 
 shreds of other men's works ; these they fit into their own, 
 as one would patch the turf of a lawn : they are not one 
 whit superior to the compositor, whose typesetting may be 
 called bookmaking if manual labor is all. I would have 
 original books respected ; and it seems to me a species of 
 profanation, to take from them the matter of which they 
 are composed, as if from a sanctuary, and exposed it to an 
 undeserved contempt. 
 
 When a man has nothing new to say, why can't he be 
 quiet? Why should one be troubled with these useless 
 repetitions? But I will give you a new illustration. You 
 are a man of ability ! You come into my library ; and you 
 shift the books from the lower shelves to the upper ones, 
 and from the upper to the lower : you have produced a 
 masterpiece ! 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 133 
 
 I write 3'ou, . . . , because I am exasperated with a 
 book which I have just laid down — a book so big that it 
 seems to contain all science : but it has only split my head 
 without putting anything into it. Farewell. 
 
 Fakis, the 8th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1714. 
 
 LETTER lyXVII 
 Ibbbn to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 THRBB vessels have arrived here without bringing any 
 news from you. Are you ill, or does it amuse you 
 to make me uneasy ? 
 
 If you do not love me in a country where you are quite 
 unfettered, how will it be in the middle of Persia, and in 
 the bosom of your family? But perhaps I am wrong: you 
 are charming enough to find friends everywhere ; the heart 
 is a native of all lands : what should hinder a generous 
 nature from forming attachments? I confess, I respect old 
 friendships ; but I am quite well pleased to make new ones 
 everywhere. 
 
 In whatever country I have been, I have lived as if I 
 were to spend the rest of my days there : I have had the 
 same strongjjking for^irtuous people, the same pity, or I 
 should say the same love, for the wretched, and the same 
 esifeem^ for those whom prosperity . has not blinded. That 
 is^^iy" chafacler, Usbek : wherever I find men, I choose 
 friends. 
 
 There is here a Guebre* who I believe, after you, holds 
 the chief place in my heart : he is the very soul of honor. 
 Special reasons have obliged him to retire to this town, 
 where, with his beloved wife, he lives peacefully on the 
 earnings of an honest trade. A generous temper has distin- 
 guished him all his life ; and although he prefers obscurity, 
 
 * Guebre, or infidel, the name applied to the fire- worshipers, de- 
 scended from the immediate followers of Zoroaster. According to Dr. 
 C. J. Wills, in his "Persia as It Is,* there are only about 8,000 
 Guebres left in Persia, and these are congregated at Yezd. 
 
134 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 there is more of true heroism in him than in many of the 
 greatest monarchs. 
 
 I have often spoken to him of you, and I show him all 
 your letters. I note that this gives him great pleasure, 
 and I perceive already that you have a friend, who is un- 
 known to you. 
 
 Here you will find his principal adventures. Although 
 he was very reluctant to write them, he can refuse nothing 
 to my friendship, and I confide them to yours. 
 
 The History of Apheridon and Astarte 
 
 I was born among the Guebres, whose religion is per- 
 haps the oldest in the world. My misfortunes began, when, 
 at the age of six, love dawned in me before reason, and I 
 could not live without my sister. My eyes were always 
 fixed on her, and if she left me for a moment, she found 
 me, on returning, bathed in tears : each new day added 
 not more to my age than to my love. My father, astonished 
 at such strength of feeling, was quite willing that we should 
 be married, according to the ancient custom of the Guebres, 
 introduced by Cambyses;* but fear of the Mohammedans, 
 under whose yoke we lived, prevented our people from 
 thinking of those holy alliances, which our religion orders 
 rather than permits, and which are such innocent reflections 
 of a union already formed by nature. 
 
 My father, seeing how dangerous it would be to follow 
 my inclination, which was also his, determined to ex- 
 tinguish a flame, believed by him to be newly lit, but 
 which was already at its height. Under pretext of a voy- 
 age, he took me away, leaving my sister in the hands of 
 a relative ; for my mother had been dead for two years. 
 I cannot describe the misery of that separation : I embraced 
 my sister, she all bathed in tears, but I, dry-eyed ; Jfor 
 grief had made me callous. We arrived at Tiflis ; my 
 father, having intrusted my education to one of our rela- 
 tives, left me, and returned home. 
 
 *A fabulous Cambyses, father of Hystaspes, or Gustaspes, King of 
 Persia, under whom Zoroaster lived. Cambyses, under ttie name of 
 Hohoraspes, and his son are referred to further on in this letter. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 135 
 
 Some time after, I learned that, through the influence of 
 one of his friends, he had placed my sister in the harem 
 of the king to wait upon a sultana. Had I been told of 
 her death, I could not have been more overcome ; for, apart 
 from the fact that I could never hope to see her again, 
 her entrance into the harem had made her a Mohammedan, 
 and according to the superstition of that religion she could 
 only regard me with horror. Nevertheless, unable to live 
 longer at Tiflis, tired of myself and of life^ I returned to Is- 
 pahan. My first words to my father were acrimonious; I 
 reproached him with having placed his daughter in a place 
 which could not be entered without a change in religion. 
 "You have drawn upon your family," said I to him, "the 
 anger of God and of the Sun which lights you : you have 
 done more wrong than if you had polluted the elements, 
 inasmuch as you have polluted the soul of your daughter, 
 which is not less pure : I shall die of grief and of love ; 
 and may my death be the only calamity which God will 
 make you su£Eer ! " With these words I went away ; and 
 for two years I spent my life staring at the walls of 
 the harem, and wondering in which part of it my sister 
 might be, in danger every day of having my throat cut 
 by the eunuchs, who walk their rounds about that dread 
 place. 
 
 At last my father died ; and the sultana whom my sister 
 served, seeing that she grew in beauty every day, became 
 jealous, and married her to a eunuch who was passionately 
 in love with her. In this way my sister left the seraglio, 
 and occupied with her eunuch a house in Ispahan. 
 
 It was three months before I was able to get speech of 
 her, the eunuch, the most jealous of men, always putting 
 me off with various excuses. But at last I was admitted 
 to his harem, where I had to talk to my sister through a 
 lattice. She was so closely wrapped in robes and veils that 
 the eyes of a lynx could not have discovered anything, and 
 I could recognize her only by the sound of her voice. My 
 emotion was overpowering when I found myself so close to 
 her, and yet so far away. I restrained myself, however, 
 for I was watched. As for her, she seemed to shed a few 
 tears. Her husband offered some kind of halting apology ; 
 
136 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 but I treated him like the least of his slaves. He was 
 very much annoyed when he heard me speak to my sister 
 in a tongue unknown to him. It was ancient Persian I 
 used, the language of our religion. " What, my sister ! " 
 cried I, " is it true that you have renounced the worship 
 of your fathers? I know that, in entering a harem, you 
 must perforce profess Mohammedanism ; but, tell me, did 
 your heart agree with your lips in renouncing the religion 
 which permits me to love you? And for whom have 3'ou 
 renounced that religion which should be so dear to us? 
 For a wretch still branded with the marks of slavery ; 
 who, if he were a man, would be the basest of his kind." 
 "Brother," said she, "this man of whom you speak is my 
 husband ; it is my duty to honor him, all unworthy as he 
 may appear to you ; and it is I who would be the basest 
 of women, if . . ." "Ah! my sister," said I, "you are 
 a Guebre : this man is not, and can never be, your hus- 
 band. Had you kept the faith like your fathers, you would 
 regard him only as a monster." "Alas!" said she, "how 
 far removed from me that religion seems now ! I had 
 hardly learned its precepts when I was obliged to forget 
 them. You hear that this language which I speak to you 
 is no longer familiar to me, and that I have the greatest 
 difficulty in expressing myself. But remember that I 
 cherish always the exquisite memory of our childhood; 
 that since then I have known only the mockery of happi- 
 ness ; that not a day has passed in which I have not 
 thought of you ; that you have had a greater share in my 
 marriage than you imagine, for it was the hope of seeing 
 you again that won my consent to it. But this day, which 
 has cost me so much, will cost me more yet ! I see you 
 beside yourself with passion, and my husband quivers with 
 rage and jealousy. I will never see you more; I speak to 
 you without a doubt for the last time in my life; and if 
 that be so, my brother, I know it will not be a long one." 
 She melted at these words; and finding herself unable to 
 continue the conversation, she left me, the most disconso- 
 late of men. 
 
 Three or four days afterward I asked to see my sister. 
 The brutish eunuch would have been very glad to prevent 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 137 
 
 me; but, besides the fact that husbands of that kind have 
 not so much power over their wives as others, he loved my 
 sister so frantically, that he could refuse her nothing. I 
 saw her again in the same place, veiled as before, and ac- 
 companied by two slaves, and was compelled to resort to 
 our own language. "My sister," said I, "how is it that I 
 cannot see you except in these horrible circumstances ? The 
 walls which keep you imprisoned, these bolts and gratings, 
 these miserable guards who watch you, drive me mad. 
 How have you lost the sweet freedom in which your ances- 
 tors rejoiced? Your mother, who was so chaste, gave to 
 her husband, as the sole pledge of her virtue, that virtue 
 itself: they lived happy in each other, and in their mutual 
 confidence ; and the simplicity of their manners was to them 
 a thousand times more precious than the false splendor 
 which you seem to enjoy in this sumptuous house. In 
 losing your religion, you have lost your liberty, your hap- 
 piness, and that precious equality which is the lionor of 
 your^^x.- But -Ihere JjS-.5Qmething much worse behind ; and 
 that is, the thing which you are — not the wife, for that 
 you cannot be, but the slave of a slave, who has been de- 
 graded from humanity. " " Ah, my brother ! " said she, 
 " have respect for my husband, for the religion which I 
 have embraced : according to that religion, I cannot listen, 
 I cannot speak, to you without sin." "What, my sister!" 
 said I, trembling with emotion, "then you believe that re- 
 ligion, you think it true!" "Ah!" said she, "how much 
 better it would be for me if it were not true ! I have made 
 too great a sacrifice for it, not to believe in it ; and if my 
 doubts . . . " At these words she became silent. " Yes, 
 my sister, your doubts ! They are well founded, whatever 
 they may be. What can you expect from a religion which 
 makes you miserable in this world, and leaves you no hope 
 for the next? Remember that our religion is the most 
 ancient in the world ; that it has always flourished in Per- 
 sia, and that it originated with the Persian empire, the be- 
 ginnings of which are beyond human ken ; that it is only 
 chance that has introduced Mohammedanism here ; that that 
 sect has been established, not by the power of persuasion, 
 but by conquest. If our native princes had not been weak. 
 
138 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 you would have beheld the worship of those ancient Magi* 
 reigning still. Transport yourself into those remote ages : 
 everything will speak to you of Magism, and nothing of 
 the Mohammedan sect which, many thousands of years 
 after, was not even in its infancy." "But," said she, "al- 
 though my religion may be more modern than yours, it is 
 at least purer, since it adores but one God; while you 
 still worship the sun, the stars, fire, and even the ele- 
 ments. " " I perceive, my sister, that you have learned 
 among the Mussulmans to slander our holy religion. 
 We adore neither the stars nor the elements; and our 
 fathers did not adore them : they never built temples to 
 them, nor offered sacrifices in their honor : they yielded 
 only such inferior reverence as is due to the works and 
 manifestations of the Deity. But, my sister, in the name 
 of God who is our light, accept this sacred volume which 
 I have brought you : it is the book of our lawgiver, Zoroas- 
 ter : read it without prejudice, and receive into your heart 
 the light which will shine upon you : remember your 
 fathers, who for so long a time honored the sun in the 
 holy city of Balk ;t and, finally, do not forget me, whose 
 hopes of peace, of fortune, and of life, depend upon your 
 conversion." Transported by my feelings, I went away, 
 and left her to decide alone the most momentous event of 
 my life. 
 
 I returned to her in two days. I did not speak ; I waited 
 in silence the sentence of life or death. " You are loved, 
 my brother," she said, "and by a Guebre. I have resisted 
 long ; but, ye gods ! what difficulties love can overcome ! 
 A load has fallen from me ! I am no longer afraid that I 
 may love you too much ; there is no limit to my passion 
 now that excess itself is lawful. Ah ! how sweetly that 
 thought chimes with my happy heart ! But you, who have 
 found a way to break the chains which my soul had forged 
 for itself, when will you break those which fetter my hands ? 
 From this moment I give myself to you : show by the speed 
 
 *The caste of hereditary priests under the Medes and Persians. 
 Zoroaster reformed their religious doctrines and ceremonies. 
 
 fThe ancient Bactra. The Axch-mage resided there till the follow 
 ers of Zoroaster were overcome by the Caliphs. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 139 
 
 ■with which you take me how dear the gift is. My brother, 
 ■when I shall embrace you for the first time, I think I shall 
 die in your arms." I can never fully express the joy which 
 I felt at these ■words ; I believed myself, and actually saw 
 myself, in one instant, the happiest of men : I beheld almost 
 fulfilled all the desires which I had formed in my twenty- 
 five years of life, and the disappearance of all the misery 
 which had made it so hard. But, when I had grown some- 
 what accustomed to these delightful thoughts, I perceived 
 that I was not so near my happiness , as I had on the firs 
 blush imagined, although I had overcome the chief obstacle 
 in my path. It would be necessary to evade the watchful- 
 ness of her guards ; I dared not confide to any one the 
 secret of my life ; I had only my sister, and she had only 
 me : if my attempt failed, I ran the risk of being impaled ; 
 but no torture seemed so cruel as to be without her. We 
 arranged that she should send to me for a timepiece which 
 her father had left her ; and that I should put inside it a 
 file, to cut the lattice of the window which opened on the 
 street, and a knotted rope by which to descend ; that there- 
 after I should cease to visit her, but should wait every 
 night under her window until she could execute her design. 
 I passed fifteen entire nights without seeing any one, be- 
 cause she had not found a favorable opportunity. At 
 length, on the sixteenth, I heard the rasping of the file : 
 from time to time the work was interrupted, and in the in- 
 tervals my dread was inexpressible. After an hour's labor, 
 I saw her fasten the rope ; she let herself go, and slid into 
 my arms. All danger was forgotten, and for a long time 
 we stood there motionless. Then I led her out of the city 
 to a spot where I had a horse all ready : I lifted her to the 
 croup behind me, and fled with all imaginable speed from a 
 neighborhood which might have been so disastrous to us. 
 We arrived before morning at the house of a Guebre, in a 
 lonely place to whjch he had retired, living frugally on the 
 produce of his own labor. We did not think it wise to 
 stay with him, and by his advice we entered a dense for- 
 est, where we lodged in the hollow of an old oak, until 
 the rumor of our flight had died away. We lived together 
 in this out-of-the-way abode, unseen of any, telling our love 
 
I40 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 over and over again to each other, and waiting until the 
 ceremony of marriage, prescribed by our religion, could be 
 performed by a Guebre priest. * My sister," said I, "how 
 holy is that union ! Nature has joined us, and our holy 
 law will join us in another bond." At last a priest came 
 to quiet the impatience of our love. In the house of the 
 peasant he performed all the ceremonies of marriage ; he 
 blessed us, and wished us a thousand times the vigor of 
 Gustaspes, and the holiness of Hohoraspes. Soon after we 
 left Persia, where we were not safe, and retired into 
 Georgia. We lived there a year, and every day increased 
 the pleasure we found in each other's company. But when 
 my money was nearly done, fearing misery for my sister, 
 not for myself, I left her to seek help from our relatives. 
 Never was a parting more tender. My journey, however, 
 was not only useless, but disastrous. For, having found 
 all our goods confiscated, and my relatives almost powerless 
 to aid me, I brought away with me no more money than 
 sufficed for my return. But, imagine my despair ! My 
 sister was not to be found. Some days before my arrival 
 the Tartars had invaded the city where she was, and find- 
 ing her beautiful, had seized her, and sold her to some 
 Jews who were bound for Turkey, leaving me only a little 
 daughter bom some months before. I followed these Jews, 
 and overtook them three leagues off. In vain I besought 
 them with tears, they persisted in demanding thirty tomans, * 
 and would not bate a single coin. 
 
 Having gone to everybody, and having begged the aid of 
 both the Christian and the Turkish priests, I applied to an 
 Armenian merchant : to him I sold my daughter and myself 
 for thirty-five tomans. I went to the Jews, gave them their 
 thirty tomans, and carried the other five to my sister, whom 
 I Jiad not yet seen. "You are free," said I, "my sister, 
 and I can embrace you. Here are five tomans I have 
 brought ; I am sorry they would not buy me for more. " 
 "What!" cried she, "you have sold yourself ?" "Yes," re- 
 plied I. " Ah ! wretched man, what have you done ? Was 
 I not miserable enough, that you should make me more so? 
 Your freedom was my comfort ; your bondage will bring me 
 
 *A toman is equal to a little more than eighteen shillings. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 141 
 
 to the grave. Ah ! my brother, how cruel your love is ! 
 and my daughter ? I do not see her ! " "I have sold her 
 too," said I. We both burst into tears, and were unable 
 to utter a single word. At last I had to return to my mas- 
 ter. My sister was with him almost as soon as I. She threw her- 
 self at his feet saying, "I beg from you slavery as others 
 ask for freedom : take me, you can sell me for a greater 
 sum than my husband." Then there took place a struggle 
 which drew tears from my master's eyes. "Unhappy man ! * 
 said she, " did you think that I would accept my liberty at 
 the cost of yours? Master, you behold two unfortunates 
 who will die if you separate them. I give myself to you ; 
 pay me : perhaps that money and my services will some 
 day obtain from you what I dare not now ask. It is for your 
 own interest not to separate us : his life depends on me. * 
 The Armenian, a humane man, was touched by our woes : 
 " Serve me, both of you, with fidelity and zeal, and I promise 
 you that in a year I will give you your freedom. I see 
 that neither of you deserve the wretchedness of your lot. 
 If, when you become free, your happiness is as great as 
 your merit, and fortune smiles upon you, I am certain that 
 you will repay me that which I shall lose." We both em- 
 braced his knees, and attended him on his journey. We 
 comforted each other in our servile tasks ; and I was de- 
 lighted when I could do the work which fell to my sister's 
 share. 
 
 The end of the year arrived ; our master kept his word 
 and set us free. We returned to Tiflis. There I found 
 an old friend of my father's, who practiced successfully as 
 a physician in that city. He lent me some money with 
 which I traded. Some business called me shortly after to 
 Smjrrna, where I established myself. I have lived there for 
 six years in the enjoyment of the most amiable and agree- 
 able society in the world. Unity reigns in my family, and 
 I would not change my lot for that of all the kings of the 
 earth. I have been fortunate enough to meet again the Arme- 
 nian merchant, to whom I owe all ; and I have been able to 
 render him some important services. 
 
 Smyrna, the 27th of the second moon 
 of Genunadi, 1714. 
 
142 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 IvETTER I.XVIII \.^-^'' 
 
 Rica to Usbbk, at * * * 
 
 THE other day I dined at the house of a magistrate, who 
 had often invited me. After we had talked of a va- 
 riety of things, I said to him, " Sir, it appears to me 
 that your profession is very laborious." "Not so much as 
 you imagine, " he rejoined ; " as we prosecute it, it is only 
 an amusement. " " But how ! is your head not always full 
 of other people's business? are you not always occupied 
 with matters that do not interest you ? " " You are right ; 
 these matters do not interest us, because we take not the 
 least interest in them; and that is how our profession is 
 not so fatiguing as you supposed." When I saw that he 
 took the matter so carelessly, I continued, and said, "Sir, 
 
 I have not jeen your study." " I Jaelieye. you ; for I_Jiave 
 
 none. .,.„Wbea I took, this post,_ lacking the money to pay 
 for it, I sold myjjbrary. The bookseller who bought it, 
 'out of a vast number of volumes, left me only my account 
 book. Nor do I regret them : we judges have no need to 
 stuff our heads with useless knowledge. " "What have we to 
 do with all these legal volumes? Almost all the cases are 
 questions of fact, and outside the general rule. " " But, sir, 
 may it not be because you make them so? For, in short, 
 why should all the peoples of the world have laws, if these 
 laws are not to be applied? And how can one who does 
 not know them, apply them?" «If you were acquainted 
 with the courts of justice," replied the magistrate, "you 
 would not speak as you do. We have living books, the 
 advocates : they work for us, and take upon themselves the 
 task of instructing us." ^"And do they not also sometimes 
 take upon themselves the task of deceiving you?" I re- 
 torted. * It would not be a bad thing to guard yourself 
 against their wiles. They have weapons with which to at- 
 tack your justice : it would be well if you were in a con- 
 dition to defend it: you ought not to rush into the midst 
 of the fight, thinly clad, among people armed to the teeth." 
 
 Paris, the 13th of the moon of 
 Chahbau, 17 14. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 143 
 
 IvETTER LXIX 
 
 USBBK TO RhBDI, at VENICB 
 
 YOU would never have dreamed that I could become a 
 greater metaphysician than I was. Such is the case, 
 however ; and you will be convinced of it, when you 
 have waded through this flood of my philosophy. 
 
 The most sensible of those philosophers, who have con- 
 sidered the nature of God, have declared that He is a being 
 supremely perfect ; but they have sadly abused this idea. 
 They have tabulated all the various perfections which man 
 is capable of possessing and of imagining, and with these 
 they have clad the idea of God, not thinking that these at- 
 tributes are often contradictory, and, being mutually de- 
 structive, cannot subsist in the same individual. 
 
 The western poets tell how a painter,* wishing to make 
 a likeness of the goddess of beauty, gathered together the 
 most beautiful Greek women, and, having taken from each 
 that grace in which she most excelled, combined their se- 
 lected charms into a picture of the loveliest of the god- 
 desses. , If, on that account, a man should think that she 
 was both fair and dark, that her eyes were black and blue, 
 and that she was, at one and the same time, sweet tempered 
 and haughty, he would pass for a fool. 
 
 God often falls short of a perfection which would make 
 Him very imperfect: but_He _is_never_Jimited^ except by 
 Himself; He is His own law. Thus,^lthough Godjs all-; 
 powerful, He can"neither _break_His promises, nor _deceive | 
 men.. Often too. His impotence is not subjective, but ob-l 
 jective; and that is the reason.why, HejsaJW«3t~chaage„ the, 
 nature of tyngs»„. 
 
 So, also, it i^ not so very wonderful that some of our 
 learned men should have denied the infinite foreknowledge 
 of God, upon the principle that it is incompatible with H is 
 justice. 
 
 However bold this idea may be, it is countenanced re- 
 markably by metaphysics. According to metaphysical 
 
 *Zeuxis, -when he painted Helen for the Agrigentines. 
 
144 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 principles, it is impossible that God should foresee such 
 things as depend upon the determination of free causes; 
 because that which has not happened does not exist, and 
 consequently, cannot be known ; for nothing, having no 
 properties, cannot be perceived : God cannot read a will 
 which does not exist, nor discern in the mind what it does 
 not contain, for, until the mind is made up, the thing 
 determined on is not in .it. 
 
 The mind is the author of its determination ; but there 
 are occasions when it is so irresolute, that it does not even 
 know for which side to determine. Often indeed it makes 
 / a s electio n onl y to ti sg.j|gjjliert|^ jn, sucb--a- maHner^that-- 
 God cannot foresee its jchojcgj^ neither in,jt^osHa_a,ctiQn, 
 noFln the operation of objects upon it. 
 
 How could God^foresee things which depend jupon the 
 deternainaHon of free causes? He could only see them in 
 , twd'ways : by conjecture, which is incompatible with His 
 infinite foreknowledge ; or He could see them as necessary 
 effects proceeding infallibly from a cause which produces 
 them. as infallibly — a method even more at variance with 
 divine foreknowledge, for it supposes that the mind is free, 
 with a freectom, however, no^j^eater than that of a billiard 
 ball, which is at -liberty tcr* move when it is^struclT^by 
 another. 
 
 Do not think, however, that I wish to limit God's knowl- 
 edge. Since He directs the actions of His creatures accord- 
 ing to His pleasure, He knows all that He wishes to know. 
 But although He can see everything, H g does not always 
 make use of that power : He generally leaves man the 
 power lo do ai' thing or to leaje. it alone, in order that he 
 may be able to choose between right and wrong ; and"this 
 is wfiy^God renounces, the absolute authority ,wiiich_He_haa__. 
 o^r the ffljnd, But, when He desires to know anything, 
 He always knows it, because He has only to will that a 
 thing shall happen as He sees it, and to make His crea- 
 tures conform to His will. It is thus that He selects what 
 shall happen from the number of mere possibilities, fixing 
 by His decrees the future determinations of men's "minds, 
 and depriving them of the power which He gave them to 
 do or not to do. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 145 
 
 Let me employ a comparison in a matter which tran- 
 scends all comparisons: — A monarch, ignorant of what his 
 ambassador will do in an important affair, if he wishes to 
 know, has only to command him to conduct the negotiation 
 in such or such a manner, and he will be certain that the 
 thing will happen as he planned it. 
 
 The Koran and the Hebrew books are constant witnesses 
 against the dogma of absolute foreknowledge : God appears 
 throughout these writings as ignorant of the future deter- 
 minations of men's minds : and it seems that this was the 
 first truth that Moses taught mankind. 
 
 God placed Adam in the terrestrial paradise, on condition 
 that he should not eat of a certain fruit: an absurd com- 
 mand to be given by a being acquainted with the future/ 
 determination's of men's minds ; for, in short, could such a 
 being make His favor depend on such conditions, without! 
 rendering it ridiculous? It is as if a man who was aware 
 of the capture of Bagdad should say to another, " I will 
 give you a hundred tomans if Bagdad is not taken."* 
 Would that not be a very sorry jest? 
 
 My dear Rhedi, why all this philosophy? God is so far 
 above us~tttatjjvre_ cannot^ perceive even His clouds. We 
 have no knowledge of Him except in His "commandments. 
 He is a spirit, immense and infinite. May his greatness 
 make^'^cbnscidus of our own weakness. To humble our- 
 selves continually, is to adore Him continually. 
 
 Paris, the last day of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1714. 
 
 IvETTER LXX 
 Zei-is to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 SOLiMAN, whom you love, has been driven desperate by 
 an affront which he has just received. Three months 
 ago a young giddypate, named Suphis, sought his daugh- 
 ter in marriage ; he seemed satisfied with the girl's appear- 
 ance from the report and description given him by the 
 •This paragraph appeared first in the edition of 1754. 
 
146 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 women who had been with her during her childhood ; the 
 dowry had been agreed upon, and all was going well. 
 Yesterday, after the first ceremonies, the girl set out on 
 horseback, accompanied by her eunuch, and veiled, accord- 
 ing to custom, from head to foot. But when she arrived 
 at the house of her intended husband, he caused the door 
 to be shut in her face, and swore that he would never re- 
 ceive her unless her dowry were increased. Her relatives 
 hastened from all quarters to arrange the matter ; and 
 after a deal of resistance, Soliman agreed to make a small 
 present to his son-in-law. The marriage ceremonies were 
 completed, and the girl conducted to her husband's bed 
 with sufficient violence ; but, an hour after, this giddypate 
 rose in a rage, cut her face in several places, and, declar- 
 ing that she was not a virgin, sent her back to her father. 
 No one could be more afflicted than he is by this injury. 
 Many people maintain that the girl is innocent. Fathers 
 are most unfortunate in being exposed to such affronts. If 
 my daughter were to receive similar treatment, I believe I 
 should die of grief. Farewell. 
 
 Thb Seraglio at Fatme, the 9th of the first 
 moon of Gemmadi, 1714. 
 
 IvBTTER I.XXI 
 
 USBEK TO ZELIS 
 
 I AM sorry for Soliman, especially as his misfortune is 
 without remedy, since his son-in-law has done no more 
 than the law allows him. I think it a very harsh 
 law, which exposes in this way the honor of a family to 
 the caprice of a fool. It has been lightly said that there 
 are sure signs whereby to know the truth : it is an old 
 error from which we have now departed; and our physi- 
 cians have supplied invincible reasons for the uncertainty 
 of these proofs. Even among the Christians there are none 
 who do not regard them as imaginary, although they are 
 plainly established in their sacred writings, and although 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 147 
 
 their ancient lawgiver* has made the innocence or condem- 
 nation of all their daughters depend upon them. 
 
 I am pleased to know that you are giving great care to 
 the education of yours. God grant that her husband may 
 find her as lovely and as pure as Fatima ; f may she have 
 ten eunuchs to guard her ; may she be the honor and the 
 ornament of the seraglio to which she is destined ; may she 
 have overhead none but gilded ceilings, and under foot only 
 the richest carpets ! And, to crown these wishes, may my 
 eyes see her in all her glory ! 
 
 Paris, the 3d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1714. 
 
 IvETTER lyXXII 
 Rica to Ibbbn, at * * * 
 
 I FOUND myself recently in a company where I met a man 
 very well satisfied with himself. In a quarter of an hour, 
 he decided three questions in morals, four historical 
 problems, and five points in physics. I have never seen so 
 universal a decider ; J his mind was not once troubled with 
 the least doubt. We left science and talked of the current 
 news : he decided upon the current news. I wished to 
 catch him, so I said to myself, " I must get to my strong 
 point ; I will betake me to my own country." I spoke to 
 him of Persia; but hardly had I opened my mouth, when 
 he contradicted me twice, basing his objections upon the 
 authority of Tavernier and Chardin. § " Ah ! good 
 heavens!" said I to myself, "what kind of man is this? 
 He will know next all the streets in Ispahan better than I 
 do ! " I soon knew what part to play — to be silent, and 
 let him talk ; and he is still laying down the law. 
 
 Paris, the 8th of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1715. 
 
 * Moses. — Deuteronomy, ch. xxii., v. 13-21. 
 
 tSee Letter I, note, p. 31. 
 
 X Decisionnaire in the original, a word invented by Montesqiiien to 
 describe a man who lays down the law upon everything. 
 
 § Tavernier (1605-89) and Chardin (1643-1713), the Persian travelers 
 from whose books Montesquieu derived his knowledge of Persia. 
 
148 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 IvETTER IvXXIII 
 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 Ihavb; heard much talk of a sort of court called the 
 French Academy. There is no tribunal in the world 
 which is less respected'; for they say that no sooner 
 does it issue a decree than the people break it, and substi- 
 tute laws which the Academy is bound to follow. 
 
 Some time ago, in order to establish its authority, it 
 issued a code of its decisions.* This child of so many 
 fathers may be said to have been old when It was bom ; 
 and although it was legitimate, a bastard, f bom before it, 
 nearly strangled it at its birth. 
 
 Those who compose this court have no other function 
 than to jabber perpetually : eulogy suggests itself as the 
 one subject of their incessant babble ; and as soon as they 
 are initiated into its mysteries, a frenzy of panegyric lays 
 hold of them, and will not be shaken off. 
 
 This body has forty heads, all of them chokeful of tropes, 
 of metaphors, and of antitheses ; so that their lips scarcely 
 ever open without an exclamation, and their ears are always 
 waiting to be touched with rhythm and harmony. As for 
 their eyes, they are out of the question ; the Academy seems 
 to be intended to talk and not to see. It is not firm on 
 its legs ; for time, which is its scourge, smites it inces- 
 santly and destroys all it does. It is said that at one time 
 its hands were grasping ; I have nothing to say on the sub- 
 ject, and will leave those to decide it who know more about 
 it than I do. 
 
 Such eccentricities . . . are unknown in our Persia. 
 We have no bent toward what is odd and extravagant; 
 we endeavor to shape our simple customs and artless manners 
 in the_siold of nature. 
 
 Paris, the 27111 of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1715. 
 
 *The dictionary of the Academy. 
 
 tThe dictionary of PuretiSre. The author was expelled from the 
 Academy in 1685, because he was accused of having profited by the 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 149 
 
 I^ETTER LXXIV 
 USBEK TO Rica, at * * * 
 
 SOMB days ago a man of my acquaintance said to me, 
 " I promised to introduce you to the best houses in 
 Paris. I will take you now to that of a great lord 
 who supports his rank as well as any man in France." 
 
 '* What do you mean by that, sir ? Is he more refined, 
 more polite than others?" *No," said he. "Ah! I under- 
 stand : he makes his superiority felt on all occasions by 
 those who approach him. If that is it, I shall have noth- 
 ing to do with him ; I give up the whole case, and accept 
 my inferiority." 
 
 I had, however, to go ; and I saw a little man, supercil- 
 ious to a degree. He took a pinch of snuff with such a 
 haughty air, he blew his nose so mercilessly, he spat with 
 such indifference, and caressed his dogs in a style so offen- 
 sive to the onlookers, that I could not but marvel at him. 
 " Ah ! sweet Heaven ! " said I to myself ; " if, when I was 
 at the court of Persia, I behaved in this way, I behaved 
 like a great fool ! " We would have been very inferior 
 creatures, Rica, had we offered a hundred little insults to 
 those people who waited upon us daily in token of their 
 goodwill. They knew well that we were above them ; and 
 if they had not, our favors would have made them daily 
 conscious of it. There being no need to secure their re- 
 spect, we did our utmost to win their affection : we were 
 accessible to the humblest ; in the midst of our greatness, 
 usually so hardening, they found we had feelings ; only our 
 hearts appeared to belong to a higher order ; we descended 
 to their wants. But, when it was necessary to support the 
 dignity of our sovereign in public ceremonies, to make 
 the nation worthy of respect in the eyes of strangers ; and, 
 lastly, when in times of danger, we required to animate our 
 soldiers, our bearing became more lofty a hundred times 
 
 work of his fellow-Academicians in the composition of the dictionary 
 which bears his name. 
 
I50 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 than it had been before lowly; we resumed our haughty 
 looks ; and not seldom we were found to play our part at 
 least adequately. 
 
 Paris, the loth of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
 LETTER I<XXV 
 UsBEK TO Rhedi, at Venice 
 
 I MUST confess that I have not noticed in the Christians 
 that lively faith in their religion which prevails among 
 Mussulmans. With them there is a vast difference be- 
 tween profession and belief, between belief and conviction, 
 between conviction and practice. ReUgjati _is„.no£_.sp jnuch 
 a matter of holiness as it is the subject of a debate, in 
 which ever3'body has a right to join. Courtiers, warriors, 
 women even, array themselves, against the ecclesiastics, and 
 insist upon their proving what they have made up their 
 minds not to believe. Not that, willing to be guided by 
 reason, they have taken the trouble to examine the falseness 
 ofTJiatrettgioh which they reject : they are rebels who have 
 felt tbe yoke, and have shaken it off before knowing what 
 it is. Nor are they any securer in their incredulity than in 
 their faith : their life is a constant ebb and flow between 
 belief and unbelief.* One of them said to me once, " I be- 
 lieve in the immortality of the soul for six months at a 
 time; my opinions depend entirely upon my bodily condi- 
 tion : I am a Spinozist, a Socinian, a Catholic, ungodly or 
 devout, according to the state of my animal spirits, the 
 quality of my digestion, the rarity or heaviness of the air 
 I breathe, the lightness or solidity of the food I eat. 
 When the doctor is at my bedside, the confessor has me at 
 a disadvantage. I know very well how to prevent religion 
 from annoying me when I am in good health ; but I allow 
 
 *A11 we have gained then by our unbelief 
 Is a life of doubt diversified by faith. 
 For one of faith diversified by doubt : 
 We called the chessboard white, — we caU it black. 
 
 — Browniko. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 151 
 
 myself to be consoled by it when I am ill : when I have 
 nothing more to hope for here below, religion offers itself, 
 and gains me by its promises ; I am glad to give myself up 
 to it, and to die with hope on my side." 
 
 A long time ago the Christian princes enfranchised all 
 the slaves in their dominions; because, said they, Christian- 
 ity makes all men equal. It is true that this religious 
 action was of great service to them, for by its means they 
 diminished the power which the great lords exercised over 
 the lower classes. Afterward, having made conquests in 
 countries where they found it to their advantage to keep 
 slaves,* they permitted them to be bought and sold, for- 
 getting that religious principle which had moved them so 
 strongly. What can one say ? Truth at one time, error at 
 another. Why should we not do like the Christians? We 
 were very simple minded to reject settlement and easy con- 
 quests in pleasant climates, f because we could not find 
 water pure enough to wash us according to the principles 
 of our holy Koran. I give thanks to Almighty God, who 
 sent His great prophet Hali, whence it is that I profess a 
 religion which requires to be preferred before all human 
 interests, and which is as pure as the sky from which it 
 came. 
 
 Paris, the 13th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
 I.ETTER I.XXVI 
 
 USBEK TO HIS FRIEND IbBEN, AT SMYRNA 
 
 EUROPEAN law is dead against suicide. Those who kill 
 themselves suffer, as it were, a second death : they 
 are dragged with ignominy through the streets: their 
 infamy is published, and their goods confiscated. 
 
 It seems to me, Ibben, that this law is very unjust. 
 When I am loaded with grief, misery, and contumely, 
 
 *The French colonies. 
 
 t The Mohammedans had no wish to take Venice because they 
 could not obtain water there suitable for their purifications. — (M.) 
 
152 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 why should I be hindered from putting an end to my suf- 
 ferings, and cruelly deprived of a remedy which is in my 
 hands ? 
 ' Why should I be forced to labor for a society to which 
 I refuse to belong? why in spite of myself, should I be 
 held to an agreement made without my consent? Society 
 / 'i^^unded upon mutual advantage ; but,„ when, it becomes 
 ( burdensome to me, what hinders me^ from leaving it ? lyife 
 was given me as a blessing ; when it ceases to be so I can 
 give it up : the cause ceasing, the effect ought also to 
 cease. 
 
 Will any prince require me to be his subject, if I reap 
 none of the benefits of subjection? Can my fellow-citizens 
 ifequire our lotstobe_so_unegj^j lh£irs,Jisefu]ngs§ — mine, 
 dlSpSir { W ilr GrodTunlike other benefactors, condemn me 
 to receive favors which are a burden to me? 
 
 I am obliged to obey the laws while I live under them ; 
 but, if I cease to live, can they still bind me? 
 
 "But," some one may say, ''you disturb the order of 
 Providence. God has joined your soul to your body; in 
 separating them, you oppose His designs and resist His 
 will." 
 
 What force is there in this argument? Do I disturb the 
 order of Providence, when I alter the qualities of matter, 
 and square a ball which the first laws of motion, that is to 
 say the laws of creation and preservation, made round? 
 Certainly not- I only exercise a right which has.,been given 
 Ane ; and, in that sense, I can disturb, as my fancy dic- 
 Jtates, the whole order of Nature, without any one being 
 able to say that I oppose Providence. ""^ 
 
 When my soul shall be separated from my body, will 
 
 there be less order, less harmony, in the universe? Do 
 
 you think that that new combination will be less perfect, 
 
 •and less dependent upon general laws; that the world 
 
 ' would lose anything by it ; that the works of God would 
 
 be less great, or rather less immense? 
 
 Do you think that my body, become a blade of grass, a 
 worm, a grass-green turf, will be changed into a work of 
 nature less worthy of her ; and that my soul, freed from 
 all its earthly trammels, will become less sublime? 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 153 
 
 All these ideas, my dear Ibben, have their only source 
 in our pride. We d o not feel our li tjleness; and, how-, 
 ever small we may be, we wish to count for something in 
 the universe, to cut a figure there, and to be of some con- 
 sequence in it. WgJjB^ne that t he annihil ation of such 
 a perfect being would degrade all nature: and we cannot 
 conceive that one~man"more~or~ less in the world — what! 
 do I say? — that the whole world, that a hundred millions! 
 of worlds* like ours, can be more than one small frail! 
 atom, which God perceives only because His knowledge is j 
 all-embracing. ' 
 
 Paris, the 15th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
 LETTER LXXVIIf 
 Ibbbn to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 MY DSAR Usbh;k, it seems to me that, in the eyes of a 
 true Mussulman, misfortunes are not so much pun- 
 ishments as warnings. Those are priceless days 
 upon which we are led to atone for our offenses. It is 
 the time of prosperity that ought to be curtailed. To 
 what end is all our impatience, but to show us that we 
 are seeking happiness, independently of Him who gives it, 
 because He is happiness itself? 
 
 If a human creature is composed of two beings, and if 
 the acknowledgment of the necessity of preserving their 
 union is the chief mark of submission to the decrees of 
 our Creator, that necessity should be made a religious law; 
 and if the ^enforced preservation of this union will make 
 menmoreregEonsiyie' for .their, actions, it should be made a 
 civil law. 
 
 V 
 
 Smyrna, the last day of the moou of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
 *Cent millions de tHes in some editions. Terres seems preferable, 
 however, as it is an anticlimax to proceed from all men to a hundred 
 millions. 
 
 + This letter was inserted in the edition of 1754 as a foil to that 
 which precedes it. 
 
154 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER IvXXVIII 
 Rica to Usbbk, at * * * 
 
 ISBND you a copy of a letter, written by a Frenchman 
 who is in Spain : I believe that you will be glad to 
 see it. 
 
 I have traveled for six months in Spain and Portugal, 
 where I lived among people despising all nations except 
 the French, whom they honor with their hate. Gravity is 
 the distinctive characteristic of both nations : it has two 
 chief methods of manifestation — spectacles and moustaches. 
 
 Spectacles demonstrate clearly that the wearer of them is 
 an accomplished man of science, who has injured his sight 
 by the extent and profundity of his reading ; and every 
 nose which they adorn or burden, may pass, without con- 
 tradiction, for the nose of a savant.* 
 
 As regards the moustache, in itself it is respectable, in- 
 dependently of results ; although sometimes it has been of 
 great use in the service of the king, and in the mainte- 
 nance of national honor, as appears from the case of a 
 famous Portuguese general in the Indies, f for, being in 
 want of money, he cut ofE one of his moustaches, and 
 offered it to the inhabitants of Goa as a pledge for the 
 loan of twenty thousand pistoles, and the money was ad- 
 vanced at once ; afterward he redeemed his moustache 
 with honor. 
 
 One can easily understand how such a grave and phleg- 
 matic people might very well be haughty ; and so they 
 are. They usually base their pride upon two matters of 
 sufficient importance. Of those who live in Spain and Por- 
 tugal, the most uplifted are such as are called old Chris- 
 tians ; that is to say, such as are not descended from the 
 converts to Christianity made by the Inquisition in later 
 times. Those who dwell in the Indies are not less elated 
 
 •Madame d'Aulnoy has a similar eulogy of spectacles in her 
 Voyage d'Espagne. 
 
 f Jean de Castro. — (M.) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 15 
 
 by the consideration that they have the sublime merit t 
 be, as they say, white-skinned men. There was never ii 
 the seragho of the Grand Seigneur, a sultana so proud o 
 her beauty, as the oldest and ugliest rascal among them i 
 of his complexion of pale olive, when in a Mexican towi 
 he sits at his own door with his arms folded. A man o 
 such importance, a creature so perfect, would not work fo 
 all the wealth of the world ; and could never persuad 
 himself to compromise the honor and the dignity of hi 
 color by vile mechanic industry. 
 
 For you must know, that, when a man possesses som 
 special merit in Spain, as, for example, when he can ad( 
 to the qualities which I have already described, that 
 owning a long sword, or that of having learned from hi 
 father to strum a jangling guitar, he works no more : hi 
 honor is concerned in the repose of his limbs. He wh 
 remains seated ten hours a day obtains exactly double th 
 respect paid to one who rests only five, because nobility i 
 acqui red by sitti ng^still. 
 
 But, although these invincible foes of work make a grea 
 show of philosophic calm, they have nothing of the sort i; 
 their hearts ; for they are always in love. In dying 
 languor under their mistress's windows they have no 
 their match in the world ; no Spaniard is esteemed gallan 
 who is without a cold. 
 
 They are, firstly, bigots — secondly, jealous. They ar 
 particularly careful not to expose their wives to the at 
 tempts of a soldier riddled with wounds, or of som 
 decrepit magistrate ; but they will shut them up with ; 
 fervent novice who casts down his eyes, or a robust Fran 
 ciscan with a bold glance. 
 
 They allow their wives to appear with uncovered bosoms 
 but they would not have any one see their heels, les 
 hearts should be ensnared by a glimpse of their feet.- 
 They say all the world over that love is cruelly rigorous 
 in Spain it is especially so. The women cure love, bu 
 only with the substitution of other suffering : there of tei 
 
 *The exhibition of the foot, according to Madame D'Aulnoy' 
 Voyage d'Espagne, was regarded in Spain as being «/a detniir 
 javeur.'" 
 
156 'MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 remains a long and disagreeable memorial of an extinguished 
 passion. 
 
 They have certain little courtesies which in France would 
 appear out of place ; for example, an officer never strikes a 
 soldier without asking his permission ; and the Inquisition 
 always apologizes to a Jew before burning him. 
 
 Spaniards who are not burned seem so fond of the In- 
 quisition, that it would be ill natured to deprive them of 
 it. Indeed, I should like to see another established ; not 
 for heretics, but for heresiarchs who ascribe to paltry 
 monkish practices the same efficacy as to the seven sacra- 
 ments ; v/ho worship what they should only respect ; and 
 who are so devout that they are hardly Christians. 
 
 Wit and common sense are to be found among the 
 Spaniards ; but let no one seek for them in their books. 
 Glance at one of their libraries, with romances on the one 
 side, and the schoolmen on the other ; and you would say 
 that the arrangement had been made, and the whole col- 
 lected by some^^crgLiQe^pf human^reason. 
 '' Their only good book* is one which was written to ex- 
 V^pose the absurdity of all the others. 
 
 They have made immense discoveries in the New World, 
 and yet they do not know throughly their own country : 
 there are upon their rivers an undiscovered bridge or two, 
 and among their mountains races unknown to them.f 
 
 They say that the sun rises and sets within their domin- 
 ions ; but it must also be said that in making his journey 
 he encounters only ruined fields and desolate countries. 
 
 It would not grieve me, Usbek, to see a letter written to 
 Madrid, by a Spaniard who was traveling in France ; I 
 think he would have little difficulty in avenging his nation. 
 What a grand opportunity for an even-tempered, thought- 
 ful man ! I imagine he would begin his description of 
 Paris in this way: 
 
 There is a house here in which they place mad people : 
 one would at first expect it to be the largest in the city ; 
 
 * « Don Quixote." 
 
 fThe Batuecas. — (M.) This is an invention of some wag whom 
 Montesquieu seems to have taken seriously. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 157 
 
 but no, the remedy is much too insignificant for the disease. 
 Without doubt, the French, being held in very sHght esteem 
 by their neighbors, shut up some madmen in this house, to 
 create the impression that those who are at large are sane. 
 There I leave my Spaniard. Farewell, my dear Usbek. 
 
 Paris, the 17th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
 I,ETTER LXXIX 
 
 USBBK TO RhEDI, at VENICE 
 
 MO ST legislators have been men of inferior capacity 
 whom chance exalted over their fellows, and who 
 took counsel almostjsxclusively of their own preju- 
 dices^and^ jyhims. 
 
 It would seem that they had not even a sense of the 
 greatness and dignity of their work: they amused them- 
 selves by framing childish institutions, well devised indeed 
 to please small minds, but discrediting their authors with 
 people of sense. 
 
 They flung themselves into useless details ; and gave their 
 attention to individual interests : the sign of a narrow gen- 
 ius, which grasps things jgiecemeal and cannot .take, a gen- 
 eral_ view. 
 
 Some of them have been so affected as to employ an- 
 other language than the vernacular — a ridiculous thing in 
 a framer of laws ; for how can they be obeyed if they are 
 not known? 
 
 They have often abolished needlessly those which were 
 already established- — that is to say, they have .plimged 
 nations into the confusion which always accompanies 
 change. 
 
 It is true that, by reason of some extravagance spring- 
 ing rather from the nature .than,, fmm_ the mind of man, it 
 is sometimes necessary to change certain . laws. But the 
 case is rare ; and when it happens it requires the most 
 delicate^ handling ; much solemnity ought to be observed, 
 
iS8 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 and endless precautions taken, in order to lead the people 
 to the natural conclusion that the laws are most sacred, 
 since so many formalities are necessary to their abroga- 
 tion. 
 
 Often they have made them too subtle, foU owin g^ logical 
 instead of natural equity. As a consequence such laws 
 have been found too severe ; and a spirit of justice re- 
 ^quired that they should be set aside ; but the cure was as 
 bad as the disease. Whatevey the la w p may^ J n fy ^^jJx sSiimce' 
 to them is necessary -^ they are to be regarded as the pub- 
 li c consc ience, with whic h all privatejconsciences ..ought to 
 be in conformity. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted that some legislators in 
 their attention to one matter have shown sufficient wisdom ; 
 and that is, in givi ng^~i athers so much power over ^ their 
 children : nothing is a better lightener of the magistrate's 
 labors, 'nothing tends more to keep the courts of justice 
 empty, in short, nothing is more conducive to tranquillity 
 in a state, fo r nJorality alway s^jnajbes— better-wcitizeas than 
 iaw^. 
 
 Of all powers it is that which is least abused ; it is the 
 most sacred of all magistracies — the_oji^_one which does 
 not spring from a contract, which, i ndeed, ptecedes. all 
 contracts. 
 
 It has been noticed that families are . best ruled in those 
 countries where there is a large paternal discretion in mat- 
 ters of reward and punishment ; fathers represent the Cre- 
 ator of the universe, who, although able to lead men by 
 His love, does not refrain from binding them to Himself 
 still more closely by motives of hope and fear. 
 
 I cannot finish this letter without pointing out the ca- 
 pricious turn of mind of the French. It is said that they 
 have retained many things in the Roman laws which are 
 useless, and even worse than useless ; from them, however, 
 they have not derived the paternal power, which they have 
 established as a source of all lawful authority. 
 
 Paris, the i8tli of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1715. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 159 
 
 LETTER LXXX 
 Ths chief black Eunuch to Usbbk, at Paris 
 
 YESTERDAY, some Armenians brought to the seraglio 
 a young Circassian slave whom they wished to sell. 
 I made her enter the secret apartments; I undressed 
 her, I examined her with the eyes of a judge ; and the 
 more I examined, the more beauties I found. A virginal 
 shame seemed anxious to hide them from my view : I saw 
 how much it cost her to obey : she blushed upon beholding 
 herself naked, even before me, exempt, as I am, from the 
 passions, which can alarm decency, and entirely delivered 
 from the dominion of the sex — the servant of modesty in 
 the freest actions, looking only with the chastest glance, 
 and capable of inspiring nothing but innocence. 
 
 From the moment I judged her worthy of you, I cast 
 down my eyes, and threw over her a scarlet cloak ; I placed 
 a ring of gold upon her finger, I prostrated myself at her 
 feet, I adored her as the queen of your heart. I paid the 
 Armenians, and hid her from every eye. Happy Usbek ! 
 you possess more beauties than all the palaces of the east 
 enclose. What a pleasure to find on your return whatever 
 Persia has that is most ravishing, and to see in your se- 
 raglio all the graces reborn as fast as time and possession 
 work their destruction I 
 
 Thb SERAGWO at FaTmE, the ist of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1715. 
 
 IvETTER I<XXXI* 
 Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice 
 
 SINCE I have been in Europe, my dear Rhedi, I have 
 seen many forms of government. It is not here as in 
 Asia, where the rules of policy are everywhere the same. ^ 
 I have often inquired which, fo|Ttn., of government is most 
 conformable to reason. It seems to me that the most per- 
 
 * This letter contains much that Montesquieu developed afterward 
 in his Esprit des Lois 
 
^recT^^^ MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 feet is that which attains its object.wit h .the least friction ; so 
 
 I that thC' government which leads men by toilowing their 
 propensities and inclinations is the most perfect. 
 
 If under a mild government the people are as submissive 
 
 'as under a severe one, the former is to be preferred, since 
 it is more rational, severity being a motive foreign^ to 
 reason. 
 
 Remember, my dear Rhedi, that obedience to the laws 
 in a state is not measured by the degree of cruelty in the 
 punishments. In countries where penalties are moderate, 
 they are dreaded as much as in those where they are atro- 
 cious and tyrannical. 
 
 Whether a government be mild or cruel, there must be de- 
 grees of punishment ; the gravity of the chastisement must 
 always be in proportion to^the^ravitylbfrthe cnme! ^Our 
 imagination adapts itself to the customs of the country in 
 which we live. Kight days' imprisonment, or a lighter pun- 
 ishment, has a greater effect on the mind of a European 
 brought up in a mild-mannered country, than the loss of 
 an arm has upon an Asiatic. A certain degree of dread 
 attaches to a certain degree of punishment, and each feels 
 it in his own way : a punishment which would not rob a 
 Turk of a single quarter of an hour's sleep, would over- 
 whelm a Frenchman with infamy and despair. 
 
 Besides, I do not see that police regulations, justice, and 
 equity, are better observed in Turkey, in Persia, or in the 
 dominions of the Mogul, than in the Republics of Holland, 
 and of Venice, and even in England : it does not appear that 
 fewer crimes are committed there, and that men, intimidated 
 by the greatness of the punishments, are more obedient to 
 the laws. 
 
 I On the contrary, I note a source of injustice and vexa- 
 
 Ltion in the midst of these very states. 
 
 ! I find even the prince, who is himself the law^less mas- 
 ter there than anywhereTelier 
 
 I observe that, at times when severe punishments are 
 inflicted, there, are. _^ways — ^tmrmlts7"w1irch nobody com- 
 mands, and that, when once authority depending upon 
 violence is set at naught, there remains with no one 
 sufficient power to restore it ; 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS i6i 
 
 Tha t the certainty of punishmentjtself strengthens and 
 increases._tli£31Sl3erl ~2 ^^, ;'.,>/- ' imjuX'.-x .,,. -■ 
 
 That in these states" a petty revolt never takes place ; 
 and that an uprising follows the first murmur of sedition 
 without a moment's interval ; 
 
 That in them great events are not necessarily prepared 
 by great causes : on the contrary, the..lgasL„aC£idettL„pro- 
 duces a great revolution, often as unf oreseen_b;^_those_wha, I' 
 cause it as by those who suffer from it. '• 
 
 When Osman, ISmperor 61 tEe"Turks, was deposed,* 
 none of those who committed that crime had any intention 
 of doing so : they simply asked, as suppliants, that justice 
 should be done for some wrong : a voice, which no one 
 knew, issued from the crowd by chance ; it pronounced the 
 name of Mustapha, and suddenly Mustapha was Emperor. 
 
 Paris, the 2d of the first moon of 
 Rebiab, 1715. 
 
 IvETTER IvXXXII 
 
 Nargum, Persian Envoy in Muscovy, to Usbek, at 
 
 Paris 
 
 OF ALL the nations of the world, my dear Usbek, none 
 has excelled' that of the Tartars in the splendor and 
 magnitude of its conquests. This people is the ver- 
 itable ruler of the earth : all the others seem to be intended 
 for its service ; it is alike the founder and the destroyer of 
 empires ; in all times, it has afforded the world signs of 
 its prowess ; in every age it has been the scourge of the 
 nations. 
 
 Twice the Tartars conquered China, and they still keep 
 it in subjection. 
 
 They rule over those vast territories which form the 
 Mogul's empire. 
 
 Masters of Persia, they sit upon the throne of Cyrus and 
 Hystaspes. They have subdued Muscovy. Under the 
 
 *In 1622. 
 II 
 
i62 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 name of Turks, they have made immense conquests in 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa ; and they are the dominant power 
 in these three quarters of the earth. 
 
 In more remote times, from them issued forth some of 
 those races who overthrew the Roman empire.* 
 
 What are the conquests of Alexander compared with 
 those of Zenghis Khan? 
 
 Nothing is wanting to this victorious nation except his- 
 torians to celebrate its achievements. 
 
 What immortal deeds have been buried in oblivion ! Of 
 how many empires founded by them is the origin unknown 
 to us ! This warlike nation, occupied exclusively with its 
 immediate glory, and certain of conquest in every age, 
 gave no thought to the commemoration of its fame. 
 
 Moscow, the 4th of the first moon of 
 Rebiab, 1715. 
 
 I^ETTER I,XXXIII 
 Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 Ai^THOXJGH the French are great talkers, there is never- 
 theless among them a sort of silent dervishes, called 
 Carthusians. They are said to cut out their tongues 
 on entering the convent; and it is much to be desired that 
 all other dervishes would deprive themselves in the same 
 way of that which their profession renders useless to them. 
 
 Talking of these taciturn people reminds me that there 
 are others who excel them in taciturnity, and who have a 
 very remarkable gift. These are they who know how to 
 talk without saying anything; and who carry on a conver- 
 sation for two whole hours without its being possible to 
 discover their meaning, to rehearse their talk, or to re- 
 member a word of what they have said. 
 
 This class of people are adored by the women ; but not 
 so much as some others who have received from nature 
 the charming gift of smiling at the proper time, that is to 
 
 *The Huns. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 163 
 
 say, every moment; and who receive with delighted appro- 
 bation everything the ladies say. 
 
 But these people carry wit to its highest pitch ; for they 
 can detect subtlety in everything, and perceive a thousand 
 little ingenious touches in the merest commonplaces. 
 
 I know others of them who are fortunate enough to be 
 able to introduce into conversation inanimate things, and to 
 make a long story about an embroidered coat, a white 
 peruke, a snuffbox, a cane, a pair of gloves. It is well to 
 begin in the street to make oneself heard by the noise of 
 a coach and a thundering rap at the door : such a prologue 
 paves the way for the rest of the discourse ; and when the 
 exordium is good, it secures toleration for all the nonsense 
 which follows, but which, fortunately, arrives too late to 
 be detected. 
 
 I assure you that these little gifts, which with us are of 
 no account, are of great advantage here to those who are 
 happy enough to possess them ; and that a sensible man 
 has no chance of shining where they are displayed. 
 
 Paris, the 6th of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, 1715. 
 
 LETTER I.XXXIV 
 Usb:bk to Rhbdi, at Venicb 
 
 IF THERK is a God, my dear Rhedi, He must of necessity 
 be just ; because, if He were not so. He would be the 
 worst and most imperfect of all beings. 
 Justice is a true relation existing between two things; 
 a relation which is always the "same, whoever contemplates 
 it, whether it be God, or an angel, or lastly, man him- 
 self. 
 
 It is true that men do not always perceive these rela- 
 tions: often indeed, whe;DL theyi do perceive _them,.„they 
 turn aside from them, their own interest being, alwaxs,that 
 which^theyperceive"most clearly. Justice cries aloud ; but 
 her voice is hardly heard in the tumult of the passions. 
 
J 
 
 164 
 
 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 
 I 
 
 }. 
 
 '■^^ I) ^ 
 
 Men act unjustly, because it is their interest to do so, 
 and b&1ffise~TEey^pTefeF"11iSf owH~"Satisfacfibn to tliat of 
 others. They act always to secure some advantage to 
 themselves : no one is a villain gratis ; there is always a 
 determining motive, and that motive is always an interested 
 onCi 
 
 But it is not possible that God should ever commit an 
 injustice. As soon as we grant that He perceives what is 
 
 1 right, it becomes necessary that He should follow it : were 
 it not so, as He has no need of anything and is sufficient 
 to Himself, He would be the most wicked of all beings, 
 having no motive for wickedness. 
 
 And so, even if there were no God, we ought always 
 to love righteousness; that is to say, we should endeavor 
 to resemble that Being of whom we have so lofty an idea, 
 and who, if He did exist, would of necessity be righteous. 
 Fre ed as w e would be froni_the,jBi§. of r eligion, we wou ld 
 V^ f ^stilLbe bound by that of justice. 
 \^ Here you have, Rhedi, that which makes me believe 
 
 ^ ^'^^ Ji. that justice is eternal and independent of hu man conditio ns. 
 And^ if it were dependent on them, it would be a truth so 
 terrible that we would be compelled to hide it from ourselves. 
 We are surrounded by men stronger than ourselvesinEEey 
 can injure us in a thousand different ways, and with im- 
 punity three times out of four : what a satisfaction^ it is 
 for us to know that there is in- the heart of all men, an 
 5^ / |)^n j[a1; , e principle jwhich fights in our favor and—shieids us 
 > I from their attempts ! 
 
 Without that we would be in continual terror ; we would 
 move among men as among lions ; and we would never 
 feel sure for an instant of our property, our honor, and our 
 lives. 
 
 All these considerations incense me against those doctors 
 who represent God as a being who makes a tyrannical use 
 of His power; who make Him act in a manner which we 
 would ourselves eschew for fear 01 offending Him ; who 
 charge Him with all the imperfections which He punishes 
 in us; and who, in their inconsistency, represent Him, 
 now as a malicious being, and now as a being who hates 
 evil and punishes it. 
 
 ..^^■> 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 165 
 
 When a man examines himself, what a satisfation for 
 him it is to find that he has a righteous heart. That de- 
 light, austere as it is, should ravish him : he perceives that 
 he is a being as far above those who have it not, as he is 
 above tigers and bears. Yes, Rhedi, were I sure of follow- 
 ing always and inviolably that idea of righteousness which 
 I have before my eyes, I would believe myself the best of 
 
 men. 
 
 Paris, the ist of the first moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 I^ETTER I.XXXV 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 YEST:eRDAY I was at the Hotel des Invalides : if I were 
 a king I would rather have founded that establishment 
 than have gained three battles. Throughout it the 
 hand of a great monarch appears. I think it is worthier of 
 respect than any other institution in the world. 
 
 What a sight to see assembled within the same walls all 
 those who have suffered for their country, who lived only 
 to defend it; and who, high hearted as ever, but lacking 
 their old vigor, complain only of their inability to sacrifice 
 themselves again ! 
 
 What could be worthier of admiration than the sight of 
 these disabled warriors in their retirement, observing a dis- 
 cipline as strict as if they were constrained by the presence 
 of an enemy, seeking their last satisfaction in that semblance 
 of war, and dividing their thoughts and emotions between 
 the duties of religion and those of their profession. 
 
 I would have the names of those who die for their coun- 
 try preserved in the temples, and inscribed in registers 
 which should be the fountain head of glory and honor. 
 
 Paris, the 15th of the first moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
i66 
 
 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 
 J 
 
 I^ETTER LXXXVI* 
 
 USBEK TO MiRZA, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 YOU know, Mirza, that some ministers of Shah Soliman 
 formed the design of obliging all the Armenians of 
 Persia to quit the kingdom or become Mohamme- 
 dans, in the belief that our empire will continue polluted, 
 as long as it retains within its bosom these infidels. 
 
 If, on that occasion, bigotry had carried the day, there 
 would have been an end to the greatness of Persia. 
 
 It is not known how the matter dropped. Neither those 
 who made the proposition, nor those who rejected it, real- 
 ized the consequences of their acts : chance performed the 
 office of reason and of policy, and saved the empire from 
 jeopardy greater than that which would have been entailed 
 by a defeat in the field, and the loss of two cities. 
 
 It is understood that the proscription of the Armenians 
 would have extirpated in a single day all the merchants 
 and almost all the artisans in the kingdom. I am sure 
 that the great Shah Abbas would rather have lost both his 
 arms than have signed such an order ; in sending to the 
 Mogul and to the other kings of Ind the most industrious 
 of his subjects, he would have felt that he was giving away 
 the half of his dominions. 
 
 The persecution of the Guebres by our zealous Moham- 
 medans, has obliged them to fly in crowds into the Indies, 
 and has deprived Persia of that nation, f which labored so 
 heartily, that it alone, by its toil, was in a fair way to 
 overcome the sterility of our land. 
 
 Only one thing remained for bigotry to do, and that was, 
 to destroy industry ; with the result that the empire fell of 
 itself, carrying along with it as a necessary consequence, 
 that very religion which they wished to advance. 
 
 If unbiased discussion were possible, I am not sure, 
 Mirza, that it would not be a good thing for a state to 
 have several religions. 
 
 •This letter is a bold and generous protest against the revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes. 
 
 + The Parsees of Bombay are the descendants of the exiled Guebres. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 167 
 
 It is worthy of note that those who profess tolerated 
 creeds usually prove more useful to their country than 
 those who profess the established faith; because, being ex- 
 cluded from all honors, and unable to distinguish them- 
 selves except by wealth and its shows, they are led to 
 acquire riches by their labor, and to embrace the most 
 toilsome of occupations. 
 
 Besides, as all religions contain some precepts advanta- 1 
 geous to society, it is well that they should be zealously 
 observed. Now, _could there be a greater incitement to zeal 
 than a multiplicity of religions? 
 
 They are rivals who never forgive anything. Jealousy 
 descends to individuals ; each one stands upon his guard, 1 
 afraid of doing anything that may dishonor his party, and 
 of exposing it to the contempt and unpardonable censures 
 of the opposite side. 
 
 It has also been remarked that a new sect introduced 
 into a state, was always the surest means of correcting the 
 abuses of the old faith. 
 
 It is sophistry to say that it is against the interest of 
 the prince to tolerate many religions in his kingdom : 
 though all the sects in the world were to gather together 
 into one state, it would not be in the least detrimental to 
 it, because there is no creed which does not ordain obed i- 
 ence and pr each submission . 
 
 I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars : but 
 we must distinguish ; it is not the multiplicity of religions ' 
 which has produced wars ; it is ^the intolerant spirit ani- 
 mati"ngTB'at~T??hich believed itself in the ascendant. 
 
 This is the spirit of proselytism which the Jews caught 
 from the Egyptians, and which passed from them like an 
 epidemic disease to the Mohammedans and the Christians. 
 
 It is, in short, that capricious mood, which in its prog- 
 ress can be compared only to a total ec lipse of human ! 
 reason. j 
 
 In conclusion, even if there were no inhumanity in dis- 
 tressing the consciences of others, even if there did not 
 result from such a course any of the evil effects which do 
 spring from it in thousands, it would still be foolish to 
 advise it. He who would have me change my religion is 
 
i68 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 led to that, without doubt, because he would not change 
 his own although force were employed ; and yet he finds 
 it strange that I will not do a thing which he himself 
 would not do, perhaps for the empire of the world. 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the first moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 IvETTER I.XXXVII 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 IT SSBMS that every member of a family in this country 
 controls his own actions. The authority exercised 
 by a husband over his wife, a father over his chil- 
 dren, a master over his slaves, is merely nominal. The 
 law interferes in all differences ; and you may be certain 
 that it is always the jealous husband, the sorrowing father, 
 the exasperated master. 
 
 The other day I visited the place where justice is ad- 
 ministered. Before getting there, I had to run the gauntlet 
 of a crowd of young shopwomen who press you to buy in 
 a most seductive manner. At first, the sight is sufficiently 
 amusing ; but it becomes dismal when one enters the great 
 halls, where all the people wear dresses even more solemn 
 than their faces. At last one comes to the sacred place 
 where all the secrets of families are revealed and the most 
 hidden actions brought to light. 
 
 Here a modest girl comes to confess the torments of a 
 virginity too long preserved, her struggles and her painful 
 resistance ; she is so little proud of her victory that she is 
 always on the verge of accepting defeat ; and, in order that 
 her father may no longer be ignorant of her wants, she 
 exposes them to everybody.* 
 
 Then some shameless woman appears to publish the in- 
 juries she has done her husband, as a reason for a separa- 
 tion. 
 
 * According to a law derived from the Romans, in the southern 
 provinces of France daughters could compel their fathers to dower 
 them. (See Letter CXXV.) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 169 
 
 With equal modesty another comes to declare that she is 
 tired of wearing the title, without enjoying the rights of a 
 wife ; she reveals the hidden mysteries of the marriage 
 night ; she wishes to be examined by the most skillful ex- 
 perts, and prays for a decision re-establishing her in all the 
 rights of virginity. Some even dare to challenge their hus- 
 bands, and demand from them a public contest which the 
 presence of witnesses renders so difficult ; a test as disgrace- 
 ful for the wife who passes it, as for the husband who fails 
 to stand it. 
 
 A great number of young women, ravished or seduced, 
 represent the men as being much worse than they are. 
 This court resounds with love ; nothing is talked of but en- 
 raged fathers, deluded daughters, faithless lovers, afflicted 
 husbands. 
 
 According to the law which here holds sway, every in- 
 fant born in wedlock is considered the husband's ; should 
 he have good reasons to believe it not his, the law believes 
 it for him, and relieves him of his scruples, and of the 
 necessity for inquiry. 
 
 In this tribunal judgment goes by the majority ; but it 
 is said that experience teaches that it would be wiser to 
 follow the decision of the minority ; which is natural 
 enough, for there are very few just minds, and plenty of 
 ill-balanced ones, as all the world knows. 
 
 Paris, the ist of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 I^KTTER LXXXVIII 
 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 MAN, they say, is a social animal. In this matter a 
 Frenchman appears to me to be more of a man than 
 any other ; he is the man par excellence, for he seems 
 to be intended solely for societj'. 
 
 But I have noticed among them some who are not only 
 sociable, but are themselves society itself. They multiply 
 
I70 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 themselves at every corner ; they people in an instant the 
 four quarters of a city ; a hundred such men make more 
 appearance than two thousand citizens ; a stranger would 
 think that they might repair the ravages of plague and 
 famine. It is debated in the schools whether a body can 
 be in more than one place at once; they are a proof of 
 that which philosophers call in question. 
 
 They are always in a hurry, because they are engaged 
 in the important business of asking every one they meet 
 whither they are going, and whence they come. 
 
 It can never be driven out of their heads that it is a 
 part of good breeding to visit the public every day indi- 
 vidually, without counting the wholesale visits which they-^^ 
 make to places of general resort, which being much too 
 brief a method is reckoned as nothing in the rules of their 
 etiquette. 
 
 Their knocking harasses the doors of the houses more 
 than the winds and the storms. If one were to examine 
 the lists of all the porters, their names would be found 
 daily mutilated in a thousand different ways in Swiss writ- 
 ing. They pass their lives in going to funerals, in expres- 
 sions of condolence, or in marriage congratulations. The 
 king never confers a favor on any of his subjects, without 
 putting these gentry to the expense of a carriage to go and 
 express their delight. At last, tired out, they return home, 
 and rest themselves to be able to resume next day their 
 laborious functions. 
 
 The other day one of them died of weariness ; and they 
 put this epitaph on his tomb : " Here rests one who never 
 .rested before. He assisted at five hundred and thirty fu- 
 nerals. He made merry at the births of two thousand six 
 hundred and eighty children. He wished his friends joy, 
 always varying the phrase, upon pensions amounting to two 
 million six hundred thousand livres ; in town he walked 
 nine thousand six hundred furlongs, in the country thirty- 
 six furlongs. His conversation was pleasing ; he had a 
 ready-made stock of three hundred and sixty-five stories; 
 he was acquainted also from his youth with a hundred and 
 eighteen apophthegms derived from the ancients, which he 
 employed on special occasions. He died at last in the six- 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 171 
 
 tieth year of his age. I say no more, stranger ; for how 
 could I ever have done telling you all that he did and all 
 that he saw ? " 
 
 Paris, the 3d of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 17 15. 
 
 LETTER LXXXIX 
 
 USBBK TO RhBDI, at VENICB 
 
 LIBERTY and equality reign in Paris. Birth, worth, 
 even military fame, however brilliant it may be, fail 
 to distinguish a man from the crowd in which he is 
 lost. Jealousy about rank is unknown here. They say 
 that the chief man in Paris is he who has the best horses 
 in,/his coach. 
 ,/\A. great lord is a man who sees the king, who speaks 
 with ministers, who has ancestors, debts, and pensions. If 
 he can, in addition to this, veil his indolence under an 
 appearance of business, or by a feigned attachment to 
 pleasure, he considers himself the happiest of men. 
 
 In Persia, we count none great except those on whom 
 the~~monarch bestows some share in the government. Here 
 there are people who are great by their birth, but they are 
 not esteemed. The kings act like those skillful craftsmen 
 who in executing their works employ always the simplest 
 tools. 
 
 Favor is the great goddess of the French ; and the _Min- 
 ister js tne highr pritiHL whn-nffprs^ her many victims. Those 
 who surround her are not dressed in white ; sometimes those 
 who sacrifice, and sometimes the sacrifices, offer themselves 
 up to their idol along with the whole people. 
 
 Paris, the 9th of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 17 15. 
 
172 
 
 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 T' 
 
 LETTER XC* 
 
 USBEK TO Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 HB desire of glory is in no sense different from the in- 
 stinct of self-presCTvatiog__ common- to. _aU. creatures. 
 We^^effl" 'to enlarge our existence when we are en- 
 abled to extend it to the memory of others ; it is a new life 
 which we acquire, and becomes as precious to us as that 
 which we receive from heaven. 
 
 But men are as unlike in their attachment to life as they 
 are in their sensibility to fame. This noble passion is al- 
 ways deeply engraved in their hearts ; but imagination and 
 education modifies it in a thousand ways. 
 
 This difference which exists between man and man, is 
 even more marked among nations. 
 
 It may be laid down as a maxim that in each state the 
 desire' of glory ^increases and^ diminishes with the liberty, of 
 •^> the suijject ; glory is never _the^ companion oi, .slavery .. 
 ' A sensible man said to me the other day, "In most 
 things we are much freer in France than in Persia ; and so 
 we love glory more. This happy idea causes a Frenchman 
 to d£ with pleasure and inclination what your Sultan ob- 
 tains from Jiis subjects only by keeping constantly before 
 them rewards and punishments. ' 
 
 "Again, among us the prince is most jealous of the 
 honor of the meanest of his subjects. For its support there 
 exist highly esteemed tribunals : it is the sacred treasure 
 of the nation, and the only one which the sovereign does 
 not control, because to do so would defeat his own .interests. 
 So that if a subject finds his honor wounded by his 
 prince, whether by some preference, or by the slightest 
 mark of contempt, he leaves at once his court, his employ- 
 ment, his service, and retires to his estate. 
 
 "The difference between the French troops and yours 
 is this : among the latter, composed of slaves who are 
 naturally cowards, the fear of death is overcome only by 
 
 •This letter contains the germ of «the principles of the three gov- 
 ernments, » a theory expounded by Montesquieu in the third book of 
 V Esprit des Lois. 
 
 w 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 173 
 
 the fear of punishment, and this produces in the soul a new 
 kind of terror which stupefies it ; the former, on the other 
 hand, go where the blows are thickest, and fear is driven 
 out by a feeling of satisfaction which is superior to it. 
 
 " But the sanctuary of honor, of reputation, and of virtue, 
 appears^o be established in republics, and in countries 
 where^pne dare pronounce the word Fatherland. In Rome, 
 in Athens, in lyacedsemonia, honor was thiT sole reward for 
 the most distinguished services. A crown of oak or of 
 laurel, a statue, a panegyric, was a magnificent recompense 
 for a bat'tlS*gaihed~or a city taken. 
 
 "There a man who had performed a brave deed thought- 
 the deed itself sufficient recompense. He could not behold 1 
 one of his countrymen without a feeling of pleasure at 1 
 having been his benefactor ; he reckoned the number, of his ' 
 services by that of ,, his fellow-citizens. Every man is 
 capable of benefiting another, but he who contributes to , 
 the. happiness of a whole community resembles the gods. 
 
 *' Now, must not this noble emulation be quite extinct in ] 
 the hearts of you Persians, with whom office and honor are I 
 derived only from the caprice of the sovereign? Reputa- 
 tion and virtue are looked upon as imaginary, if unaccom- 
 panied by the favor of the prince with whom is their sole 
 beginning and end. A man who enjoys public esteem is never 
 sure that the morrow may not bring forth dishonor. To- 
 day he is a general of the army ; to-morrow, perhaps, the 
 prince makes him his cook, and leaves him with no hope of 
 any other eulogy than that of having made a good ragout." 
 
 Paris, the istli of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 I^ETTER XCI 
 
 UsBEK TO THS Same, at Smyrna 
 
 FROM the general passion which the French have for 
 glory, there has been developed in the minds of indi- 
 viduals a certain something which they call "jhe__pQint 
 of honor " ; it is properly the characteristic of every profes- 
 sion, but most marked in military men — theirs, indeed, is 
 
174 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 the point of honor par excellence. It would be very diffi- 
 cult to make you understand what this is, because the idea 
 is so foreign to us. 
 
 Formerly the French, especially the aristocracy, obeyed 
 no other laws than those of this point of honor, and by 
 them they regulated the whole conduct of their lives. These 
 laws were so severe, that without incurring a penalty more 
 cruel than death, one might not, I do not say infringe 
 them, but even evade their slightest punctilio. " 
 
 When they had occasion to arrange their differences, al- 
 most the only method of decision prescribed was the duel, 
 which resolved all difficulties. The worst part of it, how- 
 ever, was that frequently the trial took place between other 
 parties than those immediately concerned. 
 
 However little one man might know another, he had to 
 
 enter into the quarrel, and pay with his person as if he 
 
 himself had been enraged. He always felt himself honored 
 
 by such a choice, and a distinction so flattering; and one 
 
 who would have been unwilling to give four pistoles to a 
 
 man to save him and all his family from the gallows, would 
 
 make no difficulty in risking his life for him a thousand times. 
 
 . This method of decision was badly enough conceived ; for 
 
 / although a man might be more dexterous and stronger 
 
 than another, it did not follow that he had more right on 
 
 Vhis side. 
 
 Accordingly the kings prohibited it under very severe 
 penalties, but in vain ; * honor which wishes always to 
 reign, revolts, and regards not the laws. 
 
 On this account violence prevails among the French ; 
 for these laws of honor require a gentleman to avenge him- 
 self when he has been' insulted ; but, on the other hand, 
 justice punishes him unmercifully when he does so. If 
 one follows the laws of honor, one dies upon the scaffold ; 
 if one follows those of justice, one is banished forever from 
 the society of men: t^ijp , then, js thg harhf^rm^g .^itoni^jtiyp^ 
 eiJier_to die^iOr_to_beiaiiworthy .^IJTjg- 
 
 Paris, the iStb of the second moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 * By an edict of I<ouis XIV. duelists incurred the penalty of death. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 175 
 
 lyETTER XCII* 
 
 USBSK TO RUSTAN, AT ISPAHAN 
 
 THERB has appeared here a person who burlesques the 
 part of Persian ambassador, and insolently makes 
 sport of the two greatest kings in the world. He 
 bears to the French monarch presents which ours would 
 not offer to a king of Irimetfa or of Georgia; and by his 
 wretched avarice, he has disgraced the majesty of two em- 
 pires. 
 
 He has brought ridicule upon himself before a people 
 who pretend to be the most polished in Europe ; and he 
 has caused it to be said in the west that the king of kings 
 reigns over none but savages. 
 
 He has received honors which he would apparently have 
 been glad to decline ; and, as if the court of France had 
 had the grandeur of the court of Persia more at heart than 
 he, it forced him to appear with dignity before a people 
 who scorn him. 
 
 Say nothing of this at Ispahan : spare the head of an 
 unhappy wretch. I would not have our ministers punish 
 him for their own imprudence, and for the unworthy choice 
 which they madef. 
 
 Paris, the last day of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 1715. 
 
 *The fourth letteir added in 1754. 
 
 t The business agent of a Persian provincial minister, in order to 
 defray the expenses of a visit to France, pretended to be an ambas- 
 sador. He was allowed to play the part for the king's amusement. 
 
176 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER XCIII 
 
 USBEK TO RhBDI, at ViBNICE 
 
 THE monarch who reigned so long is no more.* He 
 made people talk much about him during his life ; 
 everybody is silent at his death. Firm and coura- 
 geous at the last moment, he seemed to yield only to destiny. 
 Thus died the great Shah Abbas after filling the whole 
 earth with his name. 
 
 Do not imagine that this great event has given rise to 
 none but moral reflections. Kvery one considered his own 
 affairs and how to take advantage of the change. The 
 king, great-grandson of the late monarch, being only five 
 years old, a prince, his uncle, has been declared regent of 
 the kingdom, f 
 
 The late king left a will which limits the power of the 
 regent. This clever prince went to the Parliament, and 
 having laid before them all the rights he has by birth, 
 made them break the arrangements of the late monarch, 
 who, wishing to survive himself, seemed to lay claim to 
 govern after his death. 
 
 Parliaments are like those ruins which are trampled under 
 foot, but which always recall the idea of some temple famous 
 on account of the ancient religion of the people. They hardly 
 interfere now except in matters of law ; and their authority 
 will continue to decrease unless some unforeseen event re- 
 stores them to life and strength. The common fate has 
 overtaken these great bodies; they have yielded to time 
 which destroys everything, to moral corruption which 
 weakens everything, and to absolute power which overbears 
 everything. 
 
 But the regent, anxious to secure the favor of the peo- 
 ple, appeared at first to respect this shadow of public free- 
 dom ; and, as if he had intended to lift from the ground 
 
 * Louis XIV. died at Versailles on the ist of September, 1715, in 
 the seventy-seventh year of his age and the sixty-third of his reign. 
 tThe Duke of Orleans. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 177 
 
 the temple and the idol, he was willing that the parliament 
 should be regarded as the prop of the monarchy, and the 
 foundation of all legitimate authority.* 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1715. 
 
 IvKTTER XCIV 
 
 usbek to his brother, santon,t at the monastery of 
 
 Casbin 
 
 1HUMBi,E myself in the dust before you, holy Santon ; 
 your footprints are to me as the apple of my eye. 
 Your holiness is so great that it seems as if you had 
 the heart of our sacred Prophet : your austerities astonish 
 Heaven itself ; the highest angels have watched you from 
 the skies, and have said, * How is he still on earth, since 
 his spirit is with us, and flies about the throne which the 
 clouds bear up ? " 
 
 How then should I not honor you, I who have learned 
 from our doctors that dervishes, even though infidels, have 
 always a character of holiness which makes them venerable 
 in the eyes of true believers; and that God has chosen for 
 Himself, in every corner of the earth, souls purer than the 
 rest, whom He has separated from the impious world, that 
 their mortifications and their fervent prayers may suspend 
 His wrath, ready to fall upon so many rebel nations? 
 
 Christians narrate wonders of their first santons who took 
 refuge by thousands in the dreadful desert of the Thebaid, 
 and whose chiefs were Paul, Antony, and Pacomus. If what 
 is told of them be true, their lives are as full of marvels 
 as those of our most sacred Imans. They sometimes spent 
 ten whole years without seeing a single soul ; but they 
 dwelt night and day with demons ; they were ceaselessly tor- 
 mented by these evil spirits, who haunted their beds, and 
 
 * By an edict of i6th of September, 1715, ratified in Parliament, the 
 Regent revoked those articles of the decrees of 1667 and 1673 which 
 took from Parliament the right of remonstrance. 
 
 + A Mussulman living a conventual life. 
 12 
 
178 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 sat down with them at meat ; there was no refuge from 
 them. If all this is true, reverend Santon, it must be con- 
 fessed that nobody ever lived in more disagreeable company. 
 
 The more sensible Christians regard all these stories as a 
 very natural allegory, which may be of use in making us 
 realize the wretchedness of our condition as human beings. 
 We search in vain for a state of repose in the desert ; 
 temptations follow us everywhere : our passions, symbol- 
 ized by the demons, never quit us altogether; those mon- 
 sters of the heart, those illusions of the mind, those vain 
 phantoms of error and falsehood, haunt us continually to 
 mislead us, and attack us even in our fasts and our hair- 
 cloths, that is to say, even in our strongholds. 
 
 As for me, reverend Santon, I know that God's messen- 
 ger has chained Satan, and flung him headlong into the 
 abyss : He has purified the earth, formerly filled with his 
 power, and has made it worthy of the abode of angels and 
 prophets. 
 
 Paris, the 9th of the moon of 
 Cbahbau, 1715. 
 
 LETTER XCV 
 
 USBEK TO RhEDI, at VENICB 
 
 (r,'^ \ i, T HAVE never heard public law discussed, without a pre- 
 
 T ( "■ ^ C 1 liminary careful inquiry into thg^ origin of society, 
 
 '-/.c,*^' which seems to me absurd. If men did not unite, if 
 
 'V' .vVthey avoided and fled from each other, it would be neces- 
 
 t^i^ssLty to ask the reason, and to inquire why they kept 
 
 ^^^ apart ; but we are all born with relations; a, _ son comes 
 
 '*'^T ^iatft^theworicLhesidi^,,,, his father,, and stays there : that is 
 
 IW/W- "f ! society^ and-JJie. cause of society. 
 
 I'ClA? -,j International law is better understood in Europe than in 
 JtViA^ -Asia ; and yet it must be said that the passions of princes, 
 
 J/ the p atience of the people, and th e flatterv of authors, 
 ayg__comipted all its prinrjples. 
 
 At the present time this law is a science which teaches 
 [princes to what length they may carry the violation of 
 
;( 
 
 PERSIAN LETTERS 179 
 
 justice without injuring their own interests. What a de-|^ 
 sign, Rhedi, to wish to harden the conscience by reducing! ^ 
 iniquity to a system, by giving it rules, by settling its j 
 principles, and drawing inferences from it ! 
 
 The absolute power of our sublime Sultans, which is 
 a law to itself, produces no greater monstrosities than 
 this unworthy art, which would bend justice, inflexible as ' 
 it is. 
 
 One would say, Rhedi, that there are two species of ( 
 justice wholly different from each other : one which regu- 
 lates the affairs of individuals, and rules in civil law ; 
 another' whiclir^eTOes the diffeirences arising between peo- 
 ples, and tyrannizes over international law ; as if interna' 
 tioqa l^ law were not itself a civil 255?) not indeed of a 
 partiSiTaf " counHy^ l)ut of the world. 
 
 I wilt explain to you in another letter my thoughts on 
 this subject. 
 
 Paris, the ist of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 17 16. 
 
 I.ETTER XCVI 
 
 USBEK TO THE SamB 
 
 MAGISTRATES ought to do justice between citizen and 
 citizen ; and each nation between itself and other 
 nations. In .tbj,ssecqnd_ administration of justice, 
 no other maxims should be employed than in the first. ""' 
 
 There is rarely need for a third party to act as umpire 
 between nation and nation, because the subjects in dispute 
 are almost always clearly defined and easily decided. The 
 interests of two nations are usually so distinct, that it is 
 only necessary to love justice to discover where it lies ; 
 one can hardly be prejudiced in one's own cause. 
 
 It is not the same with the differences which happen 
 among individuals. As they live together, their interests 
 are so intermingled and so confused, and also so various, 
 that it is necessary for a third party to clear that which 
 the covetousness bf the other two endeavors to obscure. 
 
i8o MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 There are only two kinds of just wars : those which are 
 waged to repel an attacking enemy, or to aid an ally who 
 is attacked. , 
 
 There would be no justice in making war for the private 
 quarrels of a prince, unless the crime were so grave as to 
 require the death of the prince or of the people who com- 
 mitted it. Thus, a prince ought not to make war because 
 he has been refused an honor which is his due, or because 
 his ambassadors have been treated with scant courtesy, or 
 for any such reason ; any more than a private person should 
 kill him who refuses him precedence. The reason of this 
 is, that, since a declaration of war ought to be an act of 
 justice, which always requires the punishment to be pro- 
 portioned to the crime, it is necessary to make sure that 
 he upon whom war is declared merits death : for to wage 
 war on any one is to pronounce against him the death 
 penalty. 
 
 In international law the severest act of justice is war, 
 since it may have the effect of destroying society. 
 
 Reprisals are next in severity. No tribunal has been 
 able to avoid the law which proportions the punishment to 
 the crime. 
 
 A third act of justice is to deprive a prince of the ad- 
 vantages which he may derive from us, always measuring 
 the penalty by the offense, 
 
 The fourth act of justice, which ought to be the most 
 frequent, is to renounce the alliance of a people which 
 gives cause of complaint. This penalty corresponds to that 
 of banishment, which has been established by tribunals to 
 remove criminals from the community. In this way, the 
 prince whose alliance we renounce is cut off from our com- 
 munity, and is no longer one of the members which 
 compose it. 
 
 No greater insult can be offered a prince, than to re- 
 nounce his alliance, and no greater honor can be conferred 
 upon him, than to enter into one with him. Nothing on 
 earth adds more to our honor, and is really more useful, 
 than to see others always careful of our preservation. 
 
 But, in order that the alliance may be binding, it must 
 be just : thus an alliance contracted between two nations to 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS i8i 
 
 oppress a third is not lawful ; and there would be no guilt 
 in breaking it. 
 
 It is by no means honorable or dignified in a prince to 
 ally himself with a tyrant. They say that an Egyptian 
 monarch once remonstrated with the king of Samos upon 
 his cruelty and tyranny, and called upon him for amend- 
 ment ; and when he would not amend, he sent to him re- 
 nouncing his friendship and alliance. 
 
 I Conquest in itself does not establish a right. As long as 
 ;a community holds together, it is a pledge of peace, and of 
 the reparation of wrong; if it is destroyed or dispersed, it 
 I is a monument of tyranny. 
 
 Treaties of peace are so sacred among men, that they 
 seem to be the voice of nature reclaiming her rights. They 
 are quite legitimate, when the conditions are such that 
 both nations can preserve themselves ; without that, the na- 
 tion which would perish, deprived of its natural defense by 
 peace, may seek safety in war. 
 
 For nature, although she has fixed different degrees of 
 strength and weakness among men, has often by means o£-- 
 despair made the weak equal to the strong. 
 
 This, my dear Rhedi, is what I call international law^ 
 the law of peoples, or rather, the law of right. 
 
 Paris, the ith of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1716. 
 
 I^ETTER XCVII 
 Thb Chief Eunuch to Usbbk, at Paris 
 
 AGRBAT number of yellow women from the kingdom of 
 Visapour have arrived here. I have bought one for 
 your brother, the governor of Mazenderan, who sent 
 me a month ago his sublime commands and a hundred 
 iomans. 
 
 I am skilled in women, especially as they can no longer 
 delude me, and as my heart does not interfere with my un- 
 derstanding. 
 
1 82 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I have never seen beauty so regular, so perfect : her 
 dazzling eyes lighten up her countenance, and heighten the 
 lustre of a complexion which might eclipse all the charms 
 of Circassia. 
 
 The chief eunuch of a merchant of Ispahan bade for her 
 against me : but she withdrew herself disdainfully from his 
 gaze, and seemed to invite mine ; as if to tell me that a 
 wretched merchant was unworthy of her, and that she was 
 destined for a more illustrious husband. 
 
 I confess to you, that I feel within me a sacred joy, 
 when I think of the charms of this lovely person. I fancy 
 I see her entering the seraglio of your brother : I delight 
 myself with a foresight of the astonishment of all his 
 wives; the haughty grief of some; the silent but heavier 
 sorrow of others ; the malicious pleasure of those who have 
 nothing to hope for, and the enraged ambition of those 
 whose hope is not yet dead. 
 
 I travel from one end of the kingdom to the other, to 
 change the entire face of a seraglio. What passions shall 
 I excite ! What terrors and punishments am I preparing ! 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of this internal disturbance, outward 
 tranquillity will be undisturbed : great revolutions will be 
 hidden in the depths of the heart ; grief will be repressed 
 and joy will be restrained ; obedience will be no less prompt, 
 nor discipline less inflexible : amiability, which is always 
 exacted, will spring from the depths of despair itself. 
 
 We have noticed that the more women we have under 
 our care, the less trouble they give us. A greater neces- 
 sity to be agreeable, less opportunity for conspiring, more 
 examples of submission; all this increases their fetters. 
 They are constantly watchful of the doings of their neigh- 
 bors : they seem to unite themselves with us to render 
 themselves more dependent : they take part in our labor, 
 and open our eyes when they are closed. What do I say? 
 They continually incite their master against their rivals, 
 unaware how close at hand their own punishment may be. 
 
 But all this, magnificent lord, all this is nothing without 
 the master's presence. What can we do with this vain 
 show of an authority which can never be entirely im- 
 parted? We represent, and that but feebly, only the half 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 183 
 
 of yourself : we can only show tliem a hateful severity ; 
 whereas you can temper fear with hope, and are more abso- 
 lute when you caress than when you threaten. 
 
 Return then, magnificent lord, return to this abode, and 
 impress throughout it your authority. Come and alleviate 
 despairing passions : come and remove every pretext to go 
 astray : come to pacify complaining love, and to make duty 
 itself pleasant : come, lastly, to relieve your faithful eunuchs 
 of a burden which grows heavier every day. 
 
 Thb SERAGWO at Ispahan, the 8th of the 
 moon of Zilhage, 1716. 
 
 LETTER XCVIII 
 
 USBBK TO HaSSIM, DBRVISH OF THB MOUNTAIN OF JARON 
 
 o 
 
 H, wisB dervish ! whose inquisitive mind excels in learn- 
 ing, give ear to what I am about to tell you. 
 
 There are philosophers here, who, it is true, have 
 not attained to the perfection of oriental wisdom : they have 
 not been carried up to the throne of light : neither 
 have they heard the unutterable words, nor felt the awful 
 approach of divine frenzy ; but j_left to themselves, and de- 
 prived of these sacred miracles, the^follow^ silently thej 
 footprints of human reason. ' 
 
 You'^ would not believe how far this guide has led_them. \ 
 They have^cleafeST up chaos, and Jtave explained, by a 
 simple mechanism, ,, the order of diviue architecture. The 
 creator of nature gave motion to matter : nothing more was 
 required to produce the prodigious variety of effects in the 
 universe. 
 
 Ordinary lawgivers offer us laws to regulate society — 
 laws , subject to chang e .JikeL-the minds of those who make/ 
 them, and of the people who obey them : those talk only of 
 general, immutable, and eternal laws, which, without exception,*^ 
 are "obeyed witF'ofSer, regularity, and absolute exactness in 
 the immensity of space. 
 
 '^TAid^what~thirik you, most holy man, these laws may be? 
 You imagine, perhaps, that entering into the counsels of 
 
1 84 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 the Eternal, you are about to be astonished by sublime 
 mysteries : you give up in advance all idea of understanding, 
 and propose only to admire. 
 
 But you will soon change your opinion : they do not 
 dazzle us by a pretended profundity : their simplicity has 
 made them long misunderstood; and it is only after much 
 reflection, that people have seen how fruitful they are, and 
 how far they reach. 
 
 The first is, that every body_ tends to describe a straight 
 line, unfessTt meets with some obstacle which diverts its 
 course ; and the second, which is but a consequence of the 
 first, is, that everybody which moves round a centre, tends 
 to fly from it ; because the further off it is, • the nearer 
 the course it describes approaches a straight line. 
 
 Here, sublime dervish, you have the key of nature : here 
 are the fruitful principles, from which consequences are 
 drawn which pass beyond our ken. 
 
 The knowledge of five or six truths has filled their phi- 
 losophy with wonders, and has enabled them to perform almost 
 as many prodigies and marvels as those which are told of 
 ^ our holy prophets. 
 
 For, in short, I am persuaded that we have no doctor 
 who would not have been sorely troubled, if he had been 
 told to weigh in a balance all the air which surrounds the 
 earth, or to measure all the water which falls each year 
 upon its surface ; and who would not have thought many 
 times before telling how many leagues sound travels in an 
 hour ; what time a ray of light occupies in journeying- 
 from the sun to us ; how many fathoms it is from here to 
 Saturn ; or according to what curve a ship should be cut to 
 make it the best sailer possible. 
 
 Perhaps if some holy man had adorned the works of 
 these philosophers with lofty and sublime expressions ; if he 
 had introduced bold figures and mysterious allegories, he 
 might have made a great work, which would have ranked 
 next to the Koran. 
 
 However, if I must tell you what I think, I never cared 
 greatly for the figurative style. In our Koran there are a 
 great number of trifles which always appear to me as such, 
 although they receive distinction from the strength and 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 185 
 
 liveliness of the style. At first these inspired books seemed 
 to be only divine ideas stated in the language of mankind : 
 on the contrary, however, one often finds in the Koran the 
 language of God and the ideas of men ; as if by some aston- 
 ishing caprice, God had dictated the words, and man had 
 supplied the thought. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that I speak too freely that 
 which is held most sacred among us ; regard it as the out- 
 come of the independence which distinguishes this country. 
 No ; thanks to Heaven, my mind has not corrupted my 
 heart, and while I live Hali shall be my prophet. 
 
 Paris, the istli of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1716. 
 
 I^ETTER XCIX 
 
 USBEK TO Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 THBRE is no country in the world where fortune is more 
 inconstant than in this. Every ten years a revolu- 
 tion happens which plunges the wealthy into misery, 
 and raises the poor on rapid wings to the summit of afBu- 
 ence. The one is astonished at his poverty ; the other at 
 his riches. The new-made rich man admires the wisdom 
 of providence ; the pauper, the mischance of a blind fate. 
 
 Those who^ gather the taxes. _gsdm itt-^wealth : and there 
 are few Tantaluses among them. It is the extremity of 
 misery, however, that drives them into this employment. 
 They are despised like dirt while they are poor ; when 
 they become rich , _thej__are sufficient^ respected, as they 
 neglecTnothing to acquire esteem. 
 
 They are at present in a dreadful situation. They are 
 about to establish a chamber of justice, so called because 
 it is to strip them of all their wealth. They can neither 
 transfer, nor hide their effects ; for they are compelled to 
 render an exact account, upon pain of death ; thus they 
 have to pass through a very narrow strait, I mean between 
 their lives and their money. To fill up the cup of their 
 misfortune, there is a minister, remarkable for his wit, who 
 
1 86 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 honors them with his jokes, and makes fun of all the de- 
 liberations of the council. It is not every day that minis- 
 ters are to be found disposed to make the people laugh ; 
 and they ought to be much beholden to him for having 
 undertaken to do so. 
 
 The body of footmen is more respectable in France than 
 anywhere else ; it is a nursery of great lords ; it fills up 
 the vacancies in other ranks. The members of it take the 
 places of the unfortunate great, of ruined magistrates, of 
 gentlemen killed in the fury of war ; and when they are 
 unable to find supply among themselves, they re-establish 
 all the great families by means of their daughters, which 
 are like a kind of manure enriching barren and mountain- 
 ous soil. 
 
 I find, Ibben, the ways of providence in the distribution 
 of wealth admirable. If riches had been granted only to 
 good people, they would not have been sufficiently distin- 
 guished from virtue, and their insignificance would not have 
 been fully recognized. But when we consider who are the 
 people most loaded with them, by dint of despising the 
 rich, we come to despiise riches. 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the moon of 
 Maharram, 1717. 
 
 I^ETTER C 
 
 Rica to Rhbbi, at Vbnicb 
 
 THE caprices of fashion among the French are amazing. 
 They have forgotten how they were dressed this sum- 
 mer; they know as little how they will be dressed in 
 the winter ; but, above all, you would never believe how 
 much it costs a husband to dress his wife in the fashion. 
 Where is the use of my giving you a full description of, 
 their dress and ornaments? A new fashion would destroy 
 all my labor as it does that of the dressmakers ; and before 
 you could receive my letter all would be changed. 
 
 A woman who leaves Paris to spend six months in the 
 country, returns from it as out of date as if she had been 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 187 
 
 forgotten for thirty years. The son does not know the 
 portrait of his mother, so strange does the dress in which 
 she was painted appear to him ; he imagines that it repre- 
 sents some American, or that the painter wished to express 
 a fancy of his own. 
 
 Sometimes the headdresses grow gradually to a great 
 height, until a revolution brings them down suddenly. 
 They grew so lofty once that a woman's face seemed to be 
 in the centre of her anatomy ; at another time it was the 
 feet that occupied that place, the heels forming a pedestal 
 which raised them into the air. Would you believe it? 
 Architects have often been obliged to raise, to lower, or to 
 widen their doors, according to the change in the women's 
 dresses; and the rules of their art have had to yield to 
 such caprices. Sometimes one sees upon a face an immense 
 quantity of patches, which are all gone next day. For- 
 merly women had figures and teeth ; now these are of no 
 consequence. In this changeable nation, whatever ill-natured 
 wags may say, the daughters are differently made from the 
 mothers. 
 
 As with their fashions, so is it with their customs and 
 style of living : French manners change with the age of 
 the king. The monarch could even succeed in making his 
 people solemn if he chose to try. He impresses his own /' 
 characteristics upon the court, the court upon the city, \ 
 and the city on the provinces. The soul of the sovereign ' 
 is a mold in which all the others are formed. / 
 
 Paris, the Sth of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1717. 
 
 I.FTTER CI 
 
 Rica to thk Same 
 
 I TOLD you the other day of the extraordinary incon- 
 stancy of the French in their fashions. Yet it is in- 
 conceivable to what an extent they are infatuated about 
 them ; everything is swayed by them : fashion is the rule 
 by which they judge what is done in other nations ; what- 
 
1 88 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 ever is foreign always seems to them ridiculous. I confess 
 that I hardly know how to reconcile this bigoted devotion 
 to their customs with the inconstancy which changes them 
 every day. 
 
 When I say that they despise everything foreign, I mean 
 only trifles ; for in important matters they are so diffident 
 as almost to degrade themselves. They confess with the 
 greatest good will that the other nations are wiser, if you 
 grant that they are better dressed ; they are willing to sub- 
 mit themselves to the _,Jaws, of a rival nation, provided 
 French wig makers may decide, like legislators, the form of 
 foreign perukes. Nothing seems to them more glorious 
 than to see the taste of their cooks reigning from north to 
 south, and the decrees of their tire-women obeyed in every 
 boudoir of Europe. 
 C' With these noble advantages, what does it matter to them 
 ) that their wisdom comes from others, and that they have 
 / derived from their neighbors everything relating to political 
 ^and civil government? 
 
 C Who would .imagine that the most ancient and powerful 
 
 J kingdom in Europe has been governed for ten centuries by 
 
 jlaws which were not made for it? If the French had been 
 
 / conquered, it would not be difficult to understand, but they 
 
 jV are the conquerors. 
 
 They have abandon ed the old laws_ made .Jjx^Jtlieit-first 
 kings in ^he ifenerd assemblies of the nations j_a.ndj_singu- 
 larly enough, the Roman laws which have been, substituted, 
 were partly made and partly;^ digested -by-^ emperors.- contem- 
 porary witHTEeir own legislators. 
 
 And, to make the borrowing complete, and in order that 
 all their wisdom might come from others, they have 
 adopted all the constitutions of the Popes, and have made 
 them a new part of their law: a new kind of slavery. 
 
 Latterly, it is true, they have drawn up some provincial 
 statutes and by-laws; but they are nearly all taken from 
 the Roman law. 
 
 So great is the multitude of adQpie d,...and— so . to speak, 
 naturalizedjaws^i. that,iL,9EB.?S§ses alike justice and judges. 
 But these volumes of law are nothing in comparison with 
 the appalling army of glossers, commentators, and compilers, 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 189 
 
 a tribe as feeble by the inferiority of their minds, as they 
 are strong by their immense numbers. 
 
 This is not all : these foreign laws have intro duced for - 
 m alities so excessive as to be a disgraop tnJTnm'gn reason. 
 It would be very difiScult to decide whether pedantry has 
 been more hurtful in jurisprudence or in medicine ; whether 
 it has played more mischief under the cloak of a lawyer, or 
 the broad brim of a physician ; and whether the one has 
 ruined more people than the other has killed. 
 
 Paris, the 17th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 1717. 
 
 I.ETTER CII 
 
 USBEK TO * * * 
 
 TH^Y are always talking here of the Constitution.* The 
 other day I went into a certain house, where the 
 first person I saw was a fat man with a red face, who 
 said in a loud voice, " I have issued my charge ; I shall 
 make no further reply to anything you may say ; but read 
 my charge, and you will see that I have solved all your 
 doubts. I sweated over it," he continued, pressing his 
 brow with his hand ; " I had need of all my learning, and 
 was obliged to read many I^atin authors.*' "I believe it," 
 said a man who was standing by, " for it is an admirable 
 work ; and I altogether defy that Jesuit who comes so 
 often to see you to write a better. "Read it, then," re- 
 plied he, "and you will know more of these matters in a 
 quarter of an hout than if I had talked to you about them 
 for a whole day." In this way he avoided engaging in 
 conversation and the exposure of his own incompetence. 
 But finding himself pressed, he was obliged to leave his 
 entrenchment, and began to utter a mass of theological 
 nonsense, supported by a dervish who received his remarks 
 with the utmost respect. When two men who were present 
 
 *The Bull Unigenitus, directed against the Jansenists. (See Letter 
 XXIV.) 
 
I90 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 denied any of his principles, he said at once, " It is true ; 
 we have so decided it, and we are infallible judges." "But 
 how," said I, "are you infallible judges?" "Do you not 
 see," he replied, "that the Holy Ghost enlightens us?" 
 "That is fortunate," I rejoined, "for from the style of 
 your talk to-day, I perceive how much you need to be en- 
 lightened." 
 
 Paris, the i8th of the first moon of 
 Rebiab, 1717. 
 
 LETTER cm 
 
 USBEK TO Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 THE most powerful states in Europe are those of the 
 Emperor, and of the kings of France, Spain, and 
 England. Italy, and a large part of Germany, are 
 divided into a great number of small states, the princes of 
 which are, properly speaking, martyrs to sovereignty. Our 
 glorious sultans have more wives than some of these princes 
 have subjects. Those of Italy, being, less united, are most 
 to be pitied ; their states are as open as caravansaries, in 
 which they are forced to accommodate the first comer : 
 they therefore require to join themselves to great princes, 
 and share their fears with them rather than their friend- 
 ship. Most European governments are monarchical, or 
 rather are called so ; for I do not know whether there ever 
 was a government truly (So narcffic^ ; at least they cannot 
 -^ have continued very long in their original purity. It is a 
 mJ*^ state in which might Jg^,right, and which degenerates always 
 ^ /'jnto a despotism or a ^republic. _ Authority can never be 
 / equally divided between the people and the prince; it is 
 / too difficult to maintain an equilibrium ; power must diminish 
 on' one side while it increases on the other ; but the ad- 
 vantage is usually with the prince, as he commands the 
 , army. 
 
 Accordingly, the power of the kings of Spain is very 
 great ; one may say that they have as much as they desire, 
 but they do not exercise it to such a degree as our sultans : 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 191 
 
 firstly, because they are not willing to offend the manners 
 and the religion of the people ; secondly, because it is not 
 in their own interests to carry things with so high a 
 hand. 
 
 Nothing brings our princes nearer the condition of their 
 subjects than the immense power which they wield over 
 them ; nothing makes them more subject to reverses and 
 caprices of fortune. 
 
 The custom which princes have of putting to death all 
 those who displease them upon the slightest pretense, de- 
 stroys the proportion which ought to exist between crime 
 and punishment ; and that proportion, scrupulously pre- 
 served by the Christian princes, gives them an immeasurable 
 advantage over our sultans. 
 
 A Persian who, imprudently or by mischance, draws 
 upon himself the displeasure of his prince, is sure to die ; 
 the slightest fault or the slightest caprice reduces him to 
 that necessity. But if he had attempted the life of his 
 sovereign if he had intended to betray his towns to the 
 enemy, he would have atoned as before by losing his life ; 
 he runs no greater risk in the latter case than in the 
 former. 
 
 And so, under the least disgrace, death being certain and 
 nothing worse to fear, he naturally applies himself to dis- 
 turb the state, and to conspire against the sovereign — his 
 only remaining resource. 
 
 It is not the same with the grandees of Europe, who, when 
 in disgrace, lose only the royal favor and good will. . They 
 withdraw from the court and give themselves up to enjoy, 
 a quiet life and the privileges of their birth ; a s they are 
 seldom done to death except for high treason, they dread to 
 commit~tEat cnme, remembering what they may Jose, and 
 how little_they_are likely to gain ; this is why one sees 
 here few rebellions,_^nd_ few princes who die a violent 
 
 death. 
 
 ' If, with that unlimited power which our princes have, 
 they did not take every precaution for the safety of their 
 lives, they would not live a single day ; and if they had 
 not in their pay innumerable troops to coerce their other 
 subjects, their rule would not last for a month. 
 
192 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 It is only some four or five centuries since a king of 
 France,* contrary to the custom of the times, levied guards 
 to secure himself from the assassins which a petty prince of 
 Asia t had sent to kill him ; till that time kings had lived 
 peacefully among their subjects, like fathers with their 
 children. 
 
 Although the kings of France are quite unable, of their 
 own motion, to take away the life of one of their subjects 
 like our sultans, yet they carry about with them always 
 mercy for all criminals ; that he should have been fortunate 
 enough to behold the august countenance of his prince, is 
 sufficient to make a man once more worthy to live. These 
 monarchs are like the sun, which sheds everywhere heat 
 and life. 
 
 Paris, the 8th of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, 1717. 
 
 LETTER CIV 
 UsBEK TO THE Same 
 
 HERE you have as nearly as I can, continuing the sub- 
 ject of my last letter, what a sensible European said 
 to me recently. 
 
 "The worst course which the princes of Asia could have 
 adopted, is to shut themselves up as they do. They desire 
 to render themselves more venerable ; but it is royalty which 
 they cause to be respected, and not the king ; they attach 
 the minds of their subjects to a certain throne, and not to 
 a certain person. 
 
 "When the power that governs is invisible it is always 
 the same to the people. Although ten kings, known only 
 by name, should have their throats cut one after the other, 
 the public are sensible of no difference : it is as if they were 
 governed by a succession of spirits. 
 
 " If the detestable murderer of our great king, Henry 
 IV., had assassinated one of the kings of Ind, master of 
 
 * Philip- Augustus. 
 
 ■(■He -who ■was called the «old man of the mountains." 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS J93 
 
 the royal seal, and of an immense treasure which would 
 seem to have been amassed for him, he would peacefully 
 have seized the reigns of power, without its entering into 
 any one's mind to inquire after the king, his relations, and 
 children. 
 
 " We are astonished that there is hardly ever any change 
 in the government of eastern princes : how could it be oth- 
 erwise, when we bear in mind their terrible tyranny ? 
 
 " Changes cannot be effected except by the prince or by 
 the people : but there the princes take care to alter nothing, 
 because, possessed of such absolute power, they have all 
 they can have : were they to make any change it could 
 only be to their own injury. 
 
 " As to the subjects, should one of them form any design, 
 he cannot execute it upon the state ; it would be necessary 
 to overturn at one blow a most formidable and unchanging 
 power ; for this he lacks time and means : but he has only 
 to attack the source of that power, for which all he needs 
 is an arm and a moment of time. 
 
 " The murderer mounts the throne, as the monarch leaves 
 it and falls expiring at his feet. 
 
 " In Europe a malcontent thinks of carrying on a secret 
 correspondence, of going over to the enemy, of seizing 
 some town, or of exciting foolish complaints among the 
 people. A malcontent in Asia goes straight to the prince, 
 amazes, strikes, overthrows : he obliterates all memory of 
 his existence : in one moment slave and master, usurper and 
 lawful sovereign. 
 
 " Unfortunate is the king who has only one head ! In 
 guarding it with all his power he only shows the first up- 
 start where to strike." 
 
 Paris, the 17th of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, 1717. 
 13 
 
194 
 
 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 IvETTER CV 
 
 ^ 
 
 Usbek: to thk Same 
 
 A' 
 
 ^-1 
 
 T,!, the nations of Europe are not equally submissive to 
 
 their princes : the impatient humor of the English, 
 
 for instance, leaves their king hardly any time to 
 
 make his authority felt. Submission and obedience are 
 
 virtues upon which they flatter Themsefves but little. On 
 
 this subject they_say_most _amazinj^_, things. According to 
 
 them there is only one tie_which^ can bind men, .and that 
 
 is gratitude : husband and wife, father and son, are only 
 
 bound tcT^ch other by their jimtnal affprtion^ or by the 
 
 J services they do each other : and these various motives of 
 
 ^'^ ,/ . I obligation are the origin of all kingdoms and communities. 
 
 '\*^r~ 'r.j \ But . if aT prince, instead of making the lives of his sub- 
 
 \ ' "* 1 \jects happy, attempts to_oj)press and ruin them, the basis 
 
 'of obe3ience is destroyed ; nothing Hnds lEemTnothing^at- 
 
 ' taches them to him ; and they return to their^natural liberty.- 
 
 ' [They maintain that all unlimited power must be unlawful,* 
 
 . \y"-' because it cannot 'have""fiad'"a"'lawfur'origin;""'For^" we can- 
 
 "v not, say tTipy, g-ivf fr* ?n"^^'°'' Tnnrp pnwpr mror iiq than w'e 
 
 { ourse lves haye : now, we have not unlimited power over 
 \ o urselves ; for exam ple, we have no right to take our own 
 \ lives : no one upon earth then, they conclude, has such 'a 
 power. 
 
 The crime of hjgji treason is nothing else, according to 
 them, than the crime of the weaker against the stronger, 
 simply disobedience, no matter what form the disobedience 
 may take. Thus the people of England, finding themselves 
 I stronger than one of their kings,* pronounced it high trea- 
 I son in a prince to make war upon his subjects. They 
 have therefore good reason to say that the precept of their 
 Koran, f which requires submission to the powers that be, 
 is not a very difficult one to follow, seeing that it is im- 
 possible not to do so, inasmuch as they are not enjoined to 
 submit to the most virtuous, but to the strongest. 
 
 * Charles I. 
 
 tThe New Testament. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 195 
 
 The Knglish tell how one of their kings, having con- 
 quered and taken prisoner a prince who disputed his right 
 to the crown, began to reproach him with his faithlessness 
 and treachery, when the unfortunate prince replied, * It was 
 decided only a moment ago which of us two is the traitor." 
 
 A usurper declares all those rebels who have not, like t 
 him, oppressed their country ; and believing that where there 
 are no jud ges there a re^jio laws. he_ causes the caprices 
 of chance and fortune to be reverenced like the decrees of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Paris, the 2otli of the second moon of 
 Rebiab, 1717. 
 
 I.ETTKR CVI 
 RHigDi TO UsBKK, at Paris 
 
 IN ONK of your letters you said much to me about the 
 arts and sci ences cultivated in t he we st. You are in- 
 clinedT to regard me as a barbarian ; but_X am not cer-j 
 tain that the profit derived from them recompenses men for ' 
 the bad use^ to which they _are put every, day. I have 
 heard it said that the inven tion of bom bs alone has de- 
 prived all ihi^ Tigfinng r»f 'Riirnpp of freedom. The princes 
 being no longer able to trust the guardianship of towns to 
 the citizens, who would surrender them at the first bomb, 
 have made it a pretext for keeping large bodies of regular 
 troops, whom they have since used to oppress their subjects. 
 
 You know that since the invention of gunpowder no 
 place is impregnable ; that is to say, Usbek, that there is i 
 no longer upon the earth a refuge from injustice and vio- | 
 lence. 
 
 I dread always lest they should at last discover some 
 secret which will furnish them with a briefer method of. 
 destroying mgjj, by killing them off wholesale in tribes and 
 nations. / /^<^^ /iy^i^tS ,'^'^'^ 
 
 You have readM;he historians : think of them seriously ; 
 almost all monarchies have, been founded upon ignorance j 
 of the arts, and have been destroyed, by their over-cultiva- » 
 
Jh 
 
 196 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 tion. The ancient empire of Persia may furnish us with 
 an example at our own doors. 
 
 I have not been long in Europe ; yet I have heard sen- 
 sible people talk of the ravages of alchegiy. It seems to 
 be a fourth plagu e, yi\\\ch rtiins men, destroying tTiem one 
 b y nnp, hn\ rnn tinuallv : while war, pestilence, and famine 
 destroy them in the mass, but at intervals. 
 
 Of what advantage has the invention of the mariner's 
 compass been to us, and the discovery of so many nations 
 who have given us more diseases than wealth? Gold and 
 silver have been established by a general agreement as the 
 means of purchasing all goods, and as a pledge of their 
 value, because these metals are rare, and useless for any 
 other purpose : of what consequence was it to us, then, 
 that they should become more common, and that to mark 
 the value of any commodity, we should have two or three 
 signs in place of one? This was only more inconvenient. 
 But, on the other hand, this invention has been hurtful 
 to the countries of the New World. Entire nations have 
 been destroyed ; and those who have escaped death have 
 
 ' /D/rwJS/1^} ^^^^ reduced to a slavery so dreadful, that the description 
 
 ^'X^ . of it makes even a Mussulman shudder. 
 
 SyA^Q^ /\ ^^PPy ^^ t^^i"" ignorance are t^e children of Moham- 
 
 H 
 
 ,A 
 
 :jj 
 
 med ! Their amiable simplicity, so dear to our holy 
 Prophet, perpetually recalls to me the artlessness of the 
 olden time, and the peace which reigned in the hearts of 
 our first fathers. 
 
 Vbnice, the 5tli of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1717. 
 
 IvETTER CVII 
 
 USBBK TO RhEDI, at VBNICB 
 
 YOTT do not think as you say, or else your actions are 
 better than your thoughts. You left your country to 
 acquire knowledge, and you despise all knowledge ; 
 you go to form yourself in a country where the fine arts 
 are cultivated, and you regard them as hurtful. May I 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 197 
 
 833' it, Rhedi? — I am more of your mind than you are 
 yourself. lA-i Ij-^^A.i/di f-^ 
 
 Have you properly considered the ^barbarous and unhappy 
 condition which the loss of the arts* would entail upon 
 us ? There is no need to imagine it ; it can be seen. 
 There are still people upon the earth, among whom a tol- 
 erably trained monkey could live with credit ; he would be 
 almost on a level with the other inhabitants ; and they 
 would not think him a curious creature, or an odd char- 
 acter ; he would pass as well as another, and would even 
 be distinguished by his elegance. 
 
 You say that the founders of empires have almost all 
 been ignorant of the arts. I do not deny that barbarians 
 have poured over the earth like impetuous torrents, and 
 covered with their wild armies the most civilized kingdoms ; 
 but, observe this, they learned the arts, or made the con- 
 quered races exercise them ; without that, their power _ 
 would have passed away like the noise of a thunder- 
 storm." 
 
 You fear, you say, that some more dreadful method of 
 destruction than that at present in use will be invented. 
 No ; if a fatal invention were to be brought out, it would | 
 soon be prohibited by the law of nations, and suppressed' 
 by unanimous consent. It is not in the interest of princes 
 to make conquests by such means ; they wish to gain sub- ^ 
 jects, not soil. 
 
 You complain of the invention of gunpowder and bombs ; 
 you think it strange that no place should now be impreg- 
 nable — that is to say, you think it strange that wars, 
 should be brought to an end sooner to-day than they were I 
 formerly. ' 
 
 You must have remarked in reading history, that since 1 
 the invention of gunpowder, battles are much less bloody ' 
 than they used to be, because the armies are seldom inter- 
 mingled. . 
 
 Why, because an art is found injurious^ in some particu-! 
 lar instance, should it be rejected entirely ? Do you think, \ 
 Rhedi, that the religion which our holy Prophet brought 
 
 * Used by Montesquieu as inclusive of both the industrial and the 
 fine arts. 
 
198 
 
 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 ,^- 
 
 r 
 
 N 
 
 4i 
 
 
 J/ 
 
 -\'^^ 
 
 from Heaven is harmful, because one day it will serve to 
 confound the unbelieving Christians? 
 
 You think that the arts enervate people, and are therefore 
 the cause of the fall of empires. You speak of the fall of 
 that of the ancient Persians, which was the result of their 
 efifeminacy ; but this example is not by any means decisive, 
 since the Greeks, who defeated them so often, and con- 
 quered them, were much more assiduous than they in the 
 cultivation of the arts. 
 
 "When they talk of the arts making men effeminate, they 
 are not referring at all to the people that work at them, 
 since they know nothing of indolence, which of all vices 
 weakens courage the most. 
 
 It is, then, those who enjoy the fruits of labor who are 
 intended. But, as in a civilized_ country _jthose_who_ enjoy 
 the products of one art are obliged to cultivate^ -aaotiier on 
 pain of being reduced to a shameful poverty, i^^foUows 
 that indolence _ and effeminacy are incompatible with the arts . 
 
 Paris is 'perhaps the most luxurious city in the world ; 
 in it pleasure is carried to the highest pitch of refinement; 
 yet life there is perhaps harder than in any other city. 
 That one man may live delicately, a hundred must labor 
 without intermission. It comes into a lady's head that she 
 ought to appear at an assembly in a certain dress ; from 
 that moment fifty workmen must go without sleep, and 
 witedut time to eat or drink; she comrhands, and is obeyed 
 as promptly as our monarch would be, because Interest is 
 the greatest monarch in the world. 
 
 This ardor for work, this passion for wealth, runs 
 through every rank, from the workmen up to the highest 
 in fheT^ahd.'™"No'Bo3y*TiS^ to 'Ee~^oorer""than he who is 
 his immediate .ifl|gr|Q|-. ' You may see at Paris a man with 
 sufficient to live on till the end of the world, laboring con- 
 stantly, and running the risk of shortening his days, to 
 / i^crape together, as he says, a livelihood. 
 \ "^ A The same spirit prevails throughout the nation ; nothing 
 . „ is to be seen but toil and industry. Where, then, is this 
 ,"'x,.'\ effeminate people of which you talk so much? 
 
 I will suppose a kingdom, Rhedi, in which only those 
 arts absolutely necessary for the cultivation of the land are 
 
 
 \;- 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 199 
 
 allowed, which amount after all to a goodly number ; and j 
 that all those which minister only to pleasure or to fancy 
 are banished ; I mainta in that that state would be one of | 
 the most miserable in the whole world. 
 
 TB5ugir~the inhabitants might have sufficient hardihood 
 to do without so many things which their needs require, 
 the people would decay daily ; and the state would become 
 so feeble, that there would be no force too petty to over- 
 come it.._J 
 
 It would be easy to discuss this in detail, and to show, 
 you that the incomes of the subjects would cease almost! 
 entirely, and consequently that of the prince. 'There would 
 hardfy' Be any exchange of goods among the citizens, and 
 there would be an,, end of that circulation of wealth, and 
 of that increase of revenue, which arises from the depend- 
 ence or the arts upon each other ; each person would live 
 upon his land, and would take from it only Just enough to 
 keep fiim- ir o m - dyi ag— of* hunger. But as this is sometimes 
 not a twentieth part of the revenue of a state, the number 
 of the inhabitants would diminish in proportion, until there/ 
 remained of them also only a twentieth. 
 
 Consider attentively how much the revenue of industry 
 amounts to. Land produces annually to its owner only a 
 twentieth part of its value ; but with one pistole-worth of 
 color a painter will make a picture which will be worth 
 fifty. The like may be said of goldsmiths, of workers in 
 wool and silk, and of all kinds of artisans. 
 
 From all this, one may conclude, Rhedi, that if a prince 
 is to be powerful, it is necessary that his subjects should 
 live in luxury ;"*he ought to labor to procure all sorts of 
 superflmtreS with'^s ■much care- as the necessities of life. 
 
 Paris, the 14th of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1717. 
 
200 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER CVIII 
 Rica to Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 I HAVE seen the young king.* His life is very precious 
 to his people : it is not less so to the whole of Europe. 
 But kings are like gods ; and as long as they live 
 must be considered immortal. His face is majestic but 
 pleasing ; a good education in conjunction with a happy 
 disposition, already give promise of a great prince. 
 
 They say that one can never tell the character of the 
 kings of the west until they have passed through the two 
 great ordeals of selecting their mistress and their confessor. 
 We shall shortly see the one and the other laboring to 
 possess the mind of this one : and on that account he will 
 become the subject of great contentions. For under a 
 young prince these two powers are always rivals ; but 
 they are reconciled and leagued together under an old one. 
 Under a young prince a dervish has a very difficult 
 part to play; the king's strength is his weakness; but 
 the other triumphs alike in both his strength and his 
 weakness. 
 
 When I arrived in France, I found the late king alto- 
 gether governed by women, although at his age I believe 
 him to have been the one monarch in the world who had 
 least need of them. I heard a woman say one day, "Some- 
 thing must be done for that young colonel ; I know his 
 worth; I will speak to the minister for him." Another 
 said, "It is surprising that that young abb6 should have 
 been overlooked ; he must be made a bishop ; he is well- 
 born, and I can answer for his morals." You must not 
 however suppose that the women who talked in this way 
 were favorites of the prince: they had perhaps not spoken 
 twice to him all their lives ; which is nevertheless a very 
 easy thing to do with European princes. But^Jhere is not 
 a single person employed in any way at the court, in Paris, 
 
 * Louis XV., born 15th of February, 1710. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 201 
 
 or in the provinces, who is not acquainted with some wo- 
 man through whose hands pass all the favors and sometimes 
 all the wrongs which he may wish done. These women are 
 all in each other's secrets, and form a sort of republic, the 
 members of which are always busy aiding and serving each 
 other; it is like a state within a state; and any one at 
 court, in Paris, or in the provinces, who sees the activity 
 of the ministers, the magistrates, and the prelates, if he 
 does not know the women who govern them, is like a man 
 who sees a machine at work, but who is ignorant of the 
 springs that move it. 
 
 Do you think, Ibben, that a woman consents to be the 
 mistress of a minister for love of him ? What an idea ! It 
 is in order that she may lay before him every morning five 
 or six petitions ; and the goodness of these women appears 
 in the zeal with which they serve an infinite number of 
 unfortunate people, who obtain for them an income of a 
 hundred thousand livres. 
 
 They complain in Persia that the kingdom is governed by 
 two or three women : it is much worse in France, where 
 the women govern generally, and not only usurp all author- 
 ity wholesale, but retail it among themselves. 
 
 Pakis, the last day of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1717. 
 
 I^KTTER CIX 
 
 USBBK TO * * * 
 
 THERE is a species of book unknown to us in Persia, and 
 which seems to me to be very fashionable here : these 
 are the journals.* Idleness feels flattered in reading 
 them ; it is so delightful to be able to run through thirty 
 volumes in a quarter of an hour. 
 
 In most of these books, the author has not made the 
 ordinary compliments, before the reader is in despair : he 
 
 * The French journals of the eighteenth century contained nothing 
 but notices of new books. 
 
202 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 is made to enter half dead upon a subject drowned in the 
 midst of a sea of words. This one would immortalize him- 
 self in duodecimo, that one in quarto ; another with loftier 
 propensities aims at a folio ; he must therefore extend his 
 subject in proportion ; which he does without mercy, count- 
 ing as nothing the trouble of the poor reader, who worries 
 himself to death reducing what the author took such pains 
 to amplify. 
 
 I cannot see . . . what merit there is in making such 
 works ; I could do it myself quite well, if I chose to ruin 
 my health and a publisher. 
 
 The chief fault of these journalists is, that they talk only 
 of new books ; as if truth were always new. It seems to 
 me that until a man has read all the old books, he has no 
 right to prefer the new ones. 
 
 But when they lay it down as a law that they must 
 never speak except of works hot from the press, they im- 
 pose upon themselves another — which is, to be very tedious. 
 They are very chary of criticising the works from which 
 they make extracts, whatever their reason may be : and, 
 indeed, what man is bold enough to wish to make ten or 
 twelve enemies every month? 
 
 Most authors are like poets, who will take a caning 
 without a murmur ; but who, indifferent as to their should- 
 ers, are so very jealous of their works, that they cannot 
 endure the least criticism. It is necessary then to be very 
 careful not to attack them in so sensitive a spot ; and the 
 journalists know it well. They therefore do just the con- 
 trary : they begin by praising the matter treated of; from 
 this their first ineptitude they pass to the praise of the 
 author, forced praise, for they have to do with people who 
 are always on the alert, ever ready to see justice done 
 themselves, and to attack with trenchant pen a foolhardy 
 journalist. 
 
 Paris, the sth. of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1718. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 203 
 
 IvETTER CX 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 THE University of Paris is the first-born daughter of the 
 kings of France, and very aged; for she is more than 
 nine hundred years old ; and so she dotes now and 
 again. 
 
 I have been told that she had at one time a great dis- 
 pute with some doctors about the letter Q,* which they 
 wanted to pronounce like K. The quarrel grew so warm 
 that some of the disputants were despoiled of their sub- 
 stance. It became necessary for parliament to put an end 
 to it ; which it did by permitting, in a solemn decree, 
 all the subjects of the king of France to pronounce that 
 letter according to their fancy. It was very amusing to 
 see the two most venerable institutions in Europe occupied 
 in deciding the fate of a letter of the alphabet ! 
 
 It seems, my dear . . . that the ablest men grow 
 stupid when they get together ; and that, where you have 
 the greatest number of wise men, there you have the least 
 wisdom. Great bodies always pay so much attention to 
 minor details, and idle customs, that essentials are never 
 considered till afterward. I have heard it said that a king 
 of Arragon.t having assembled the states of Arragon and 
 Catalonia, the first sessions were spent in deciding in what 
 language the deliberations should be held : the dispute was 
 lively, and the states would have broken up a thousand 
 times, if they had not hit upon, the expedient of putting 
 the question in the Catalonian tongue, and the reply in 
 that of Arragon. 
 
 Paris, the 25th of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1718. 
 
 *He means the dispute with Ramus.— (M.) Dr. Ramus (Pierre de 
 la Ramde), Professor in the College Royal, wished to say kiskis and 
 kankam instead of quisquis and quanquam. He was assassinated on 
 the third day of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 t Philip III., King of Spain. 
 
204 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER CXI 
 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 THE r6le of a fine lady is much more serious than one 
 would imagine. Nothing could be more important 
 than what takes place in the morning at her toilet 
 among her servants : a general of an army devotes no more 
 attention to the. disposition of his right or of his reserve 
 corps, than she gives to placing a patch which may fail, 
 but from which she hopes or foresees success. 
 
 What mental worry, what care, to be continually recon- 
 ciling the interests of two rivals ; to appear neutral to 
 both, while she is giving herself to each of them ; and to 
 act the part of peacemaker in all the strife she makes be- 
 tween themi! 
 
 How she is occupied with the success and the renewal of 
 pleasure parties, and in the prevention of all accidents that 
 might interrupt them ! 
 
 And with it all, the greatest trouble is taken, not to 
 amuse oneself, but to appear to be amused. Bore them as 
 much as you like, they will forgive you, so long as it is 
 understood that they have been very merry. 
 
 Some days ago I was at a supper given by some ladies 
 in the country. All the way they kept saying, *We must 
 at least enjoy ourselves immensely.* 
 
 We happened to be very ill paired, and were conse- 
 quently very dull. "I must confess," said one of these 
 ladies, "that we are very merry; there is not in Paris to- 
 day a party so gay as ours." As the wearisomeness of it 
 all began to overpower me, a lady rallied me, and said, 
 "Well, are we not getting on charmingly?" "Yes," I re- 
 plied, yawning; "I believe I shall split my sides laughing." 
 Melancholy, however, invaded all our thoughts; and as for 
 me, I felt myself fall from yawn to yawn into a lethargic 
 sleep, which put an end to all my mirth. 
 
 Paris, the iitii of the moon of 
 Mahatram, 171 8. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 205 
 
 I^ETTER CXII* 
 
 USBBK TO * * * 
 
 THE reign of the late king was so long that the end of 
 it had caused the beginning to be forgotten. Now it 
 is the fashion to occupy oneself with the events that 
 happened in his minority ; and nothing is read but the 
 memoirs of these times. 
 
 Here is the speech which one of the generals of the city 
 of Paris delivered at a council of war : I confess I do not 
 see anything very remarkable in it : 
 
 " Gentlemen, although our troops have been repulsed 
 with loss, I think it will be easy to retrieve this misfortune. 
 I have six couplets all ready to publish, which I am cer- 
 tain will restore all matters to a proper balance. I have 
 chosen some admirably clear voices, which issuing from the 
 cavity of certain very powerful chests, will move the people 
 wonderfully. They are set to an air which has hitherto 
 produced quite a peculiar effect. 
 
 " If this is not enough, we can bring out a print repre- 
 senting Mazarin hanged. 
 
 " Fortunately for us, he does not speak French well ; and 
 he mutilates it in such a way, that his importance cannot 
 fail to decline. We take care to make the people observe 
 with what a ridiculous accent he speaks it.f Some days 
 ago we made such sport of an absurd mistake in grammar, 
 that it is now a joke in all the streets. 
 
 " I hope that before eight days have passed, the people 
 will make the name of Mazarin a generic term to express 
 all the beasts of burden and beasts of draught. 
 
 " Since our defeat, our songs about original sin have an- 
 noyed him so much, that, to save his party from being 
 
 *The fifth of the letters added in 1754. 
 
 t Cardinal Mazarin, having occasion to use the phrase, VarrH 
 d'union, before the parliamentary deputies, pronounced it, VarrH 
 rf'OGNON, a slip of which the people made great fun.— (M.) 
 
2o6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 reduced to half, he has been forced to send - away all his 
 pages. 
 
 " Rouse yourselves then ; take courage, and be sure that 
 with our hisses we shall send him packing over the 
 mountains. " 
 
 Paris, the 4tli of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 I^ETTER CXIII 
 Rhedi to Usbbk, at Paris 
 
 DURING my stay in Europe, I read the ancient and mod- 
 ern historians : I compare all times ; I please myself 
 with watching them pass before me as it were ; 
 above all, my thoughts are' fixed upon those great changes 
 which have made the ages so different from each other, 
 and the earth so unlike itself. 
 
 You have perhaps given some attention to a matter 
 which continually occasions my surprise. How is the world 
 so thinly peopled in comparison with what it was once ? * 
 How has nature lost the wonderful fruitfulness of the first 
 ages? Can it be that she is already old and fallen into 
 decline ?j 
 
 I dwelt for more than a year in Italy, where I saw 
 nothing but the ruins of that ancient Italy, so famous in 
 former times. Although all the people live in the towns, 
 they are quite deserted and empty : they seem to exist 
 only to indicate the places where those powerful cities 
 stood of which history says so much. 
 
 Some people here pretend that the city of Rome alone 
 contained formerly more people than one of the great king- 
 doms of Europe does to-day. There were Roman citizens 
 who had ten, and even twenty thousand slaves, without 
 counting those employed in their country houses ; and as it 
 
 *Some countries were, in Montesquieu's time, and are now, less 
 populous than in their earlier history ; but that the modern world 
 contains fewer people than the antique one, is an assertion for which 
 there is no proof. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 207 
 
 is calculated that there were four or five hundred thousand 
 citizens, the imagination rebels at any attempt to fix the 
 number of the inhabitants. 
 
 In Sicily, there were formerly powerful and densely peo- 
 pled kingdoms, which have since disappeared : that island 
 has nothing more notable now than volcanoes. 
 
 Greece is so deserted that it does not contain a hun- 
 dredth part of its ancient inhabitants. 
 
 Spain, once so crowded, can now show only uninhabited 
 lands ; and France is nothing compared with that ancient 
 Gaul of which Caesar speaks.* 
 
 The countries of the north are sadly thinned ; and the 
 people no longer require, as formerly, to divide themselves, 
 and set out in swarms, in colonies, in whole nations, to 
 seek for new abodes. 
 
 Poland and Turkey in Europe have almost no inhabitants. 
 
 We cannot find in America the fiftieth part of the men 
 who formed the great empires there. 
 
 Asia is hardly in a better state. Asia Minor, which con- 
 tained so many powerful monarchies, and such an immense 
 number of great cities, has now no more than two or three. 
 As regards the greater Asia, that part which is under the 
 Turk is not more populous ; and if that part of it which is 
 under the dominion of our kings be compared with the 
 prosperous state in which it once was, it will be found to 
 contain a very small part of the innumerable inhabitants 
 which it possessed in the times of Xerxes and Darius. 
 
 As for the petty states which border these great empires, 
 they are really deserts, such as the kingdoms of Irimetta, 
 Circassia, and Guriel. These princes with vast territories, 
 rule over a bare fifty thousand subjects. 
 
 Egypt is not less deficient than the other countries. 
 
 In short, I have reviewed the whole world, and found 
 nothing but decay : I think I see the earth emerging from 
 the ravages of pestilence and famine. 
 
 Africa has always been so little known, that one cannot 
 speak of it so precisely as of the other parts of the world ; 
 but, dealing only with the Mediterranean shores, which have 
 always been known, it is plain that it has fallen away 
 
 * In one sense true, as Csesar's Gaul was covered with forests. 
 
2o8 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 sadly from what it was under the Carthaginians and the 
 Romans. To-day, its princes are so weak that they are the 
 most inconsiderable potentates in the world. 
 
 After a calculation as exact as may be in the circum- 
 stances, I have found that there are upon the earth hardly 
 one-tenth part of the people which there were in ancient 
 times. And the astonishing thing is, that the depopulation 
 goes on daily : if it continues, in ten centuries the earth will 
 be a desert. ^ 
 
 Here, my dear Usbek, you have the most terrible calam- 
 ity that can ever happen in the world. But we have 
 scarcely perceived it, because it has stolen upon us gradu- 
 ally in the course of a great many centuries, which denotes 
 an inward defect, a secret and hidden poison, a malady of 
 decline, afflicting human nature. 
 
 Venice, the loth of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER CXIV 
 UsBKK TO Rhedi, at Venice 
 
 THE earth, my dear Rhedi, is not incorruptible ; even 
 the heavens are not : astronomers are eyewitnesses of 
 their changes, which are the perfectly natural effects 
 of the universal motion of matter. 
 
 The earth is subject, like the other planets, to the laws 
 of motion ; it suffers within itself a continual strife among 
 its elements ; the sea and the land seem to be forever at 
 war ; each moment produces new combinations. 
 
 Men, in an abode so subject to change, are likewise in 
 an unsettled condition : a hundred thousand causes may 
 operate against them capable of destroying them, and much 
 more of increasing or diminishing their number. 
 
 I do not refer to those special catastrophes, so common 
 in history, which have destroyed whole cities and king- 
 doms : there are general ones which many a time have 
 brought the human race next door to destruction. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 209 
 
 History is full of those universal plagues which have one 
 after the other desolated the earth. They tell of one which 
 was so violent that it blasted the very roots of plants, and 
 made itself felt throughout the known world, as far as the 
 empire of China ; one degree more of corruption would have 
 destroyed, perhaps in a single day, the whole human race. 
 
 It is not two centuries since the most shameful of all 
 diseases overran Europe, Asia, and Africa ; in a very 
 short time it worked terrible havoc ; had it continued its 
 progress with unchanging fury, it would have destroyed 
 the race. Burdened with disease from their birth, and in- 
 capable of sustaining the duties of society, men would 
 have perished miserably. 
 
 How would it have been, had the poison possessed a 
 little more strength, as it would certainly have done, if, 
 fortunately, there had not been found a remedy as power- 
 ful as any yet discovered ! * Perhaps that disease, which 
 attacks the organs of generation, would have ended by 
 attacking generation itself. 
 
 But why do I talk of destruction that might have hap- 
 pened to the whole human race? Has it not already taken 
 place? Did not the Flood reduce mankind to one single 
 family ? 
 
 There are philosophers who distinguish two creations : 
 that of things, and that of man. They cannot believe that 
 matter and created things have been in existence only six 
 thousand years ; that during all eternity God delayed His 
 works, and only yesterday began to use His creative power. 
 Was it because He could not, or because He would not? 
 But if He could not at one time, neither could He at 
 another. It is then because He would not ; but, as time 
 does not exist for God, if it is granted that He willed a 
 thing once, He willed it always, and from the beginning. 
 
 However, all historians speak of a first father : they 
 show us the origin of human nature. Is it not natural to 
 suppose that Adam was saved from some general calamity, 
 as Noah was, from the Flood ; and that such great events 
 have been of frequent occurrence since the creation of the 
 world? But all destructions have not been violent. We 
 
 * Mercury. 
 H 
 
2IO MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 see many parts of the earth tired out with providing sub- 
 sistence for men ; how do we know that the whole earth 
 has not within itself general causes of debility, slow- 
 working and imperceptible? 
 
 It has been a satisfaction to me to give you these gen- 
 eral ideas before replying more particularly to your letter 
 on the decrease of mankind which has been going on for 
 seventeen or eighteen centuries. I will show you in a suc- 
 ceeding letter, that moral causes, independently of physical 
 ones, have produced this effect. 
 
 Paris, the 8th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 17 18. 
 
 I^ETTER CXV 
 UsBEK TO THE Same 
 
 You ask from what cause the earth is less populous than 
 it was formerly ; if you give the question good heed 
 you will see that this great difference is the result of 
 a moral change. 
 
 Things are much altered since the Christians and Mo- 
 hammedan religions divided the Roman world ; these two 
 religions have not been nearly so favorable to the propaga- 
 tion of the species as that of those masters of the world. 
 
 In it, polygamy was prohibited; and in that respect it 
 had a great advantage over the Mohammedan religion ; and 
 it had another, and no less considerable advantage over 
 Christianity in that it permitted divorce. 
 
 I find nothing so inconsistent as that plurality of wives 
 permitted by the holy Koran, and the command to satisfy 
 them in the same book. "Visit your wives," said the 
 Prophet, ** because you are as necessary to them as their 
 garments, and they, as necessary to you as yours." Here 
 is a precept which renders the life of a true Mussulman 
 very laborious. He who has the four wives established by 
 law, and only as many more concubines or slaves, must he 
 not be weighted down by so many garments? 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 211 
 
 "Your wives are your tilth," the Prophet says again; 
 " devote yourselves therefore to your labor, work for the good 
 of your soul; and one day you will have your reward." 
 
 I look upon a good Mussulman as an athlete, destined to 
 strive without respite, but who, soon weakened and over- 
 come by his first toils, languishes even in the field of vic- 
 tory, and finds himself, so to speak, buried under his own 
 triumphs. 
 
 Nature always works tardily, and, as it were, thriftily ; 
 her"" operations are never violent ; even in her productions 
 she requires temperance ; she never works but by rule 
 and measure ; if she be hurried she soon falls into decline, 
 and employs all her remaining strength in self-preserva- 
 tion, losing entirely her productive faculty and productive 
 power. 
 
 It is to this state of debility that we are always reduced 
 by the great number of our wives, fitter to exhaust us than 
 to satisfy "us. It is quite common among us to see a man 
 in a very large seraglio with but few children ; the chil- 
 dren themselves are for the most part weak and unhealthy, 
 and share the languor of their father. 
 
 This is not all : these women, forced to be continent, re- 
 quire people to guard them, who must necessarily be eu- 
 nuchs ; religion, jealousy, reason itself permit the approach 
 of no others ; there must be many of these guards, both to 
 maintain peace within doors amid the endless quarrels of 
 the women, and to prevent attempts from without. So that 
 a man who has ten wives or concubines, must have as 
 many eunuchs to guard them. But what a loss for society 
 in this great number of men practically dead from their 
 birth ! What depopulation must be the result ! 
 
 The female slaves, kept in the seraglio to attend along 
 with the eunuchs on this great number of women, almost 
 always grow old there in a sorrowful virginity; as long as 
 they are there they cannot marry ; and their mistresses, 
 once accustomed to them, hardly ever dismiss them. 
 
 You see how many persons of both sexes one man em- 
 ploys in his pleasures, causing them to die to the state, 
 and making them useless for the propagation of the spe- 
 cies. 
 
212 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Constantinople and Ispahan are the capitals of the two 
 greatest empires of the world ; every interest should con- 
 verge toward them, and people, attracted in a thousand 
 ways, should come to them from all quarters. And yet 
 these cities are themselves decaying, and will soon be de- 
 stroyed, if their rulers do not cause to repair thither almost 
 every century whole nations to repeople them. I will dis- 
 cuss this subject further in another letter. 
 
 Paris, the 13th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 I^ETTKR CXVI 
 
 USBBK TO THB SamB 
 
 THB Romans did not have fewer slaves than we ; they 
 had indeed more, but they made a better use of 
 them. 
 
 Far from preventing by violent measures the multiplica- 
 tion of their slaves, they, on the contrary, favored it to the 
 best of their ability ; they united them in marriages, of 
 a kind, as much as they could ; by this means they filled 
 their houses with servants of both sexes and all ages ; and 
 the state with a countless people. 
 
 Children which in time became the wealth of a master 
 were born around him without number ; he alone was 
 responsible for their upbringing and education ; the fathers, 
 freed from that burden, followed only the inclination of 
 nature, and multiplied without the fear of too large a 
 family. 
 
 I have told you that among us all the slaves are employed 
 in guarding our wives, and in nothing else ; that with regard 
 to the state they are in a perpetual lethargy ; with the re- 
 sult that industry and agriculture are necessarily confined 
 to a few freemen and heads of families, who apply them- 
 selves as little as possible. 
 
 It was not thus among the Romans. The republic made 
 use of this nation of slaves to its own great benefit. Each 
 had his own savings, which he owned on conditions 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 213 
 
 imposed by his master; and this hoard he employed in what- 
 ever direction his talent lay. One became a banker; 
 another traflficked in cargoes ; this one took to retail deal- 
 ing ; that one applied himself to some industry, or took to 
 farming and cultivated the soil ; there was not one of them 
 who did not give himself with all his might to increase his 
 savings, securing for himself in the meantime comfort in 
 his present slavery, and the hope of future liberty ; this 
 made a diligent people and encouraged arts and industry. 
 
 These slaves, enriched by their thrift and toil, bought 
 their freedom and became citizens. The republic was con- 
 tinually built up, and received into its bosom new families, 
 in proportion as the old ones decayed. 
 
 In my future letters I shall perhaps take the opportunity 
 to prove to you that the more men there are in a state, the | 
 more prosperous is its commerce ; I shall prove as easily, ' 
 that as commerce flourishes, men increase ; these two things ^ 
 necessarily aid and abet each other. 
 
 Since that is so, how much must this enormous number 
 of slaves, always busy, have grown and increased? In- 
 dustry and plenty produced them ; and they on their side 
 produced plenty and industry. 
 
 Paris, the i6th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER CXVII 
 USBEK TO THE Same 
 
 HITHERTO we have discussed only Mohammedan countries, 
 seeking the cause why they are less populous than 
 those which were subject to the government of the 
 Romans ; let us now inquire what has produced this effect 
 among the Christians. 
 
 Divorce, which was permitted in the Pagan religion, was 
 forbidden by Christianity. This change, which appears at 
 first of such slight importance, produced by degrees conse- 
 quences so terrible, that one can hardly believe them. 
 
 This deprived marriage not only of all its sweetness, but 
 attacked its very aim ; the desire to tighten the knot, only 
 
214 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 loosened it ; and instead of uniting hearts, as was pretended, 
 it separated them forever. 
 
 Into an action where all should be so free, and in which 
 the heart ought to have so large a share, were introduced 
 constraint, necessity, fate itself. Disgust, caprice, incom- 
 patibility of temper were not considered at all ; the inten- 
 tion was to fix the heart, that is to say, to fix the most 
 changeable and inconstant thing in nature ; people, weary 
 of one another, and almost always badly matched, were 
 joined in an unchanging and hopeless union, as tyrants 
 used to unite living men to dead bodies. 
 
 Nothing contributed more to a mutual attachment than 
 the power of divorce : husband and wife were induced to 
 endure patiently domestic troubles, knowing that they had the 
 power to end them ; and they often retained this power all 
 their lives without using it, from the sole reflection that 
 they were at liberty to do so. 
 
 It is not thus with the Christians, as their present 
 troubles make them despair of the future. They see only 
 that the discomforts of marriage are lasting, or rather ever- 
 lasting; hence arise disgust, discord, contempt, and so far 
 a loss to posterity. Three years of marriage are hardly 
 over when its aim is neglected; then follow thirty years of 
 coldness ; private separations take place, more enduring, and 
 probably more baneful, than if they had been public; the 
 couple lead divided lives, and all to the prejudice of future 
 generations. A man is soon surfeited with one everlasting 
 woman, and betakes himself to harlots, a commerce shame- 
 ful and opposed to society, which without fulfilling the 
 object of marriage, represents at the best only its sensual 
 pleasures. 
 
 If, of two persons thus united, one is not suited to na- 
 ture's purpose and the propagation of the species, either 
 constitutionally or on account of age, that party buries the 
 other along with it and renders it as useless as it is it- 
 self. 
 
 It is not a matter of astonishment, then, to see among 
 the Christians so many marriages producing such a small 
 number of citizens. Divorce is abolished ; badly assorted 
 marriages cannot be amended; women do not pass as with 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 215 
 
 the Romans through the hands of several husbands, who 
 in turn made the best they could of them. 
 
 I dare to say that, in a republic like I/acedaemonia, where 
 the citizens were continually plagued by peculiar and subtle 
 laws, and in which the state was the only family, if it had 
 been decreed that husbands could change their wives every 
 year, an innumerable people would have been born. 
 
 It is very difficult to understand what reason led the 
 Christians to abolish divorce. Marriage among all the na- 
 tions of the world is a contract susceptible to all kinds of 
 stipulations, and none should be banished from it, except 
 such as would weaken its intention ; but the Christians do 
 not look at it in that light, and have taken much trouble 
 to explain their point of view. They make out that mar- 
 riage does not consist in sensual pleasure ; on the contrary, 
 as I have already told you, they seem to wish to exclude 
 that as much as possible ; with them it is a symbol, a type, 
 and something mysterious which I do not understand. 
 
 Paris, the 19th of the tnoon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 I^ETTER CXVIII 
 UsBEK TO THB Sams 
 
 I 
 
 THE prohibition of divorce is not the only cause of the 
 depopulation of Christian countries ; the great number 
 of eunuchs which they have among them is another 
 not less important. 
 
 I mean those priests and dervishes of both sexes who 
 devote themselves to perpetual continence : this is with the 
 Christians the virtue of virtues ; in which I fail to under- 
 stand them, not perceiving how that can be a virtue which 
 results in nothing. 
 
 I find that their learned men distinctly contradict them- 
 selves, when they say that marriage is holy, and that 
 celibacy, the opposite of marriage, is holier still ; without ^ 
 considering that in matters of teaching and fundamental I 
 doctrines, the expedient is always the best. 
 
2i6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 The number of people professing celibacy is enormous. 
 Formerly fathers condemned their children to it from the 
 cradle ; now they dedicate themselves from the age of 
 fourteen, which amounts to pretty much the same thing. 
 
 The practice of continence has destroyed more men than 
 plagues and the most sanguinary wars. In every religious 
 house we see an unending family, where nobody is born, 
 and which depends for its upkeep upon the rest of the 
 world. These houses are always open, like so many pits, 
 in which future generations are entombed. 
 
 This is a very different policy from that of the Romans, 
 who instituted penal laws against those who rebelled 
 against marriage, and wished to enjoy a liberty so opposed 
 to the public good. 
 
 I am only referring here to Catholic countries. The 
 Protestant religion grants the right of producing children 
 to everybody ; it permits neither priests nor dervishes ; 
 and if, in the establishment of that religion, which restored 
 everything to an earlier order, its founders had not been 
 constantly accused of incontinence, there can be no doubt 
 that, after having made the practice of marriage universal, 
 they would have lightened the yoke still further, and would 
 have ended by removing entirely the barrier which separates, 
 in this particular, the Nazarene and Mohammed. 
 
 But however that may be, it is certain that their religion 
 gives the Protestants a great advantage over the Catholics. 
 
 I dare to say that, in the present state of Europe, it is 
 not possible for the Catholic religion to exist there for five 
 hundred years. 
 
 Before the humiliation of the power of Spain, the Cath- 
 olics were much stronger than the Protestants. lyittle by 
 little the latter have arrived at an equality. The Protes- 
 tants will become richer and more powerful, and the Cath- 
 olics will grow weaker. 
 
 The Protestant countries ought to be, and are, in fact, 
 more populous than the Catholic ones ; from which it fol- 
 lows, firstly, that their revenue is greater, because it 
 increases in proportion to the number of those who pay 
 taxes ; secondly, that their lands are better cultivated ; 
 lastly, that commerce is more prosperous, because there are 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 2: 
 
 more people who have fortunes to make; and that, wit 
 increased wants, there is an increase of resources to supp! 
 them. When there are only people enough to cultivate tl 
 land, trade must perish ; and if there are no more than ai 
 necessary to carry on trade, agriculture must go to tl 
 wall ; that is to say, both would be ruined at the san 
 time, because devotion to the one can only be at tl 
 expense of the other. 
 
 As to Catholic countries, not only is agriculture abai 
 doned, but industry itself is mischievous ; it consists on] 
 in learning five or six words of a dead language. When 
 man has made this provision for himself, he need n( 
 trouble himself more about his fortune ; in the cloister 1 
 finds a peaceful life, which would have cost him in tl 
 world, care and toil. ^ — .„^ 
 
 This is not all. The flervishe^ hold in their banc 
 almost all the wealth of tBs — state ; they are a miser! 
 crew, always getting, and never giving ; they are contim 
 ally hoarding their income to acquire capital. All th: 
 wealth falls as it were into a palsy : it is not circulated, 
 is not employed in trade, in industry, or in manufacture; 
 
 There is no Protestant prince who does not levy upo 
 his people much heavier taxes than the Pope draws froi 
 his subjects ; yet the latter are poor, while the former liv 
 in affluence. Commerce puts life into all ranks among tt 
 Protestants, and celibacy lays its hand of death upon a 
 interests among the Catholics. 
 
 Paris, the 26tli of the first moon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 LKTTER CXIX 
 
 UsBEK TO THK Same 
 
 HAVING nothing further to say of Asia and Europe, k 
 us pass on to Africa. We can really speak of notl 
 ing but its shores, as we do not know the interior. 
 The Barbary coast, where the Mohammedan religion i 
 established, is not so populous as it was in the times c 
 
2i8 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 the Romans, for the reasons I have already given. ^As to 
 the Guinea coast, it must be terribly depopulated, since for 
 two hundred years the petty kings or village chiefs have 
 been selling their subjects to the European princes for 
 transportation to their American colonies. 
 
 A very remarkable thing about this America is, that 
 while it receives every year new inhabitants, it is itself a 
 desert, profiting nothing from the continual drain on Africa. 
 Those slaves, transported into a foreign clime, perish there 
 in thousands ; and the work in the mines in which natives 
 and foreigners are constantly employed, the poisonous vapors 
 which issue from them, and the quicksilver which is con- 
 tinually in use, destroy them without remedy. 
 
 There is nothing more absurd than to cause countless 
 numbers of men to perish in extracting from the bowels of 
 the earth gold and silver, metals in themselves absolutely 
 useless, and which constitute wealth only because they have 
 been chosen as the symbols of it. 
 
 Paris, the last of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1718. 
 
 LETTER CXX 
 USBEK TO THE Same 
 
 THE fertility of a people depends sometimes on the most 
 trifling circumstances in the world ; so that often noth- 
 ing more is necessary to increase its numbers than to 
 give a new direction to its imagination. 
 
 The Jews, always being exterminated, and always increas- 
 ing again, have repaired their continual losses and destruc- 
 tions by the single hope, shared by all their families, that 
 from one of them shall spring a powerful king who will be 
 the master of the world. 
 
 The ancient kings of Persia had such an immense num- 
 ber of subjects, simply because of that dogma of the Magian 
 religion which declares that the deeds of men most accept- 
 able to God are to beget a child, to till a field, and to 
 plant a tree. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 219 
 
 If the population of China is so enormous, it is only the 
 result of a certain way of thinking ; for since children look 
 upon their parents as gods, reverence them as such in this 
 life, and honor them after death with sacrifices by means 
 of which they believe that their souls, absorbed into Tyen,* 
 recommence a new existence, each one is bent on increasing 
 a family so dutiful in this life, and so necessary for the next. , 
 
 On the other hand, the Mohammedan countries become 
 daily more deserted, because of a belief, all-hallowed as it 
 is, which fails not of most baneful effects when it is deeply 
 rooted in the mind. We look upon ourselves as travelers, 
 who ought to think only of another country : useful and last- 
 ing works, care to make provision for our children, projects 
 which look beyond our own short and fleeting lives, seem 
 to us somewhat absurd. Easy minded as regards the pres- 
 ent, and without anxiety for the future, we trouble neither 
 to repair public buildings, to reclaim waste lands, nor to 
 cultivate those which are suited for tillage ; we live gener- 
 ally in a state of indifference, and allow Providence to do 
 everything. 
 
 It is a spirit of vanity which established in Europe the 
 unjust law of primogeniture, so unfavorable to propagation 
 in that~it fastens the attention of the father upon one of 
 his children, and turns his eyes from all the others, forcing 
 him in order to make a substantial fortune for one to pre- 
 vent the settlement of several ; and lastly, in that it destroys 
 equality among citizens, which constitutes all their wealth. 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the moon of 
 Rbamazan, 1718. 
 
 I.ETTER CXXI 
 UsBBK TO THE Same 
 
 COUNTRIES inhabited by savages are usually thinly 
 peopled, on account of the dislike which they almost 
 always have for toil and tillage. This unfortunate 
 dislike is so strong, that when they invoke a curse against 
 one of their enemies, they can wish him no greater evil 
 »The heaven of the Chinese. 
 
220 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 than to be reduced to plow a field, believing that hunt- 
 ing and fishing are the only exercises worthy of them. 
 
 But, as there are often years in which hunting and fish- 
 ing are very unproductive, they are desolated by frequent 
 famines ; without considering that game and fish are never 
 abundant enough in any country to support a numerous 
 people, because animals always forsake thickly inhabited 
 districts. , 
 
 Besides, savage hordes, each numbering two or three 
 hundred people, separated from each other, and hav- 
 ing interests as divided as those of two empires, cannot 
 maintain themselves, because they have not the resources 
 of great states, whose members are all in accord, and work 
 together for each other's good. 
 
 There is another custom not less baneful than the first; 
 the cruel habit which the women have of procuring abor- 
 tion, in order that their pregnancy may not make them dis- 
 agreeable to their husbands. 
 
 /■ There are dreadful laws against this crime, which are 
 
 j carried to excess. Every unmarried woman who does not 
 
 declare her pregnancy before a magistrate is punished with 
 
 death if her offspring dies : * shame and modesty, accidents 
 
 even, are no excuses. 
 
 Paris, the gtli of the moon of 
 Rhatnazan, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER CXXII 
 USBEK TO THE Same 
 
 THE ordinary effect of colonies is to weaken the coun- 
 tries from which they are taken, without peopling 
 those which are colonized, f 
 Men ought to stay where they are : the change from a 
 good climate to a bad one produces diseases, and others 
 spring from the mere change itself. 
 
 *By an edict of Henry II., in 1556. 
 t History proves the contrary. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 221 
 
 The air, like the plants, is loaded with the particles of \ 
 the soil of each country. It acts upon us in such a way 
 as to fix our constitutions. When we are transported to a ■' 
 foreign country we become ill. The fluids being accus- 
 tomed to a certain consistency and the solids to a certain 
 arrangement, and both to a certain degree of motion, can- 
 not put up with others, and resist a new order. 
 
 When a country is uninhabited, it is an indication of 
 some particular defect in the nature of the soil or of the 
 atmosphere : so that when men are removed from an agree- 
 able clime to such a country, exactly the opposite of what 
 was intended is done. 
 
 The Romans knew this by experience : they banished all 
 their criminals to Sardinia, and sent the Jews there too. 
 They had little difficulty in consoling themselves for their 
 loss, on account of the contempt in which they held these 
 wretched creatures. 
 
 The great Shah Abbas, wishing to deprive the Turks of 
 the means of supporting large armies on the frontier, trans- 
 ported almost all the Armenians out of their own country, 
 and sent more than twenty thousand families into the prov- 
 ince of Guilan, where they nearly all perished in a very 
 short time. 
 
 None of the transportations of people into Constantinople 
 has ever succeeded. 
 
 The immense numbers of negroes akeady mentioned have 
 not peopled America.* 
 
 Since the destruction of the Jews under Adrian, Palestine 
 has been uninhabited. 
 
 It mudt therefore be admitted that great depopulations 
 are almost irreparable, because a people whose numbers are 
 brought down to a certain point, remains there ; and if by 
 chance it recovers itself, it must be the work of ages. 
 
 If, in a state of decay, the least of the circumstances 
 which I have mentioned comes to pass, a people not only 
 never recovers, but falls o£E daily and approaches annihilation. 
 
 The expulsion of the Moors from Spain is still as much 
 felt as at the time it happened; instead of the void being 
 filled up, it grows greater every day. 
 
 * Montesquieu did not foresee the « Negro question.» 
 
222 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Since the devastation of America, tlie Spaniards, who 
 have taken the place of the ancient inhabitants, have not 
 been able to repeople it : on the contrary, by a fatality, 
 which I ought rather to call an instance of Divine justice, the 
 destroyers are destroying themselves, and waste away daily. 
 
 Princes ought not therefore to think of peopling large 
 countries by means of colonies. I do, not say that they are 
 not sometimes successful ; there are climes so favorable, 
 that the human race always multiplies there; witness the 
 isles* which have been peopled by some sick folks aban- 
 doned by passing vessels, and who soon recovered their health 
 there. 
 
 But, if these colonies were to succeed, in place of in- 
 creasing power, they only divide it; unless they should 
 happen to be of small extent, like those which are occupied 
 for trading purposes. 
 
 The Carthaginians, like the Spaniards, discovered Amer- 
 ica, or, at any rate, certain large islands with which they 
 carried on an enormous trade ; but, when they beheld the 
 number of their inhabitants decreasing, that wise republic 
 forbade its subjects to carrj' on that trade, or to sail to these 
 islands. 
 
 I dare affirm that, if in place of sending the Spaniards 
 into the Indies, the Indians and cross-breeds had been 
 transported to Spain ; if its scattered people had been re- 
 turned to it, and supposing only half of its great colonies 
 had been preserved, Spain would have become the most 
 formidable Kuropean power. 
 
 An empire may be compared to a tree whose branches, 
 if too widely spread, draw all the sap from the trunk, and 
 I are of use only to give shade. 
 
 Nothing is fitter to cure in princes the rage for distant 
 conquests than the example of the Portuguese and the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 These two nations having conquered with inconceivable 
 rapidity immense kingdoms, more amazed at their victories 
 than the conquered peoples at their defeat, considered the 
 means of preserving them, and chose each of them for that 
 purpose a different method. 
 
 *The author probably means the Isle of Bourbon. — (M.) 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 223 
 
 The Spaniards, despairing to keep the conquered nations 
 faithful to them, took the plan of exterminating them, and 
 of sending to Spain for dutiful subjects : never was a 
 dreadful design carried out with greater thoroughness. A 
 people as numerous as all those of Europe together, was 
 seen to disappear from the earth, on the arrival of these 
 barbarians, who, in discovering the Indies, seemed only to 
 have thought of discovering to mankind the utmost reach 
 of cruelty. 
 
 By that barbarity, they held the country under their 
 government. Judge from this what baleful things conquests 
 are, since such are their effects. For, indeed, this horrible 
 expedient was the only one.* How could they have kept 
 so many millions of men in subjection ? How could they 
 have carried on a civil war at such a distance ? What 
 would have become of them, had they given these people 
 time to recover from the consternation caused by the ad- 
 vent of these new gods, and from the terrors of their 
 thunders ? 
 
 As to the Portuguese, they took an entirely opposite 
 course; they did not employ cruelty, and were conse- 
 quently very soon expelled from all the countries which 
 they had discovered. The Dutch favored the rebellion of 
 their foreign subjects against the Portuguese, and profited 
 by it. 
 
 What prince would envy the lot of these conquerors? 
 Who would wish for conquests on these conditions? One 
 nation was soon driven out from its conquests ; the other 
 made them into deserts, and made a desert of its own 
 country at the same time. 
 
 It is the destiny of heroes to ruin themselves by con- 
 quering countries which they suddenly lose, or by subject- 
 ing nations which they themselves are obliged to destroy ; 
 like that madman who wasted his substance in buying 
 statues which he cast into the sea, and glasses which he 
 broke as soon as bought. 
 
 Paris, the i8th of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1718. 
 
 * Not the only one ; there is the method by which England has 
 retained India. 
 
224 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER CXXIII ) 
 
 USBEK TO THE Sams' 
 
 THE propagation of the species is wonderfully aided by a 
 mild government. All r epublics are a standing proof 
 of this ; especially Switzerland and Holland, which, 
 with regard to the nature of the land, are the two worst 
 countries ia Europe, and which are yet the most populous. 
 
 Nothing attracts strangers mtire than lj.berty,_and_its ac- 
 companimentjj^alth : the latter is sought after for itself, 
 and our necessity leads us into those countries in which we 
 find the former. 
 
 Mankind multiplies in a country which affords abundance 
 for the children, without diminishing in the least the par- 
 ents' provision. 
 
 That very equality of the citizens which generally pro- 
 duces equality in their fortunes, brings plenty and vigor into 
 all the parts of the body politic, and spreads these blessings 
 throughout the whole state. 
 
 It is not so in countries subject to arbitrary power: the 
 prince, the courtiers, and a few private persons, possess all 
 the wealth, while all the rest groan in extreme poverty. 
 
 If a man is not well off, and feels that his children 
 would be poorer than he, he will not marry ; or if he 
 does, he will be afraid of having too great a number of 
 children, who would complete the ruin of his fortune, and 
 sink even lower than their father. 
 
 I admit that the boor or peasant, once married, will in- 
 crease the race without any regard to his poverty or 
 wealth ; that consideration does not affect him ; he has al- 
 ways a safe inheritance to leave his children, and that is 
 his plow ; so nothing withholds him from following blindly 
 the instincts of nature. 
 
 But of what use to a state are those crowds of children 
 which waste away in misery? They perish almost as rap- 
 idly as they are born : they never thrive : feeble and im- 
 potent, they die retail in a thousand ways, or are carried 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 225 
 
 off wholesale by those frequent epidemics which poverty 
 and bad diet always produce : those who escape attain the 
 age of manhood without possessing its vigor, and waste 
 away during the rest of their lives. 
 
 Men are like plants which never flourish if they are not 
 well cultivated : among poor people, the race declines and 
 sometimes even degenerates. 
 
 France supplies a great proof of all this. During the 
 late wars, the dread which all the youths had of being en- 
 rolled in the militia forced them to marry, and that at too 
 tender an age, and in the bosom of poverty. A great 
 many children were born of these numerous marriages who 
 are not now to be found in France, because poverty, fam- 
 ine, and disease carried them off. 
 
 Now if, of a kingdom so well governed as France, and 
 with such a good climate, remarks like these may be made, 
 what shall be said of other states? 
 
 Paris, the 23d. of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1718. 
 
 LETTER CXXIV 
 
 USBBK TO THE MOLLAH MEHBMBT Ai<I, GuARDIAN OF 
 
 THE Three Tombs, at Koum 
 
 To WHAT end are the fasts of the imans, and the sack- 
 cloth of the moUahs? The hand of God has twice 
 lain heavy upon the children of the law : the sun has 
 obscured his beams and seems to shine only upon their 
 overthrow : their armies assemble to be dispersed like dust. 
 The empire of the Osmanli is shaken by two defeats 
 more disastrous than it ever experienced before. A Chris- 
 tian Mufti supports it with great difficulty : the grand 
 vizier of Germany* is the scourge of God, sent to chastise 
 the followers of Omar ; he carries everywhere the wrath of 
 Heaven, enraged at their rebellion and their treachery. 
 
 * Prince Eugene, who defeated the Turks at Peterwardein, took 
 Belgrade in 1717, and concluded the advantageous peace of Passarowitz 
 in 1718. 
 15 
 
226 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Holy spirit of the imans, thou weepest night and day- 
 over the children of ' the Prophet, whom the detestable 
 Omar misled : thy bowels are moved at the sight of their 
 misfortunes: thou desirest their conversion, and not their 
 perdition : thou wouldst have them united under the stand- 
 ard of Hali through the tears of the saints ; and not scat- 
 tered among the mountains and the deserts through terror 
 of the infidels. 
 
 Paris, the ist of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER CXXV* 
 UsBEK TO Rhedi, at Venice 
 
 WHAT can be the motive of those immense gratuities 
 which princes lavish upon their courtiers? Is it to 
 attach them to themselves? They have gained 
 them already as far as that is possible. And besides, 
 should they gain some of their subjects by bribery, they 
 would lose a great many others, inipoverished by the very 
 same means. 
 
 When I consider the situation of princes, always sur- 
 rounded by gfeedy and insatiable men, I cannot but pity 
 them ; and I pity them still more, when they have not the 
 strength to resist demands — always a task to those who 
 need to ask for nothing. 
 
 I never hear talk of their liberality, of th^ favors and 
 pensions which th'ey grant, but I give mys^f up to a 
 thousand reflections :. a throng of ideas present themselves 
 to my mindj it seems to me that I hear the following de- 
 cree published : — 
 
 *' The indefatigable courage of some of our subjects in 
 suing for pensions, having taxed without intermission our 
 royal magnificence, we have at length granted the multi- 
 tude of requests presented to us, which hitherto have been 
 the greatest anxiety of the throne. Some have represented 
 to us that they have never failed since our accession to- 
 
 "The sixth of the letters added in 1754. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 227 
 
 the crown to attend our levees ; that we have always seen 
 them in our progresses as motionless as posts ; and that 
 they have raised themselves on the highest shoulders to 
 gaze at our serenity. We have even received several peti- 
 tions on the part of some members of the fair sex, who 
 have begged to draw attention to the notorious fact that 
 they are very circumspect in their conversation : some very 
 ancient dames have desired us, with shaking heads, to con- 
 sider that they adorned the courts of the kings, our prede- 
 cessors ; and that if the generals of their armies have made 
 the state formidable by their warlike deeds, they have 
 made the court not less celebrated by their intrigues. And 
 so, wishing to be bounteous to these suppliants, and to 
 grant them all their desires, we have decreed what fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " That every laborer, having five children, shall daily 
 curtail by one-fifth the bread which he gives them. We 
 also admonish all fathers of families to decrease the share 
 of each child in as just a proportion as possible. 
 
 "We expressly forbid all those who are engaged in the 
 cultivation of their estates, or who rent them out in farms, 
 to make any improvement in them of what kind soever. 
 
 " We decree that all persons engaged in base and me- 
 chanical trades, who have never attended a levee of Our 
 Majesty, shall in future purchase clothes for themselves, 
 their wives,' and their children only once in four years : 
 we further most strictly forbid them those little merry- 
 makings which they have been accustomed to hold in their 
 families on the principal festivals of the year. 
 
 "And, inasmuch as we are advised that the greater part 
 of the citizens of our good towns are wholly occupied in 
 providing establishments for their daughters, who have 
 made themselves esteemed in our state only by a solemn 
 and tedious modesty ; we decree that their fathers shall 
 delay their' marriage until, having attained the age pre- 
 scribed by the statutes, they can insist on being portioned. 
 We forbid our magistrates to provide for the education of 
 their children." 
 
 Paris, the ist of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1718. 
 
228 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER CXXVI 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 IT IS a puzzling thing in all religions to give any idea of 
 the pleasures ordained for those who live well. It is 
 easy to terrify the wicked with a long list of the tor- 
 ments which await Jhem ; ^fejtt^-csfjvp, knows what to promise 
 the virtuous? Joys seem by nature to be of short dura- 
 tion, the imagination can hardly picture them otherwise. 
 
 I have seen descriptions of Paradise sufficient to make 
 all sensible people give up their hopes of it : some make 
 the happy shades play incessantly on the flute ; others con- 
 demn them to the torture of an everlasting promenade ; 
 while others, who represent them as dreaming on high of 
 their mistresses below, are of opinion that a period of a 
 hundred million years is not sufficient to overcome a taste 
 for the pains of love. 
 
 I remember, in this connection, a story which I heard 
 told by a man who had been in the country of the Mogul ; 
 it shows that the Indian priests are as fertile as others in 
 their ideas of the pleasures of Paradise. 
 
 A woman who had just lost her husband, went in due 
 form to the governor of the city demanding permission to 
 burn herself; but since, in the countries subject to the 
 Mohammedans, they have abolished to the best of their 
 ability that cruel custom, he refused her absolutely. 
 
 When she saw that her prayers were in vain, she flew 
 into a transport of rage. * l/ook you,'' said she, "how you 
 torment me ! A poor woman is not even allowed to burn 
 herself when she has a mind to ! Did one ever see the 
 like ! My mother, my aunt, my sisters, were all decently 
 burnt ! And, when I come to ask permission of this con- 
 founded governor, he gets angry, and begins raging like a 
 madman." 
 
 A young bonze* happened to be present. "Infidel,'* 
 said the governor to him, "is it you who have set on this 
 
 * Bonzes are the Buddhist priests of China, whom Montesquieu 
 seems to hare confounded with the Brahmins of India. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 229 
 
 woman to commit this folly ? * *' No, " said he, " I never 
 spoke to her ; but if she believes as I do, she will com- 
 plete her sacrifice ; she will perform an action pleasing to 
 the god Brahma : she will also be well rewarded, for she 
 ■will find her husband in the other world, and begin with 
 him a second marriage. " " What do you say ? " cried the 
 woman, astonished. "I shall find my husband again? 
 Ah ! I will not burn myself then. He was jealous, peevish, 
 and besides, so old, that if the god Brahma has not brought 
 about some improvement in him, assuredly he has no need 
 of me. Burn myself for him ! . . . not even the end 
 of my finger to take him from the bottom of hell. Two 
 old bonzes who misled me, and who knew what kind of life 
 I led with him, took care to tell me nothing of this ; if the 
 god Brahma has no other present to make me, I renounce 
 this felicity. Mr. Governor, I will be a Mohammedan. And 
 for you," turning to the bonze, "you can, if you like, go 
 and tell my husband that I am very well." 
 
 Paris, the 2d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER CXXVII 
 Rica to Usbbk, a.t * * * 
 
 I EXPECT you here to-morrow : meantime I send you your 
 letters from Ispahan. Mine bring word that the ambas- 
 sador of the Great Mogul * has received orders to quit 
 the kingdom. They add that the prince, the uncle of 
 the king,t who has charge of his education, has been ar- 
 rested, conducted to a castle, where he is closely guarded, 
 and deprived of all his honors. The fate of this prince moves 
 me, and I pity him. 
 
 *By the Great Mogul is here meant the King of Spain. His am- 
 bassador is the Prince of Cellamare, who was arrested and sent across 
 the frontier for conspiring against the Regent with the Duke and 
 Duchess of Maine. 
 
 fThe Duke of Maine. 
 
230 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I own, Usbek, that I have never beheld the tears fall 
 from the eyes of any one without deep sympathy : my 
 humanity feels for the unhappy, as if they only were 
 human ; and great people even, toward whom my heart is 
 hardened when they are prosperous, gain my affection in 
 adversity. 
 
 Indeed, in the time of their prosperity what need have 
 they of useless affection ? It comes too near equality. They 
 prefer respect, which requires no return. As soon, how- 
 ever, as they have fallen from their greatness, there is 
 nothing left to recall it to them but our lamentation. 
 
 I find an admirable simplicity, and an equally admirable 
 greatness, in the words of a prince, who, being in great 
 danger of falling into the hands of his enemies, said to his 
 courtiers, who stood weeping round" him, " I see by your 
 tears that I am still your king." 
 
 Paris, the 3d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1718. 
 
 LETTER CXXVIII 
 Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna 
 
 You have heard much talk of the famous king of 
 Sweden : * while he was visiting the trenches, with 
 an engineer as his sole cpmpanion, during the siege 
 of a town in a kingdom called Norway, he received a wound 
 in the head, of which he died. His prime minister f was im- 
 mediately arrested, and the assembled states condemned him 
 to lose his head. 
 
 He was accused of a very grave crime ; that of having 
 slandered the nation, and of having caused the king to lose 
 confidence in it : an offense which, in my judgment, de- 
 serves a thousand deaths. 
 
 For, in short, if it is a villainous action to blacken the 
 character of the meanest of his subjects in the eyes of a 
 prince, what must it be to traduce an entire nation, and to 
 
 * Charles XII. of Sweden. t Baron Gortz. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 231 
 
 withdraw from it the good will of him whom providence has 
 set over it for its welfare. 
 
 I would have men talk with kings, as the angels talked 
 with our holy Prophet. 
 
 You know that, in the sacred banquets, when the king 
 of kings descends from the most sublime throne in the 
 world to converse with his slaves, I laid a severe injunction 
 on myself to restrain an unruly tongue : no one ever heard 
 escape from me a single word which could be disagreeable 
 to the meanest of his subjects. When it behoved me to cease 
 to be sober, I never ceased to be a gentleman ; and in that 
 test of our fidelity I risked my life, but never my virtue. 
 
 I "know not how it happens, but the wickedest king is 
 hardly ever^so_badas__Jiis-- minister ; if he commits a vile 
 action, it has nearly always been suggested to him : thus 
 the ambition of princes_ is never so dangerous as the base- 
 ness ,£f_their^ advisers. But can you understand how a man 
 who was yesterday made minister, and may perhaps to-morrow 
 be disgraced, can become in a moment his own enemy, the 
 enemy of his family, of his country, and of the people who 
 are yet to be born of those he is about to oppress? 
 
 A prince has passions ; the minister works on them : it is in 
 that way that he manages his ministry : that is his only aim, 
 nor does he desire another. The courtiers mislead him by 
 their applause ; and he flatters him more dangerously by 
 his advice, by the designs with which he inspires him, and 
 by the maxims which he proposes to him. 
 
 Paris, the 25th of the moon of 
 Saphar, 17 19. 
 
 LETTER CXXIX 
 Rica to Usbbk, at * * * 
 
 As I was passing the other day over the Pont-Neuf with 
 one of my friends, he met a man of his acquaintance, 
 who, he said, was a geometer; and he looked it, for 
 he was in a deep meditation : my friend had to tug at his 
 sleeve for a long time and to shake him to bring him 
 
J32 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 down to himself, he was so much occupied with a curve 
 which had tormented him perhaps for more than a week. 
 There was a most polite interchange of compliments, and 
 they imparted to each other some items of literary news. 
 Their talk continued until we came to the door of a coffee- 
 house, which I entered with them. 
 
 I noticed that our geometer was received by everybody 
 with marked cordiality, and that the coffee-house waiters 
 made much more of him than of two musketeers who were 
 in a corner. As for him, he appeared to be very well 
 pleased with the company ; for he unwrinkled his face a 
 little, and fell a-smilihg, as if there had not been the least 
 particle of geometry in him. 
 
 However, his exact mind measured everything that was 
 / said in the conversation. He seemed like a man in a gar- 
 den, who with a sword cuts off the head of every flower 
 which rises above its neighbors. A martyr to his own 
 accuracy, he was offended by a witty remark, as weak 
 sight is annoyed by too strong a light. Nothing was 
 indifferent to him provided it was true. Thus his conver- 
 sation was very remarkable. He had come that day from 
 the country with a man who had been to see a fine 
 chdteau and splendid gardens ; but he himself had only 
 seen a building sixty feet long and thirty-five wide, and a 
 parallelogrammic grove of ten acres : he would have liked 
 very much that the rules of perspective had been so ob- 
 served that the walks of the avenues might have appeared 
 throughout of the same width ; and for that purpose he 
 would have supplied an infallible method. He appeared to 
 be much pleased with a dial which he had discovered there 
 of a very peculiar make ; and he became very angry with 
 a learned man, who sat beside me, and unfortunately asked 
 him if this dial indicated the Babylonian hours. A news- 
 monger spoke of the bombardment of the castle of Font- 
 arabia ; and he at once told us the properties of the line 
 which the bombs described in the air ; and, delighted with 
 this bit of knowledge, he was quite content to be wholly 
 ignorant of the success of the bombardment. A man com- 
 plained that in the preceding winter he had been ruined 
 by a flood. "What you say is very agreeable to me," said 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 233 
 
 the geometer. " I find that I am not mistaken in the ob- 
 servation which I made, and that there fell upon the earth 
 two inches of water more than in the year before." 
 
 A moment after he left, and we followed him. As he 
 walked very fast, and neglected to look before him, he ran 
 full tilt against another man : they struck each other vio- 
 lently ; and each rebounded from the collision in proportion 
 to his speed and weight. When they had recovered some- 
 what from their dizziness, this man, pressing his hand on 
 his forehead, said to the geometer, " I am very glad you 
 ran against me, for I have great news to tell you : I have 
 just published my 'Horace."' "How!* exclaimed the 
 geometer ; " it is two thousand years since * Horace ' was 
 published." *' You do not understand me," replied the 
 other. " It is a translation of that ancient author which I 
 have given to the world : I have been engaged as a trans- 
 lator for twenty years." 
 
 " What, sir ! " rejoined the geometer ; " have you been 
 twenty years without thinking? You are only the mouth- 
 piece of others." "Sir," replied the savant, "do you not 
 think that I have done the public a great service in mak- 
 ing them familiar with good authors ? " "I am not so sure of 
 that : I esteem as highly as any one the sublime geniuses 
 whom you have travestied : but you are not as they ; for 
 though you translate forever, you will never be translated. 
 
 "Translations are like copper money, which have quite 
 the same value as a gold piece, and are even of greater 
 use among the people ; but they are base coin and always 
 light. 
 
 "You wish, you say, to revive among us those illustri- 
 ous dead ; and I admit that you give them indeed a body ; 
 but you do not give the body life : the animating spirit is 
 always wanting. 1^ 
 
 " Why do you not engage rather in seeking for some oiiX 
 those glorious truths which a simple calculation discovers j 
 for us every day ? " After this piece of advice they parted, ' 
 I imagine not in the best of humor with each other. 
 
 Paris, the last day of the second moon 
 of Rebiab, 1719. 
 
334 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER CXXX 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 IN THIS letter I shall tell you of a certain tribe called the 
 Quidnuncs, who assemble in a splendid garden,* where 
 they are always indolently busy. They are utterly 
 useless to the state, and half a century of their talk has 
 no more effect than would be produced by a silence of the 
 same length ; yet they imagine themselves of consequence, 
 because they converse about magnificent projects and dis- 
 cuss great interests. 
 
 The basis of their conversation is. a frivolous and ridicu- 
 lous curiosity : there is no cabinet, however mysterious, 
 whose secrets they do not pretend to fathom ; they will 
 not admit that they are ignorant of anything ; they know 
 how many wives our august Sultan has, and how many 
 children he begets every year ; and, although they go to no 
 expense for spies, they are informed of the measures he is 
 taking to humble the Emperor of Turkey and the Great 
 Mogul. 
 
 Hardly have they exhausted the present when they 
 plunge into the future, and stealing a march on Providence, 
 anticipate it in all its dealings with men. They take a 
 general in hand, and after having praised him for a thou- 
 sand follies which he has not committed, they prepare for 
 him a thousand others which also will never come to pass. 
 
 They make armies fly like cranes, and overturn walls 
 like a house of cards ; they have bridges on all the rivers, 
 secret paths in all the mountains, immense arsenals in 
 burning deserts; they lack nothing but common sense. 
 
 A man with whom I lodged received a letter from a 
 Quidnunc, which, as it seemed to me remarkable, I kept. 
 Here it is: — 
 
 * Sir, — I am seldom mistaken in my surmises on the 
 affairs of the day. On the ist of January, 1711, I foretold 
 that the emperor Joseph would die in the course of a 
 year; it is true that, as he was then quite well, I con- 
 
 *The Tuileries. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 235 
 
 ceived that I would be derided, if I explained my meaning 
 too clearly ; which caused me to employ terms somewhat 
 enigmatic ; but rational people understood me well enough. 
 On the 17th of April, in the same year, he died of the 
 smallpox. 
 
 '* As soon as war was declared between the Emperor and 
 the Turks, I went through every corner of the Tuileries in 
 search of our gentlemen : and having gathered them to- 
 gether near the basin, I prophesied to them that Belgrade 
 would be besieged and taken. I was fortunate enough to 
 have my prophesy fulfilled. It is true that toward the 
 middle of the siege, I wagered a hundred pistoles that it 
 would be taken on the i8th of August;* it was not taken 
 till the day after : how tantalizing to lose by so little ! 
 
 "When I saw the Spanish fleet disembark in Sardinia, I 
 judged that it would conquer it : I said so, and it proved 
 true. Puffed up with this success, I added that the victo- 
 rious fleet would land at Final, in order to conquer the 
 Milanese. As this opinion encountered much opposition, I 
 determined to support it nobly : I wagered fifty pistoles, 
 and lost again ; for that devil of an Alberoni, violating the 
 treaty, sent his fleet to Sicily, and deceived at one and the 
 same time two great politicians, the Duke of Savoy and 
 myself. 
 
 " All this, sir, has disconcerted me so much, that I have 
 resolved to continue prophesying, but never to bet. At the 
 Tuileries formerly the practice of betting was quite un- 
 known, and the late Count L.f would hardly permit it ; 
 but, since a crowd of petits-maitres have got in among us, 
 we don't know where we are. Hardly have we opened our 
 mouths to report a piece of news, when one of these young- 
 sters offers to bet against it. 
 
 "The other day, as I was opening my manuscript, and 
 fixing my spectacles on my nose, one of those swaggering 
 blades, catching promptly at the pause between my first 
 and second words, said to me, * I bet you a hundred pis- 
 toles that it's not.' I behaved as if I had not heard this 
 piece of extravagance ; and, resuming in a louder voice, I 
 
 *i7i7. — (M.) 
 
 tThe Count of Lionne. 
 
236 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 said, 'the Marshal of * * *, having learned . . .* 
 'That is false,' cried he. 'Your news is always extrava- 
 gant ; there is an absence of common sense in all that. * 
 
 " I beg you, sir, to favor me with the loan of thirty pis- 
 toles ; for I confess that these bets have almost ruined me. 
 Herewith I send you copies of two letters which I have 
 written to the minister. I am," etc. 
 
 IvETTERS OF A QUIDNTJNC TO THE MINISTER 
 
 "My I/ORD, — I am the most loyal subject the king ever 
 had. It Ts^as I who constrained one of my friends to under- 
 take a scheme I had formed 6f a book, proving that lyouis the 
 Great was the greatest of all the princes who have deserved 
 that title. I have been engaged for a long time on another 
 work, which will increase the glory of our nation still fur- 
 ther, if your highness will grant me a privilege : * my de- 
 sign is to prove that, since the beginning of the monarchy, 
 the French have never been beaten,- and that what histo- 
 rians have hitherto written of our defeats is the merest in- 
 vention. I am obliged to correct them on many occasions ; 
 and I flatter myself that I shine ^bove all as a critic. I 
 am, my lord," etc. 
 
 "My IvORD, — As we have lost the Count of L.,t we beg 
 you to have the goodness to allow us to elect a president. 
 Confusion reigns at all our meetings ; and state affairs are 
 not so thoroughly discussed as before : our young folks live 
 without the slightest regard for their elders, and without 
 any discipline among themselves : it is exactly like the 
 council of Rehoboam, where the young overbore the old. 
 We point out to them in vain that we were in peaceable 
 possession of the Tuileries twenty years before they were 
 born : I believe they will at last drive us out ; and that, 
 being forced to quit these quarters, where we have so often 
 called up the shades of the French heroes, we will have to 
 hold our meetings in the king's garden or in some more out- 
 of-the-way place. I am . . ." 
 
 Paris, the 7th of the second moon 
 of Gemmadi, 1719. 
 
 * That is, to publish. f The Count of Ijonne. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 237 
 
 lyETTER CXXXI* 
 Rhedi to Rica, at Paris 
 
 NOTHING has interested me more since my arrival in 
 Europe than the history and origin of the republics, fh^ 
 You know that most Asiatics have not only no notion 
 of this form of government, but that their imagination is 
 unable to conceive the possibility of there being any other 
 in the world than despotism. 
 
 The first governments of which we know anything were t^^ 
 monarchical ; it was only by chance, and in the course of Tv 
 ages, that republics were formed. ~'' 
 
 Greece, having been destroyed by a flood, new inhabitants 
 came to people it ; it drew almost all its colonies from 
 Kgypt and the neighboring countries of Asia ; and as these 
 countries were governed by kings, the races which came 
 from them were governed in the same way. But the 
 tyranny of these princes becoming intolerable, they threw off the 
 yoke, and from the ruins of so many kingdoms sprang those 
 republics which made Greece so prosperous, and the only 
 cultured nation among a crowd of barbarians. 
 
 I/Ove of liberty, and hatred of kings, preserved the inde- 
 pendence of Greece for a long time, and extended far and 
 wide the republican form of government. The Greek cities 
 found allies in Asia Minor ; they sent thither colonies as 
 free as themselves, which served them as a rampart against 
 the attacks of the kings of Persia. This is not all: Greece 
 peopled Italy ; and Italy, Spain, and perhaps Gaul. Every 
 one knows that the wonderful Hesperia, so famous among 
 the ancients, was at first Greece, regarded by its neighbors 
 as an abode of bliss. The Greeks, who failed to find at 
 home that happy country, went to Italy in search of it ; 
 the inhabitants of Italy, to Spain; and those of Spain, to 
 Bettica or Portugal ; so that all these countries bore the 
 name of Hesperia among the ancients. These Greek col- 
 onies brought with them a spirit of liberty derived from 
 
 *This letter contains the gist of the Esprit des Lois. 
 
238 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 that delightful land. It is on this account that we 
 hardly ever hear of a monarchy in Italy, Spain, or Gaul 
 in these remote times. It will shortly appear that the peo- 
 ples of the north and of Germany were not less free; and 
 if traces of kingly government are found among them, it is 
 because the chiefs of armies or republics have been mis- 
 taken for monarchs. 
 
 All this took place in Europe, for Asia and Africa have 
 always been oppressed by despots, with the exception of 
 some cities in Asia Minor already mentioned, and the Car- 
 thaginian republic in Africa. 
 
 The world was divided between two powerful republics : 
 that of Rome and that of Carthage., Nothing is better 
 known than the beginnings of the Roman republic, and 
 there is nothing of which we have less knowledge than the 
 origin of that of Carthage. Of the African princes who 
 succeeded Dido, and how they lost their power, we know 
 absolutely nothing. The wonderful rise of the Roman re- 
 public would have been of immense benefit to the world, if 
 there had not existed an unjust distinction between the 
 Roman citizens and the conquered nations ; if the governors 
 of provinces' had jreceived less power JJ if the righteous laws 
 enacted to prevent their tyranny had been observed, and if, 
 to render these laws of no efEect, the governors had . not 
 employed the very wealth amassed by their injustice. 
 
 I/iberty would seem to have been intended for the genius 
 of the European races, and slavery for. that of the Asiatics. 
 In vain the Romans offered *'^?,*; prirHps-i trfftinrf^ to the 
 Cagpadocians. That mean-spirited nation refused it, and 
 rijshed into slavery with the same eagerness with which 
 other races ■ fly to liberty. 
 
 Csesar destroyed the Roman republic, and subjected it to 
 arbitrary power. 
 
 For a long time Eiirope groaned under the violence of a 
 military government, and the gentle Roman sway was 
 changed into cruel oppression. 
 
 Meantime an immense number of unknown races came 
 out of the north, and poured like torrents into the Roman 
 provinces : finding it as easy to conquer as to rob, they 
 dismembered the empire, and founded kingdoms. These 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 23^ 
 
 peoples were free, and they put such restrictions on the 
 authority of their kings, that they were properly only chiefs 
 or generals. Thus these kingdoms, although founded by 
 force^never_endured the yoke of th£.xonq.ueror . j "When the 
 peoples of Asia, such as the Turks and the Tartars, made 
 conquests, being subject to the will of one person, they 
 thought only of providing him with new subjects, and of 
 establishing by force of arms his reign of might ; but the 
 peoples of the north, free in their own countries, having 
 seized the Roman provinces, did not give their chiefs much 
 power. Some of these races, indeed, like the Vandals in i 
 Africa, and the Goths in Spain, deposed their kings when / 
 they ceased to please them ; and, among others, the 
 power of the^ priace.„was_. limited in a .thousaad different 
 ways ; a great number of lords partook it with him ; a wai 
 was never undertaken without their consent ; the spoils 
 were divided between the chief and thO-^oldierr; and the 
 laws were ma de in national assemblies. Here you have 
 the fundamental principle of all those states which were 
 formed from the ruins of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Venice, the 20th of the moon of 
 Rhegeb, 1719. 
 
 I^ETTER CXXXII 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 FIVE or six months ago I happened to be in a coffee- 
 house, where I observed a gentleman well enough 
 dressed who had the ear of the company ; he spoke 
 of the pleasure which life in Paris gave him, and lamented 
 that the state of his affairs obliged hiin to pine away in 
 the country. "I have," said he, "fifteen thousand livres 
 of income from land, and I should think myself a happier 
 man if I had a quarter of that property in money and in 
 portable effects. In vain I put the screw on my tenants, 
 and burden them with the expenses of lawsuits: it only 
 makes them less solvable ; I can never manage to see a 
 
240 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 hundred pistoles at a time. If my debts amounted to ten 
 thousand francs, all my lands would be seized, and I would 
 be brought to the workhouse." 
 
 I left without having paid much attention to all this 
 talk; but, finding myself yesterday in that quarter, I en- 
 tered the same house, and there saw a solemn man, with a 
 long, pale face, who, in the midst of five or six chatterers, 
 seemed sad and thoughtful, until he suddenly burst into 
 the conversation, and said, in a loud voice, "Yes, gentle- 
 men, I am ruined ; I have nothing to live on, for I have 
 at present at home two hundred thousand livres in bank 
 notes,* and a hundred thousand crowns in money ; my situa- 
 tion is frightful; I thought myself rich, and here I am a 
 beggar; if I had only a small estate to which I could re- 
 tire, I would be sure at least of a livelihood, but I have 
 not as much land as would fill this hat." 
 
 I happened to turn my head to the other side, and saw 
 another man grimacing like one possessed. "Who can be 
 trusted now?" cried he. "There is a traitor, whom I 
 thought so much my friend, that I lent him my money ; 
 and he has paid it back ! What abominable treachery ! 
 Whatever he may do now, in my opinion he will always 
 be disgraced." t 
 
 Quite near him was a very ill-dressed man, who, raising 
 his eyes to heaven, said, " God bless the schemes of our 
 ministers ! May stocks rise to two thousand livres, and 
 may I see all the lackeys of Paris richer than their mas- 
 ters ! " I had the curiosity to ask what he was. " He is 
 a very poor man," they said, "with a very poor profession: 
 he is a genealogist, and he hopes that his art will become 
 profitable if fortunes continue to be made, and that all the 
 nouveaux riches will have need of him to improve their 
 names, polish up their ancestors, and adorn their coaches ; 
 he imagines that he is about to make as many people of 
 quality as he wants to, and he trembles with joy at the 
 thought of an increased practice." 
 
 *The paper of the Bank having become worthless, the holders of 
 bills had to pay their value in cash into the Treasury. 
 
 fThe depreciated paper retained in law its nominal value, so that 
 a debtor could ruin his creditor by paying him in bank bills. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 241 
 
 lyastly, I saw a pale, thin man come in, whom I recog- 
 nized for a Quidnunc before he had got seated ; he was not 
 one of those who are sure of victory in face of every re- 
 verse, and always predict triumphs and trophies ; he was, 
 on the contrary, a weak-kneed brother, whose news was 
 always doleful. ** Things have taken a very bad turn for 
 us in Spain," he said ; "we have no cavalry on the fron- 
 tier, and it is feared that Prince Pio, who has a large 
 force, will fleece the whole of Languedoc." Opposite me 
 there sat a philosopher in shabby clothes, who held the 
 Quidnunc in contempt, and shrugged his shoulders in pro- 
 portion as the other grew loud. I approached him, and he 
 whispered to me, " You see how this fop has plagued us 
 for an hour with his fears for lyanguedoc ; and I, who de- 
 tected yesterday evening a spot in the sun, which, if it 
 increases, may throw nature generally into a state of stag- 
 nation — I have not said a word about it." 
 
 Paris, the 17th of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1719. 
 
 I^ETTER CXXXIII 
 
 Rica to * * * 
 
 THB other day I visited a great library in a convent of 
 dervishes, to whose care it has been intrusted, and 
 who are obliged to admit all comers at certain hours. 
 On entering I saw a grave-looking man, who walked up 
 and down in the midst of a prodigious number of volumes 
 which surrounded him. I approached him, and asked him 
 to tell me what books those were which I saw better 
 bound than others. "Sir," he replied, "I live here in a 
 strange land, where I know no one. Many people ask me 
 similar questions ; but you can easily understand how I 
 cannot read all these books to satisfy them ; my librarian 
 will tell you all you wish, for he employs himself night 
 and day in deciphering all you see here ; he is a good-for- 
 nothing, and is a great expense to us, because he does no 
 work for the convent. But I hear the refectory bell. 
 16 
 
242 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 Those who, like me, are at the head of a community, 
 ought to be foremost in all its exercises." With that, the 
 monk pushed me out, shut the door, and vanished from my 
 sight as if he would have flown. 
 
 Paris, the 21st of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1719. 
 
 IvETTteR CXXXIV 
 Rica to the Same 
 
 YESTERDAY I returned to the same library, and met a 
 man very different from him whom I had seen the 
 first time. His manner was simple, his countenance 
 intelligent, and his address most courteous. As soon as he 
 understood my desire, he set himself to satisfy it, and even, 
 as I was a stranger, to instruct me. 
 
 "Good father," said I, "what are those large volumes 
 which fill all that side of the library?" "These," said he, 
 " are interpretations of the Scriptures. " " What a quantity 
 there are ! " rejoined I ; " the Scriptures must have been 
 very obscure formerly, and cannot fail to be very obvious 
 now. Do any doubts still remain ? Are there any points 
 left in dispute ? * " Any, good heavens ! any ! " cried he ; 
 " there are almost as many as there are lines. " " Indeed ! " 
 said I ; " then what have all these authors done ? " " These 
 authors," he replied, "did not search the Scriptures for 
 what ought to be believed, but for what they themselves 
 believed ; they did not regard the Scriptures as a work 
 containing doctrines which they were bound to accept, but 
 as^a work whioh might sanctio n their own ideas ; therefore 
 it i s that they have corru pted J ts^jneaning, and twisted 
 every text. It is a country which all sects invade as ii 
 bent on pillage ; it is a battlefield on which hostile nations 
 encounter each other in endless engagements, attacking and 
 ^skirmishing in every possible manner. 
 
 " Close to these you see books of asceticism and devotion 
 
 then books of mc^alityj much more .useful ; theologica 
 
 tomes, "doubly unintelligible, on account of the matter dis 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 243 
 
 cussed, and the manner of treatment ; and the works of the 
 mystics, that is to say, of passionate-liearted devotees." 
 "Ah, my father!" said I, "stay a moment; tell me about 
 these mystics." "Sir," said he, "devotion warms a heart 
 inclined, to passion, and the heat mounting to the brain, 
 produces ecstasies and raptures. This is the delirium of 
 devotion ; often it develops, or rather degenerates into quiet- 
 ism : you must know that a quietist is nothing else than a 
 madman, a devotee, and a libertine, all in one. 
 
 "There are the casuists, who expose the secrets of the 
 night ; who form in their fancy all the monsters which the 
 demon of love can produce, collect them, compare them, 
 and make them the everlasting subject of their thoughts ; 
 happy are they, if their hearts do not take part in them, 
 and if they themselves do not become accomplices in the 
 many debaucheries they describe with such simplicity and 
 directness ! 
 
 "You see, sir, that I think freely, and tell you all I 
 think. I am naturally artless, and more so with you who 
 are a stranger, desirous of information, and to know things 
 as they are. If I wished, I could speak of all this with 
 admiration, and be for ever saying, * It is divine, it is 
 worthy of all reverence, it is truly marvelous ! ' And there 
 would happen one of two things : either I would deceive 
 you, or I would lower myself in your regard." 
 
 There we stopped ; some business called away the der- 
 vish, and interrupted our conversation till the morrow. 
 
 Paris, the 23d of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1719. 
 
 IvETTER CXXXV 
 Rica to the Same 
 
 I RETURNED at the appointed time ; and my friend led me 
 to the very spot we had left. "Here," he said, "are 
 the grammarians, the glossers, and the commentators." 
 "Father," said I, "have not all these people been able to 
 dispense with common sense?" "Yes," said he, "they 
 
244 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 have ; and yet it does not appear, and their works are not 
 a penny the worse, which is very convenient for them." 
 "Tjrue," said I; " and_^ I kng^^^plenty of- philesephers'who 
 would "do^wefl to occupy themselves with sciences of this 
 krnd.» 
 
 "There," continued he, "are the orators who can con- 
 vince people without employing reason ; and the geometers, 
 who compel a man to be convinced in spite of himself, and 
 conquer him by sheer force. 
 
 " Here are metaphysical books, which deal with very 
 lofty concerns indeed, and in which the infinite meets one 
 at every turning ; books of physics, which detect nothing 
 more marvelous in the economy of the vast universe, than 
 in the simplest machine of our craftsmen. 
 
 "Books of medicine, those monuments of the frailty of 
 nature and of the power of art, which, when they treat 
 even of the slightest disorders, make us tremble by bring- 
 ing the idea^oL-deatk. home. ,.tQ. USi_b.ut .wlii£h,_jachea: they 
 discuss the power pt remedies, „mak& us fe^ as secure as if 
 we were, immortal. 
 
 "Near these are the books of anatomy, which do not so 
 much contain descriptions of the parts of the human body, 
 as the barbarous names which have been given them — 
 neither likely to cure the patient of his disease nor the 
 physician of his ignorance. 
 
 " Here are the alchemists, who inhabit now the hospital, 
 now the madhouse, dwellings equally suitable for them. 
 
 "Here are books of science, or rather of occult igno- 
 rance ; of such are those which contain any kind of sorcery 
 — execrable according to most people ; in my opinion con- 
 temptible. Such also are the books of judicial astrology." 
 (^"What do you say, father? The books of judicial astrol- 
 ogy !" I cried with enthusiasm. "These are the books we 
 make most of in Persia. They rule all the actions of our 
 lives, and determine us in all our undertakings : in fact, 
 the astrologers are our spiritual fathers, and more, for they 
 take part in the government of the state. " " If that is so, " 
 said,.h.e, " you live under a yoke much heavier than that 
 of reason. Yours must be the strangest of all governments: 
 I pity from my heart a family, and above all a nation, 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 
 
 245 
 
 (which permits the planets to have such ascendancy over 
 them.'* "We make use of astrology," replied I, "just as 
 you make use of algebra. Every nation has its proper 
 science, according to which it guides its policy. All the 
 astrologers together have never committed so many follies 
 in Persia, as a single algebraist has done here. Do you 
 think that the fortuitous concourse of the stars is_nol as 
 sure^ a guide as all the fine reasoning of your ^^em-mon- 
 ger?* If the votes on that subject were counted in France 
 iandTm Persia, astrology would have good reason to triumph ; 
 you would see the schemers properly humbled, from which 
 how disastrous a corollary might be deduced against them ! " 
 Our dispute was interrupted, and I had to leave him. 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the moon of 
 Rhamazan, 1719. 
 
 IvETTKR CXXXVI 
 
 Rica to Thb Samb 
 
 AT OUR next interview, my learned instructor took me 
 into a separate room. "Here," said he, "are the 
 books of modem history. First of all, there are the 
 historians of the Church, and of the Popes ; books which I 
 read for instruction, but which often produce in me an op- 
 posite effect. 
 
 "There are the works of those who have written of the 
 decline of the great Roman empire, which was formed 
 from the ruins of so many monarchies, and from the de- 
 struction of which there sprang as many again. An infinite 
 number of barbarous nations, as unknown as the countries 
 which they inhabited, suddenly appeared, overran the Ro- 
 man empire, ravaged it, cut it to pieces, and founded all 
 the kingdoms which you now see in Europe. These races 
 were not altogether barbarians, because they were free ; but 
 they became so afterward, as the most part of them, hav- 
 ing subinttted to absolute power, lost that sweet freedom, 
 so conformable to reason, to humanity, and to, nature. 
 
 * Law, the banker. , ,- f 
 
 lA' 
 
246 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 "There you see the historians of the German empire, 
 which is but a shadow of the Roman one ; but which is, I 
 believe, the only power on earth unweakened by faction, 
 and I believe also, the only one which grows stronger 
 from its losses, and which, tardy in profiting by success, 
 becomes invincible in defeat. 
 
 y Here are the historians of France, who show us to be- 
 p.n with the power of kings taking shape ; then we see it 
 perish twice, and reappear only to languish through many 
 ages; but, insensibly gathering strength, and built up on 
 all sides, it achieves its final stage : like those rivers 
 which in their course lose their waters, or hide them under 
 the earth ; then reappearing again, swollen by the streams 
 which flow into them, rapidly draw along with them all 
 that opposes their passage. 
 
 "There you see the Spanish nation issuing from some 
 mountains ; the Mohammedan princes overcome as gradu- 
 ally as they had conquered quickly : many kingdoms joined 
 in one vast monarchy, which became almost the only one ; 
 until, overborne by its own greatness and its fictitious 
 wealth, it lost its strength and even its reputation, pre- 
 serving only its original pride. 
 
 / " These, again, are the historians of England. Here you 
 ma5' see liberty flaming up again and again from discord 
 and sedition ; the prince, always tottering upon an im- 
 movable throne ; a nation impatient, but prudent in its 
 rage ; and which, mistress of the sea (a thing unheard of 
 before ) , combines commerce with power. 
 
 " Near by are the historians of that other queen of the 
 sea, the Republic of Holland, so respected in Europe, and 
 so feared in Asia, where its merchants behold many a king 
 bow to the dust before them. 
 
 " The historians of Italy show you a nation once mistress 
 of the world, now the common slave ; its princes disunited 
 and weak, with no other attribute of sovereignty than an 
 ' ineffectual policy. 
 
 * There are the historians of the republics : of Switzer- 
 land, which is the type of liberty ; of Venice, resourceless 
 but for its own thrift ; and of Genoa, superb only because 
 of its buildings. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 247 
 
 " And here are those of the north — among others, of Po- 
 land, which makes such a bad use of its liberty and of the 
 right it possesses of electing its kings, that it would seem 
 to be its intention thereby to console its neighbors which 
 have lost both the one and the other." 
 
 Thereupon we separated until next day. 
 
 Paris, the 2d of the moon of 
 Chalval, 17 19. 
 
 LETTER CXXXVII 
 
 Rica to ths Same 
 
 NEXT morning he took me to another room. " Here, " 
 he said, " we have the poets ; that is to say, those 
 authors whose business it is to shackle common sense, 
 and to smother reason with embellishment, as women were 
 formerly buried under their ornaments and jewelry. You 
 must know them ; they are not uncommon in the east, 
 where a hotter sun seems to give new heat even to the 
 imagination. " * 
 
 " There are the epic poems. " * Ah ! and what are 
 epic poems?" "Indeed," said he, "I don't know; critics 
 say that there were never more than two, and that the 
 others, which go by the name, are not epics : that, too, I 
 know nothing about. They say, besides, what is still more 
 surprising, that it is impossible to make more.f 
 
 "Here are the dramatic poets, which are, in my opinion, 
 the best of all, and the masters of passion. There are two 
 kinds : the comic dramatists, who move us so agreeably, and 
 the tragic dramatists, who rouse our passions and shake our 
 dispositions. 
 
 *Like Pascal, Montesquieu despised poetry, although he Kked 
 plays. Voltaire, having been taken to task concerning his attacks on 
 Montesquieu, replied, " He is guilty of Use-podsiey 
 
 fM. Meyer, in his Etudes de critique ancienne et modeme, de- 
 tects here an allusion to Voltaire's «Henriade,» the beginning of 
 which was already circulating in manuscript. This is not impossible, 
 as Montesquieu had no great regard for Voltaire. 
 
348 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 "And here are the lyric poets, whom I despise as much 
 as I esteem the others, and who have reduced art to the 
 production of melodious nonsense. 
 
 * Then come the authors of idylls and eclogues, which 
 charm even courtiers, who imagine that they receive from 
 them a feeling of serenity which they do not possess, and 
 that they are brought face to face with the pastoral life. 
 
 " But of all the authors we have passed in review, here 
 are the most dangerous : those, namely, who forge epigrams, 
 little, sharp darts, which make a deep and incurable 
 wound. 
 
 " Here you see the romances, whose authors are a sort 
 of poets, and who are as extravagant in their wit as they 
 are outrageous in their treatment of passion : they spend 
 their lives seeking nature and never finding it : their heroes 
 are about as natural as winged dragons and hippogriffs. " 
 
 "I have seen," said I, "some of your romances, and if 
 you could see ours, you would be yet more disgusted. 
 They are as unnatural as yours, and, on account of oiur 
 manners, excessively tedious ; it takes ten years of devotion 
 before a lover may be allowed as much as to see the face 
 of his mistress. Yet the authors are compelled to conduct 
 their readers through these wearisome preliminaries. As it 
 is impossible that incidents should be endlessly varied, they 
 have recourse to an artifice worse than the evil they would 
 remedy ; I mean the introduction of prodigies. I am sure 
 you would not approve of a sorceress causing an army to 
 spring out of the earth, or of a hero destroying single- 
 handed a hundred thousand men. Yet such are our ro- 
 mances ; the repetition of these dull adventures tires us out, 
 and these absurd marvels disgust us." 
 
 Paris, the 6tli of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1719. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 
 
 249 
 
 LrETTER CXXXVIII 
 
 Rica to Ibbbn, at Smyrna 
 
 /, 
 
 II yi INISTERS succeed and destroy each other here like the 
 IW seasons; during three years I have seen the finan- 
 cial system change four times. To-day taxes are 
 levied in Turkey and Persia, as they were levied by the 
 founders of these empires ; a state of affairs very different 
 from that which exists here. It is true that we do not set 
 about it so intelligently as the people of the west. We 
 imagine that there is no more difference between the ad- 
 ministration of the revenues of a prince and the fortune of 
 a private person, than there is between counting a hundred 
 thousand tomans and counting only a hundred ; but the 
 matter is very much more delicate and mysterious. It re- 
 quires the greatest geniuses to work night and day, invent- 
 ing endless new schemes with all the pains of travail ; 
 they must listen to the advice of a multitude of people, 
 who, unasked, meddle in their affairs ; they have to retire 
 and live shut up in closets inaccessible to the great, and 
 worshiped by the small ; they must always have their 
 heads full of important secrets, miraculous plans, and new 
 systems; and, being absorbed in thought, it behooves them 
 to be deprived of the use of speech, and sometimes even 
 of the ability to be polite. 
 
 No sooner had the late king died, than they thought of 
 setting up a new administration. They felt that things 
 were in a bad way ; but knew not how to bring about a 
 better state. They did not believe in the unlimited author- 
 ity of the preceding ministers ; they wished the power to 
 be divided. For that purpose five or six councils wen 
 created, and that ministry was perhaps the wisest of all 
 those which have governed France ; it did not last long, 
 and neither did the good which it brought to pass. 
 
 France, at the death of the late king, was a body over- 
 come by a thousand disorders : N * took the knife 
 
 )/ 
 
 \ «-;>■ 
 
 *Tlie Duke of Noailles. 
 
J 
 
 250 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 in hand, cut away the useless flesh, and applied some 
 local remedies. But there always remained an internal dis- 
 ease. A stranger came who undertook its cure.* After 
 many violent remedies, he imagined he had put it into 
 good condition, whereas it had only become unhealthily 
 ^stout. 
 
 All who were rich six months ago are now paupers, 
 and those who lacked bread are rolling in wealth. These 
 two extremities never before approached so near. This for- 
 eigner has turned th^ state as an old-clothes man turns a 
 coat ; he causes that to appear uppermost which was under, 
 and that which was above he places beneath. What unex- 
 pected fortunes, incredible even to those who made them ! 
 God creates men out of nothing, with no greater expedition. 
 How many valets are now waited on by their fellows, and 
 may to-morrow be served by their former masters ! 
 
 The oddest things happen as a result of all this. I^ack- 
 eys, who made their fortune in the last reign, brag 
 to-day of their birth : they avenge themselves upon those 
 who have just doffed their livery in a certain street.f for 
 all the contempt poured out upon themselves six months 
 before ; thej' cry with all their might, "The nobility is 
 ruined ! What a chaotic condition the state is in ! What 
 confusion of ranks ! Only nameless people now make for- 
 tunes ! " And these nameless ones, you may be sure, will 
 take their revenge on those who come after them ; in thirty 
 years as people of quality they will make sufficient noise ia 
 the world. 
 
 Paris, tbe ist of the moon of 
 Zilcade, 1720. 
 
 *Jolin Law. 
 
 fRue Quincampoix, at that time the rendezvous of stockbrokers. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 
 
 351 
 
 IvETTER CXXXIX 
 
 Rica to the Same 
 
 HERE is an example of conjugal affection, wonderful in 
 any woman, but much more so in a queen. The 
 Queen of Sweden,* having quite made up her mind 
 that the prince,! ter husband, should share the government 
 with her, in order to overcome all difficulties, sent to the 
 Assembly a declaration resigning the regency, provided they 
 elected him. 
 
 Some sixty years ago or more another queen, called 
 Christina, abdicated the throne in order to devote herself 
 entirely to philosophy. I know not which of these two ex- 
 amples one ought to admire most. 
 
 Although I entirely approve of every one maintaining' 
 himself firmly in the station in which nature has placed - 
 him, and although I cannot praise the weakness of those" 
 who, feeling themselves inferior to their position, leave it 
 by what is little short of desertion, yet I am much struck 
 with the magnanimity of these two princesses, which enabled 
 the mind of the one and the heart of the other to rise su- 
 perior to their fortunes. Christina aspired to knowledge at 
 an age when others think only of enjoyment ; and the other 
 wished to enjoy her power only that she might place her 
 entire happiness in the hands of her noble husband. 
 
 Paris, the 27th of the moon of 
 Maharram, 1720. 
 
 * Ulrica-Eleonora, sister of Charles XII., elected Queen of Sweden 
 by the people. 
 
 t Frederic of Hesse-Cassel. 
 
 
 :K 
 
252 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER CXIv 
 
 Rica to Usbbk 
 
 ^ rp\HB Parliament of Paris has just been banished to a 
 
 17^^ 'i. s>ii\ 1 little town called Pontoise.* The Council ordered it 
 
 °^'' ^ > to register or approve a declaration dishonoring to it; 
 
 ■4^ r 'and it registered it in a manner which dishonored the 
 
 ,j Council. 
 
 Other parliaments of the kingdom are threatened with, 
 similar treatment. 
 
 ( These assemblies are always detested ; they approach 
 ikings only to tell them disagreeable truths, and while a 
 |crowd of courtiers are never done representing to them that 
 the people are quite happy under their rule, the parlia- 
 ments come giving the lie to flattery, and carrying to the 
 foot of the throne the tearful complaints committed to 
 them. 
 
 When it is necessary to bear it into the presence of 
 princes, truth, my dear Usbek, is a heavy burden ! It 
 ought therefore to be remembered that those who do so 
 are constrained to it, and that they never would have made 
 up their minds to a course so disagreeable and distressing 
 for those who undertake it, if they were not compelled by 
 their duty, their respect, and even by their affection. 
 
 Paris, the aist of the first moon of 
 Gemmadi, 1720. 
 
 LETTER CXLI 
 Rica to the Same, at * * * 
 
 JwiLi* visit you at the end of the week. How pleasantly 
 the time will pass in your company ! 
 
 Some days ago, I was presented to a lady of the 
 court who had taken a fancy to see my foreign figure. I 
 found her beautiful, deserving the affection of our monarch, 
 
 *The Parliament, having opposed Law's system, was exiled to Pon- 
 toise by the Regent on the 21st of July, 1720. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 253 
 
 and a high rank in the sacred place where his heart re- 
 poses. 
 
 She asked me a thousand questions about the customs of 
 the Persians, and the style of life led by the Persian wo- 
 men. The life of the seraglio did not appear to her taste, 
 and she displayed repugnance at the idea of one man being 
 shared among ten or a dozen women. She could not think 
 of the man's happiness without envy, nor of the condition 
 of the women without compassion. As she loved reading, 
 above all the works of the poets and romance writers, she 
 desired me to talk to her of ours. What I told her re- 
 doubled her curiosity ; she begged me to translate for her 
 a. portion of one of those which I have with me. I did so, 
 and sent to her, some days after, a Persian tale. Perhaps 
 you will be amused to see it in my translation. 
 
 In the time of Sheik Ali-Khan, there lived in Persia a 
 woman called Zulema ; she knew the whole of the sacred 
 Koran by heart ; not a dervish among them understood 
 better than she the traditions of the holy prophets ; the 
 Arab scholars never said anything so mysterious that she 
 could not comprehend all its meaning ; and she united to 
 all this learning a cast of mind so sprightly, that those 
 who heard her talk could hardly make out whether she 
 meant to amuse or to instruct them. 
 
 Once, while she was with her companions in a room of 
 the seraglio, one of them asked her what she thought of 
 the next life ; and if she held to that ancient tradition 
 of our doctors which declares that Paradise was made for 
 men alone. 
 
 "It is the general opinion," she said; "nothing has been 
 left undone to degrade our sex. There is even a race scat- 
 tered throughout Persia, called the Jews, who maintain, by 
 the authority of their sacred writings, that we have no souls. 
 
 "These most insulting opinions have no other origin 
 than the vanity of men, who wish to carry their superi- 
 ority even beyond this life, forgetting that at the last day 
 all creatures will appear before God as nothing, and that 
 no one will have any advantage over another except that 
 which virtue gives. 
 
2 54 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 " God will be impartial in His rewards : and as those 
 men who have led a good life, and have made a good use 
 of the power which they have over us here below, will be 
 sent to a paradise full of beauties so celestial and ravish- 
 ing, that were a mortal to see them, he would at once kill 
 himself in his impatience to enjoy them ; so virtuous 
 women will enter into a delightful abode, where they will 
 be surfeited with a torrent of pleasure in the arms of god- 
 like men who will be at their beck : each of them will 
 have a seraglio in which these men will be sequestrated, 
 with eunuchs, even more faithful than ours, to guard them. 
 
 "I have read," she continued, "in an Arab book, of a 
 man called Ibrahim, who was insufferably jealous. He 
 had twelve exceedingly beautiful wives, to whom he be- 
 haved in a most barbarous fashion ; he had no faith in his 
 eunuchs, nor in the walls of his seraglio ; he kept them 
 almost always under lock and key, shut up in their rooms, 
 and unable to see, or speak to, each other ; for he was 
 jealous even of an innocent friendship : all his actions were 
 colored by his brutal nature : a soft word was never heard 
 to issue from his mouth ; and he never gave them the 
 slightest attention, except to add something to the severity 
 of their slavery. 
 
 " One day when he had them all gathered together in 
 an apartment of his seraglio, one, bolder than the rest, 
 reproached him with his morose disposition. * When one 
 takes such strong^ measures to make himse lf feared^' she 
 said, 'he always finds that he makes himself hated instead. 
 
 We are so miserable that we cannot help wishing a change : 
 others, in my place, would desire your death ; I only desire 
 my own ; and as I can only hope to be separated from you 
 by death, it will be all the sweeter on that account.' This 
 speech, which should have softened him, sent him off into 
 a paroxysm of anger ; he drew his dagger and plunged it 
 into her breast. * My dear companions, * said she, with 
 her dying breath, 'if Heaven has compassion on my 
 virtue, you will be avenged.* With these words, she quit- 
 ted this miserable life, and entered into the abode of bliss, 
 where women who have followed virtue, enjoy a happiness 
 which never palls. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 255 
 
 " At first she saw a pleasant meadow whose greenery was 
 reheved with enamel of the brightest flowers : a river, the 
 waters of which were purer than crystal, rolled through it 
 in a labyrinth of meanders. Then she entered a deUghtful 
 wood, where the silence was broken only by the sweet 
 songs of birds. Splendid gardens next opened on her view ; 
 on these nature had bestowed her simple charm as well as 
 all her magnificence. At last she came to a glorious palace 
 prepared for her, and filled with heavenly men destined for 
 her delight. 
 
 "Two of them advanced to her at once and undressed 
 her : others led her to the bath, and perfumed her with the 
 sweetest essences : then they gave her garments infinitely 
 richer than her old ones : after which they led her into a 
 spacious apartment, where was a fire made of odorous 
 woods, and a table spread with a most exquisite repast. 
 All things seemed to unite to ravish every sense : she 
 heard on one side a strain of lofty music, all the more so 
 as it throbbed with passion ; on the other, she beheld the 
 dances of these godlike men, exclusively devoted to her 
 pleasure. Yet all these pleasures were only intended to 
 lead her by degrees to pleasures yet more entrancing. They 
 conducted her to her chamber ; and, having been again un- 
 dressed, she was laid in a sumptuous bed, where two men 
 of exquisite beauty received her in their arms. Then was 
 she in an ecstasy of delight ; her raptures exceeded even 
 her desires. * I am transported, ' she said ; '■ I should think 
 myself dying, were I not certain that I am immortal. It 
 is too much ; release me ; I am overcome by excess of 
 pleasure. Ah ! you restore a little tranquillity to my senses ; 
 I breathe again; I return to myself. Why have the lights 
 been taken away? Why can I not still contemplate 
 your godlike beauty? Why, can I not see . . . But, 
 what do I talk of seeing? You make me glide once more 
 into my former transports. Sweet heavens ! how soothing 
 is this darkness ! What ! I shall be immortal ; and im- 
 mortal with you ! I shall be ... No ; respite a mo- 
 ment ; for I see that you are not likely to ask it. ' 
 
 " After reiterated commands she was obeyed : but not until 
 she seemed to wish it in good earnest. Drooping, she gave 
 
4S6 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 herself to repose, and slumbered in their arms. Two mo- 
 ments of sleep restored her strength, and she received two 
 kisses which not only wakened her, but reawakened her 
 passions. * I am uneasy, ' she said ; * I doubt you love me 
 no longer.' It was a doubt in which she had no desire to 
 remain long, and she soon had from them explanations as 
 complete as she could desire. * I see my mistake,' she cried ; 
 * pardon me, pardon me, I will never doubt you again. 
 You say nothing ; but your actions prove it better than 
 anything you could say ; yes, yes, I own it ; no one was 
 ever loved so much. But, what is this ! you contest which 
 shall have the honor of convincing me ! Ah ! if you vie with 
 each other, if you join ambition to the pleasure of defeating 
 me, I am lost; you will both be conquerors, and I, only, 
 vanquished ; but I will make you pay for your victory. ' 
 
 *Day alone put an end to these delights. Her faithful 
 and attached servants entered her chamber and caused the 
 two young men to rise ; they were reconducted by two old 
 men to the rooms where they were kept for her pleasure. 
 She then rose, and appeared before her devoted court, first 
 in the charms of a simple undress, and afterward appareled 
 in the most costly attire. The past night had increased her 
 beauty ; it had given greater brilliance to her complexion, 
 and a new attraction to her charms. The entire day was 
 spent in dances, concerts, feasts, games, and promenades ; 
 and it was noticed that Anais withdrew from time to 
 time, and fled to her two young heroes : after some precious 
 moments with them, she returned to the company which 
 she had left, the expression of her face growing more and 
 more serene. At last, toward evening, they lost sight of 
 her altogether : she had gone to shut herself up in her 
 seraglio, where she wished, she said, to make the acquaint- 
 ance of those immortal captives who were to live with her 
 forever. She therefore visited those apartments, the most 
 retired and the most delightful, where she counted fifty 
 slaves, miracles of manly beauty ; all night she went from 
 room to room, receiving everywhere homage ever new, and 
 ever the same. 
 
 "Thus the immortal Anais passed her life, now in the 
 midst of glittering throngs, now in solitary delight; 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 257 
 
 admired by a brilliant company, or adored by a single ardent 
 lover : often she would quit an enchanted palace, to pass into 
 a rural grotto : flowers seemed to spring up at her tread, 
 and pleasures crowded round her. 
 
 "During more than eight days she spent her time in that 
 happy mansion, always transported, and without ever pass- 
 ing a thought : she had enjoyed her happiness without 
 knowing it, and without having had a single moment of 
 that mental repose, in which the soul, if I may say so, 
 takes account of itself, and listens to its own discourse in 
 the silence of the passions. 
 
 "The pleasures of the blessed are so engrossing, that they 
 seldom pr^jny this fri^^d""^ "f spirit : therefore it is that, 
 bei n^ invincibly attached to present obiectSw thp.v — lose 
 altogether the memory of „ things past, and have no longer 
 any thought for that which they had known or loved in 
 the other life. 
 
 "But Anais, whose spirit was truly philosophical, had 
 passed almost all her life in meditation : she had pushed 
 her thought much further than one would have expected 
 from a woman left to herself. The severe seclusion in 
 which her husband had kept her, had left her no other 
 enjoyment. 
 
 "It was this strength of mind which had enabled her to 
 despise the terror that had paralyzed her companions, and 
 death, which was to be the end of her troubles and the 
 beginning of her felicity. 
 
 "And so she recovered by degrees from the intoxication 
 of pleasure, and shut herself up alone in a room of her 
 palace. She gave the rein t o pleasing reflection on he r 
 past cond ition^nd h er present happiness ; she could not 
 help pitying the wretched lot of her companions: one can 
 always sympathize with the miseries which one has shared. 
 Anais did not confine herself, however, to compassion: so 
 kindly disposed was she toward these unfortnate women, 
 that she was constrained to aid them. 
 
 " She ordered one of the young men who were with her 
 to assume the figure of her husband, go to his seraglio, 
 master it, drive him out, and occupy his place until she 
 recalled him. 
 17 
 
2S8 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 " The execution was prompt : he cut through the air, and 
 arrived at the door of the seraglio of Ibrahim, who hap- 
 pened to be away. He knocked ; every door flew open ; 
 the eunuchs fell at his feet. He flew toward the apart- 
 ments where the wives of Ibrahim were shut up. He had 
 in passing snatched the keys from the pocket of that jeal- 
 ous monster, to whom he had made himself invisible. He 
 entered, and surprised the women first by his gentle and 
 agreeable manner ; and much more shortly after by the assidu- 
 ity and the alacrity with which he embraced them. All were 
 given cause to be astonished ; and they would have taken 
 it for a dream had there been less of reality about it. 
 
 " While these novel incidents were passing in the seraglio^ 
 Ibrahim thundered at the door, announced himself, and 
 stormed and shouted. After having overcome many ob- 
 stacles, he entered, to the great consternation of the eu- 
 nuchs. He strode on, but recoiled like one dropped from 
 the clouds when he saw the false Ibrahim, his perfect 
 image, exercising all the liberties of a master. He called 
 for help, and bade the eunuchs aid him to kill this impos- 
 tor : but he was not obeyed. Only one weak resource re- 
 mained to him ; and that was, to refer the matter to the judg- 
 ment of his wives. In a single hour the false Ibrahim had 
 corrupted all his judges. He was driven away, and dragged 
 ignominiously out of the seraglio ; and he would have been 
 killed a thousand times, if his rival had not ordered that 
 his life should be spared. Lastly, the new Ibrahim, re- 
 maining master of the field, proved himself more and more 
 a worthy choice, and distinguished himself by feats before 
 unknown. *You are not like Ibrahim,' said the women. 
 *Say rather that that impostor is not like me,' replied the 
 triumphant Ibrahim. 'How could any one deserve to be 
 your husband, if what I do is insufficient.' 
 
 * ' Ah ! we shall be careful how we doubt, ' said the wo- 
 men : *if you are not Ibrahim, it is enough for us that 
 you have so well deserved to be him : you are more Ibra- 
 him, in one day, than he was in the course of ten years.* 
 * You promise me, then,' replied he, 'that you will declare 
 in my favor against this impostor ? ' < Never doubt it, ' 
 cried they with one voice : ' we swear to be forever faith- 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 259 
 
 ful to you : we have been deceived quite long enough LJhe 
 coward did not suspect our^virtue, he suspected only his 
 own impotence : we see clearly that men are not all made 
 like him ; it is you without doubt whom they resemble : if 
 you only knew how much you make us hate him ! ' * Ah ! 
 I will often give you new occasions for hatred,* replied the 
 false Ibrahim ; * you do not yet know how great a wrong 
 he has done you.' 'We judge of his iniquity by the 
 greatness of your revenge,* they replied. 'Yes, you are 
 right,' said the godlike man; 'I have proportioned the 
 punishment to the crime ; and I am very glad that you 
 are satisfied with my method of punishment.' 'But,' said 
 these women, ' should this impostor return, what shall we 
 do?' 'It would be, I believe, difiicult for him to deceive 
 you,' replied he : '"in_J he relation in which I stand to vou, 
 one could hardly maintain himself by trickery :^ .and besides, 
 I will send him so far away that you will hear no more of 
 him. Thereafter I shall take upon myself the care of your 
 happiness. I will not be jealous ; I know how to bind you 
 to me without restraining you ; I have a sufficiently good 
 opinion of my own deserts to believe that you will be 
 faithful to me ; if not with me, with whom would you be 
 virtuous ? ' This conversation lasted a long time between 
 him and these women ; the latter, more struck by the dif- 
 ference between the two Ibrahims than by their resem- 
 blance, were not speciallj' desirous to have the mystery 
 cleared up. At last, the desperate husband returned again 
 to annoy them : he found his whole household rejoicing, 
 and his wives more incredulous than ever. Itjwas_no place 
 for a jealous man ; he went away mad with rage : and the 
 moment attef7 the false Ibrahim followed him, seized him, 
 carried him through the air to a distance of two thousand 
 leagues, and there dropped him. 
 
 "Ye gods, in what a wretched plight did these women 
 find themselves during the absence of their dear Ibrahim ! 
 Already their eunuchs had resumed their accustomed sever- 
 ity ; the whole household was in tears ; sometimes they 
 imagined that all that had happened was no more than a 
 dream ; they looked wistfully on each other, and recalled 
 the slightest circumstances of these wonderful adventures. 
 
26o MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 At last the heavenly Ibrahim returned more amiable than 
 ever ; it was evident to them that his journey had not put 
 him about. The new master took a course so opposite to 
 that of the other, that all his neighbors were amazed. He dis- 
 missed all the eunuchs, and opened his house to every- 
 body : he would not even allow his wives to wear their 
 veils. It was a most extraordinary thing to see them, 
 feasting along with the men, and as free as they. Ibrahim 
 believed, and rightly, that the customs of the country were 
 not made for such citizens as he. Nevertheless, he spared no 
 expense : he squandered with a lavish hand the possessions 
 of the jealous husband, who, on his return three years after 
 from the distant land to which he had been transported, 
 found nothing left but his wives and thirty-six children.'* 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the first moon of 
 Genunadi, 1720. 
 
 IvETTER CXI,II 
 Rica to Usbbk, at * * * 
 
 H 
 
 BR8 is a letter which I received yesterday from a 
 learned man : you will think it remarkable. 
 
 "SiR,^Six months ago I inherited from a very rich 
 uncle five or six thousand livres and a magnificently 
 furnished mansion. It is delightful to have wealth, 
 when one knows how to make a good use of it. I have 
 no ambition, nor any taste for pleasure : I am almost al- 
 ways shut up in a little room, where I lead the life of a 
 savant. It is in such a place that the diligent antiquary is 
 to be found. 
 
 "When my uncle died, I was very anxious to have him 
 buried with the ceremonies observed by the ancient Greeks 
 and Romans : but at that time I had neither lachrymatories, 
 lor urns, nor antique lamps. 
 
 "Since then, however, I have provided myself with these 
 precious rarities. Some days ago I sold my silver plate in 
 order to buy an earthenware lamp which had given light to 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 261 
 
 a Stoic philosopher. I have disposed of all the glass with 
 which my uncle had covered almost all the walls of his rooms, 
 that I might possess a little mirror, somewhat cracked, 
 which had formerly been used by Virgil : it charms me to 
 see my own features where those of the swan of Mantua have 
 been reflected. That is not all : I have bought for a 
 hundred louis d'or five or six pieces of copper money which 
 were current two thousand years ago. I do not think I 
 have now in my house a single piece of furniture which was 
 not made before the fall of the Roman empire. I have a 
 cupboard full of the most valuable and costly manuscripts. 
 Although it is ruining my sight, I much prefer to read 
 them than printed copies which are not so correct, and which 
 are in everybody's hands, Although I hardly ever go out, 
 that does not prevent me from having an ungovernable 
 passion to be acquainted with all the old roads which date 
 from the time of the Romans. There is one near my house 
 which was made by a proconsul of Gaul about twelve 
 hundred years ago. When I go to my place in the country, 
 I never fail to take it, although it is very inconvenient, and 
 leads me more than a league out of my way : but what 
 really angers me are the wooden posts stuck up at certain 
 intervals to indicate the distances of the neighboring towns. 
 I am in despair at the sight of these signposts, wretched 
 substitutes for the military columns that stood there for- 
 merly : I have no doubt that I shall cause them to be set up 
 again by my heirs, and that I shall be able to leave a will 
 compelling them to do it. If, sir, you have such a thing 
 as a Persian manuscript, you would oblige me very much 
 by letting me have it : I will pay you your own price, and 
 will give you into the bargain some works of mine, from 
 which you will see that I am not a useless member of the 
 republic of letters. Among them you will notice a disser- 
 tation in which I prove that the crown used formerly in 
 triumphs, was of oak and not of laurel : you will admire an- 
 other in which I show clearly, by learned conjectures deduced 
 from the weightiest Greek authors, that Cambyses was 
 wounded, not in the right leg, but in the left ; in anotherj 
 I demonstrate that a low forehead was a beauty much in 
 request among the Romans. I will send you also a quarto 
 
262 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 volume, containing the explanation of a line in the sixth 
 book of Virgil's «^neid.» All these things you will re- 
 ceive in a few days ; and in the meantime I content myself 
 with sending you the accompanying fragment of an ancient 
 Greek mythologist, which has not yet been published, and 
 which I discovered in the dust of a library. I must leave 
 you now for an important matter which I have in hand, 
 namely, the restoration of a beautiful passage in Pliuj'^ the 
 naturalist, which has been strangely disfigured by the copy- 
 ists of the fifth century. I am," etc. 
 
 Fragment op an Ancient Mythologist 
 
 "In an island near the Oscades, a child was born whose 
 father was ^olus, the god of the winds, and his mother a 
 nymph of Caledonia.* They tell of him that he learned 
 unaided to count with his fingers ; and that from his fourth 
 year he distinguished metals so well, that his mother, hav- 
 ing given him a ring of tin in exchange for one of gold, 
 he perceived the deceit, and threw it away. 
 
 " When he had grown up, his father taught him the 
 secret of inclosing the winds in skins, which he afterward 
 sold to all the travelers : but as the trade in winds was 
 not very brisk in his country, he left it, and went up and 
 down the world, accompanied by the blind god of chance. 
 
 "During his traxtgls he learned that gold glittered in 
 every part of Betica ; t^<J<i be hurried thither at once. He 
 was very badly received &y Saturn, J who reigned then: but 
 that god having quitted thle earth, he judged it wise to go 
 into all the crossroads and cry continually in a hoarse 
 voice, 'People of Betica, you think yourselves rich, because 
 you have silver and gold I I pity your error. Be ruled 
 by me : leave the land of the base metals ; come into the 
 empire of the imagination, and I promise you riches which 
 will astonish even you.* He immediately opened a great 
 number of the skins which he had brought with him, and 
 dealt out his merchandise to all who wished it. 
 
 *The Scotch financier. Law, of whose system this allegory is a 
 satire. 
 
 t France. t Louis XIV. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 263 
 
 "Next morning he returned to the same crossroads, and 
 cried, 'People of Betica, would you be rich? Imagine that 
 I am very rich, and that you are very rich : get yourselves 
 into the belief every morning that your fortune has been 
 doubled during the^iight,: rise, then, TndT if you have any 
 creditors, go and pay them with what you have imagined, 
 and tell them to imagine in their turn.' 
 
 "A few days after he appeared again, and spoke as fol- 
 lows: * People of Betica, I perceive that your imagination 
 is weaker than it was a day or two ago ; try to bring it 
 up to the strength of mine: I will place before you every 
 morning a bill, which will be the source of wealth for 
 you : you will see only four words,* but they will be of 
 the highest significance, as they will settle the portions of 
 your wives, the fortunes of your children, and the number 
 of your domestics. And, as for you' — addressing those of 
 the crowd who were nearest him — * as for you, my dear 
 children (I may call you by that name, since you have re- 
 ceived from me a second birth), my bill shall decide as to 
 the magnificence of your equipages, the splendor of your 
 feasts, and the number and pensions of your mistresses.' 
 
 "Some days later he came into the street, quite out of 
 breath, and cried out in a violent passion, * People of 
 Betica, I counseled you to imagine, but you have not done 
 so : well then, I now command you to imagine. ' With 
 that he left them abruptly ; but on second thoughts re- 
 traced his steps. * I understand that some of you are 
 odious enough to keep your gold and silver. For the 
 silver, let it go: but the gold . . . the gold . . . 
 Ah ! that stirs my anger ! . . . I swear, by my sacred 
 windbags, that if you do not bring it to me, I will inflict 
 dire punishment upon you. ' f Then he added, in the most 
 seductive manner imaginable, *Do you think it is to keep 
 these wretched metals that I ask them from you ? A proof 
 of my good faith is, that when you brought me them 
 some days ago, I gave you back at once one half.' | 
 
 * Le cours des actions, the price of shares. 
 
 + It had been decreed that all specie should be taken to the Bank. 
 % At the beginning of Law's « system," claims on the Bank were 
 paid half in paper and half in cash. 
 
364 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 "Next day, he kept at some distance, and endeavored 
 with soft and flattering voice to worm himself into their 
 favor. 'People of Betica, I learn that a portion of your 
 wealth is in foreign countries : I beg you to have it sent to 
 me ; * it will oblige me very much, and I will never forget 
 your kindness.' 
 
 " The son of .iEolus was addressing people who were in no 
 mood to be amused, yet they could not restrain their 
 laughter ; which caused him to slink away in a shame- 
 faced manner. But, his courage having returned, he risked 
 another little petition. ' I know that you have precious 
 stones ; in the name of Jupiter, get rid of them ; nothing 
 will so impoverish you as things of that kind ; get rid of 
 them, I tell you.f Should you be unable to do so your- 
 selves, I can provide excellent agents. What wealth will 
 pour in upon you, if you follow my advice ! Yes, I promise 
 you the very best my windbags contain.' 
 
 "Then he got up on a platform, and, in a more resolute 
 tone, said, 'People of Betica, I have compared the happy 
 condition in which you now are with that in which I found 
 you when I first came here ; I behold you the richest peo- 
 ple in the world : but, in order to crown your good fortune, 
 allow me to deprive you of the half of your wealth. ' With 
 these words, the son of .(Eolus soared away on rapid wings, 
 and left his audience dumb with amazement, a result which 
 brought him back next day, when he spoke as follows : * I 
 perceived yesterday that my speech displeased you very much. 
 Very well ! suppose that I have said nothing at all as yet. It 
 is quite true ; one half is too much. We must find some 
 other expedient to arrive at the result which I have pro- 
 posed. I/et us gather all our wealth into one place ; we 
 can do so easily, because it does not occupy much space.* 
 Immediately three-quarters of their wealth had disappeared." J 
 
 Paris, the gth of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1720. 
 
 *A royal order, issued 20th of June, 1720. 
 
 + A decree of the 4th of July, 1720. 
 
 JA decree of the 15th of September, 1720. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 265 
 
 I.ETTER CXI.III 
 
 Rica to Nathaniel tiHYi, Jewish Physician 
 AT Leghorn 
 
 You ask me what I think of the virtues of amulets, and 
 the power of talismans. Why do you address your- 
 self to me? You are a Jew and I am a Mohamme- 
 dan., that is to say, two very superstitious people. 
 
 I carry about with me always two thousand passages 
 from the holy Koran : on my arms I fasten a little slip 
 on which are written the names of more than two hundred 
 dervishes : the names of Hali, of Fatima, and of all the 
 saintliest ones, are hidden in my clothes in more than 
 twenty places. 
 
 However, I do not disapprove of those who refuse to be- 
 lieve in the power ascribed to certain words. We find it 
 more difi&cult to reply to their arguments, than they to our 
 experience. I carry about me all these sacred scraps 
 through long habit, and in order to conform to a universal 
 practice : I am certain that if they do not possess more 
 virtue than the rings and other ornaments with which we 
 deck ourselves, they have at least as much. You, on the 
 other hand, place your entire confidence in some mysterious 
 letters ; and without that safeguard would be in perpetual 
 dread. , 
 
 Men are most unfortunate beings. They hover constantly^ 
 between false hopes and ridiculous fears : and instead of ij 
 relying on reason, make themselves monsters to terrify^ 
 them, or phantoms to mislead them. 
 
 What effect do you think can be produced by an ar- 
 rangement of certain letters? What evil effect can their 
 derangement produce? What connection have they with 
 the winds that they should calm tempests ; with gunpow- 
 der, that they should overcome its force ; with peccant 
 humors, as doctors call them, and the morbific cause of 
 diseases, that they should cure them? 
 
^66 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 '' / \ What is most extraordinary is, that those who tire out 
 
 f*"^ /their minds endeavoring to show the connection between 
 
 ^,j\, X certain events and occult powers, are forced to take as 
 
 ' much trouble again to keep themselves from perceiving the 
 
 ' true cause. 
 
 You will tell me that a battle was gained by means of 
 certain spells ; whereas I hold that you must be blind, not 
 to see that the situation of the field, the number or cour- 
 age of the soldiers, the experience of the captains, are suf- 
 ficient to produce that effect, of which you willfully ignore 
 the true cause. 
 
 I will grant for a moment that spells may exist : grant in 
 your turn, for a moment, that they may not; which is far 
 from impossible. What you grant me will not prevent two 
 armies from encountering each other in battle : would you 
 hold in that case that neither could defeat the other? 
 
 Do you believe that the battle will remain dubious until an 
 invisible power comes to decide it? that every blow will be 
 thrown away ; all strategy in vain ; and all courage useless ? 
 
 Do you imagine that death, present on such occasions in 
 a thousand forms, cannot produce in the minds of men 
 those wild panics which you have such difficulty in explain- 
 ing? Will you have it that in an army of a hundred 
 thousand men there may not be a single coward? Do you 
 think that the discouragement of such a one may not pro- 
 duce discouragement in another? that the second influenc- 
 ing a third, would soon make him produce a like effect 
 upon a fourth? No more would be necessary to cause a 
 whole army to be suddenly seized with despair, and the 
 larger the army, the more sudden the seizure. 
 
 The_whole world _knows _an<i^_jgels Jiiat-mear— Jike— all 
 creatures actuated by self-preseryatioji^ .axe-passioaately-^t- 
 tached to life: this is known to be the generaLrule ; and 
 yet people ask why on a particular occasion, they should 
 fear to lose it. 
 
 Although the holy writings of all nations abound with 
 accounts of these wild and supernatural panics, I can im- 
 agine nothing more ridiculous ; because, to be certain that 
 an effect which may be produced in a hundred thousand 
 natural ways is supernatural, would require first of all 
 
 ^ 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 267 
 
 proof positive that none of these causes had operated ; 
 which is impossible. 
 
 But I shall say no more about it, Nathaniel; it seems to 
 me that it is not a subject deserving such serious treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Paris, the 20th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1720. 
 
 P, S. — As I was concluding, I heard them crying in the 
 streets a letter from a country physician to one in Paris 
 (for here every trifle is printed, published, and bought). I 
 believe it is worth while sending it to you because it has 
 some bearing on our subject. 
 
 Lbttbr from a Country Physician to a Physician 
 
 OF Paris 
 
 "There was once in our town a sick person who had had 
 no sleep for thirty-five days. His physician ordered him 
 opium ; but he could not make up his mind to take it, 
 and when he had the cup in his hand he was less inclined 
 than ever. At last,' he said to his physician, 'Sir, give me 
 only till to-morrow : I know a man who, although he does 
 not practice medicine, has in his house an immense number 
 of cures for insomnia ; let me send for him : and if I do 
 not sleep to-night, I promise to return to you.* The phy- 
 sician being dismissed, the sick man had his curtains 
 closed, and said to his page, * Go to M. Anis and ask him 
 to come to me.' When M. Anis came the patient said to 
 him, *My dear sir, I am dying; I can't sleep: have you 
 not in your .shop the C. of the G.,* or some other book 
 of devotion written by an R. P. J.,t which you have not 
 been able to sell, for long-kept remedies are often the 
 best?' *Sir,' replied the bookseller, *I have the "Holy 
 Court" of Father Caussin, J in six volumes, at your serv- 
 
 * La Connaissance du Globe, according to the early editors. 
 \Rtvirend plre Jhuite. 
 
 JA Jesuit, born at Troyes. He was the confessor of Louis XIII., 
 and was exiled by Richelieu. 
 
268 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 ice ; I will send it to you ; and I hope you will be the 
 better of it. If you would prefer the works of the rever- 
 end Father Rodrigo, a Spanish Jesuit, you need not want 
 them. But, believe me, you had better stick to Father 
 Caussin; I trust, with the help of God, that a single sen- 
 tence of Father Caussin's will do you more good than a 
 whole page of the C. of the G.' With that M. Anis left, 
 and went to his shop to get the remedy. The 'Holy 
 Court ' arrived ; and the dust having been shaken off it, the 
 son of the sick man, a schoolboy, began to read it : he was 
 the first to feel its effects ; at the second page his utterance 
 began to be almost inarticulate, and already the whole com- 
 pany was growing drowsy; in a moment, everybody was 
 snoring except the sick man, -who, after having stood it a 
 good while, was at last overcome, too. 
 
 " The physician arrived early next morning. ' Well, * he 
 said, * has my opiate been taken ? * Nobody answered him : 
 the sick man's wife, daughter, and little boy, radiant with 
 joy, showed him Father Caussin. He asked what it was. 
 They answered, * I/Ong life to Father Caussin ; we must 
 send him to be bound. Who would have said it? Who 
 would have thought it? It is a miracle. I^ook, sir, 
 look ! here is Father Caussin ; it is this book which has 
 given mj' father sleep.* And thereupon they explained the 
 matter to him as it had happened. 
 
 **The physician was a skillful man, versed in the mys- 
 teries of the Cabala, and in the power of words and spirits. 
 He was much struck, and, after deep thought, resolved to 
 change his practice entirely. * Here is indeed a notable 
 fact ! * said he. * It is a new experience ; and I must ex- 
 periment further. And why should a spirit not be able to 
 transmit to its work the same qualities which itself pos- 
 sesses? Do we not see it every day? At least it is well 
 worth the trying. I am tired of the apothecaries ; their 
 syrups, their juleps, and all their galenical drugs destroy the 
 health and the lives of their patients. Let us change the 
 method, and try the power of the spirits.' With this idea, 
 he drafted a new system of pharmacy, as you will see by 
 the description which I am about to give you of the prin- 
 cipal remedies which he employed. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 269 
 
 *A Light Purgative 
 
 "Take three leaves of Aristotle's logic in Greek; two 
 leaves of a treatise on scholastic theology, the keener the 
 better, as, for example, that of the subtle Scotus; four of 
 Paracelsus ; one of Avicenna ; six of Averroes ; three of 
 Porphyry ; as many of Plotinus, and as many of Jamblicus. 
 Infuse the whole for twenty-four hours, and take four 
 doses a day. 
 
 **A Strongbr Purgative 
 
 "Take ten A of the C , concerning the 
 
 B and the C of the I ;* distil them in 
 
 a water-bath ; dilute a drop of the bitter and pungent prod- 
 uct in a glass of common water ; swallow the whole with 
 confidence. 
 
 "An Embtic 
 
 "Take six harangues; any dozen funeral orations, care- 
 fully excepting those of M. of N. ; f a collection of new 
 operas ; fifty novels ; thirty new memoirs. Put the whole 
 in a large flask ; leave it to settle for two days ; then distil 
 it on a sand-bath. And if all this should be insufficient, 
 here is, 
 
 "Another More Powerful Emetic 
 
 " Take a leaf of marbled paper which has served as cover 
 to a collection of the pieces of the J. F. ; f infuse it for 
 three minutes ; warm a spoonful of the infusion, and drink 
 it off. 
 
 " A Very Simple Cure for Asthma 
 
 " Read all the works of the reverend Father Maimbourg, § 
 formerly a Jesuit, taking care to pause only at the end of 
 
 *Ten Decrees (ArrSts) of the Council, concerning tie Bank and 
 the Company of the Indies ; or, according to the earlier editors, con- 
 cerning the Bull and the Constitution of the Jesuits. 
 
 t Fl^chier, Bishop of Nimes (Monsieur de Nimes) . 
 
 X The Jeux Floraux, established in 1324 by the magistrates of 
 Toulouse to revive the decaying art of the troubadours. 
 
 § Louis Maimbourg, expelled from the Company of Jesus in 1685 
 for having defended the liberties of the Galilean Church in his Traiti 
 historique de I'^glise de Rome. 
 
270 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 each sentence ; and you will gradually find your power of 
 breathing return to you so completely, that you will have 
 no need to repeat the cure. 
 
 "An Antidote for thb Itch, Rashes, Scai^dhead, and 
 
 Farcy 
 
 " Take three of Aristotle's categories, two metaphysical 
 degrees, one distinction, six lines of Chapelain, one phrase 
 from the letters of the Abb£ of Saint-Cyran ; write them 
 all on a piece of paper, fold it up, tie it to a ribbon, and 
 carry it round your neck. 
 
 Miraculum chymicum, de violenta fermeniatione, cum fumo, 
 igne, et flamma 
 
 "^ Misce Quesnellianam infusionem, cum infusione Lalle- 
 maniand ; fiat fermentatio cum m.agna vi, impetu et tonitru, 
 acidio pugnantibus, et invicem. penetrantibus alcalinos sales; 
 fiet evaporatio ardentium. spiritium. Pone liquorem fermenta- 
 tum in alembico ; nihil inde extrahes, et nihil invenies, nisi 
 caput mortuum. 
 
 "■ Lenitivum 
 
 " Recipe Molince anodine chartas duas ; Escobaris relaxativi 
 paginas sex ; Vasquii emollientis folium, unum ; infunde in 
 aqucB communis lib. iiij. Ad consumptionem. dim.idice partis 
 colentur et exprimantur; et, in expressione, dissolve Bauni 
 detersivi et Tamburini abluentis folia iij. 
 
 "•Fiat clister. 
 
 '•'■In chlorosim quam vulgus pallidos-colores, aut febrim ama- 
 toriam appellat 
 
 "•Recipe Aretini figuras iiij.; R. Thomce Sanchii de matri- 
 monis folia ij. 
 
 * Infuditur in aquce communis libras quinque. 
 " Fiat ptisana aperiens.* 
 
 *«A marvel in chemistry, concerning a violent fermentation, ac- 
 companied with smoke, heat, and flame. Mingle an infusion of 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 271 
 
 "These are the drugs which our physician prescribed 
 with remarkable success. *He did not wish,' he said, 
 * lest he should kill his patients, to employ rare remedies, 
 and such as are difficult to find — for example, a dedicatory 
 epistle which had never made anybody yawn ; too short a 
 preface ; a bishop's charge written by himself ; and the work 
 of a Jansenist despised by a Jansenist, or else admired by a 
 Jesuit.* He held that remedies of that kind were only fit 
 to maintain quackery, to which he had an insurmountable 
 antipathy." 
 
 Quesnel * with one of Lallemand ; t let fermentation proceed with 
 mucli violence, energy, and noise, as the acids fight together, and 
 eat their way into each other's alkaline salts ; J the fiery spirits 
 will thus evaporate. When fermentation is over, put the liquid 
 in an alembic : you will get nothing out of it, and find nothing 
 left in it, but a caput moriuum. — A Gentle Aperient. Take two 
 papers of MoUna as pain-killer ; of Escobar, to keep the bowels 
 open, take six pages ; take of Vasquez, to keep the passage easy, one 
 leaf ; infuse in four pounds of common water. When half has evapo- 
 rated, strain and squeeze ; and whUe squeezing, dissolve in the mix- 
 ture three leaves of Bauni to act as detergent, and three of Tamburini I 
 to wash away impurities. Make a. clyster of the result. — A cmre for 
 chlorosis, vulgarly called the green-sickness, or hot fit of love. Take 
 four plates from Aretinus ; take of Thomas Sanchez' work on " Mar- 
 riage,** two leaves. Infuse them in five pounds of common water, and 
 you will have a pleasant aperient.** 
 
 *A Jansenist, and great opponent of the Jesuits. 
 
 fA Jesuit father. 
 
 J A pun in the original; "sales" meaning also « witticisms." 
 
 g Molina, Escobar, Vasquez, Bauni, and Tamburini were Jesuits who replied to 
 the attacks of the Jansenists. Their names are frequently mentioned in Pascal's 
 « Provincials. » The name of Escobar makes at least one appearance in English 
 literature : 
 
 « Now they prick pins at a tissue 
 Fine as a skein of the casuist Escobar's 
 Worked on the bone of a lie." 
 
 —Browning's " Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha.» 
 
272 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTKR CXI,IV* 
 Usbb;k to Rica 
 
 SOMB days ago I met in a country-house which I was 
 visiting, two learned men who have a great reputation 
 here. Their characters astonished me. The conversa- 
 tion of the first, justly estimated, reduced itself to this : 
 "What I have said is true, because I have said it." The 
 conversation of the second went the other way about: 
 "What I have not said is not true, because I have not 
 said it." 
 
 I liked the first pretty well ; for it is not of the least 
 consequence to me, however stiff in opinion a man may be ; 
 but I cannot endure impertinence. The first defends his 
 opinions : that is to say, his own property ; the second at- 
 tacks the opinions of others ; that is to say, the property 
 of the whole world. 
 
 Oh, my dear Rica,t how badly vanity serves those who 
 have a larger share of it than is necessary for self-preserva- 
 tion ! Such people wish to be admired by dint of offend- 
 ing. They wish to be superior, but they do not even attain 
 to mediocrity. 
 
 Come hither to me, modest men, that I may embrace 
 you ! You are the charm, the delight of life. You think 
 that you are nobodies ; but I tell you that you possess the 
 one thing needful. You think that no one is humiliated by 
 you, and you humiliate the whole world. And when I 
 compare you in my mind with those imperious people 
 whom I see everywhere, I drag them from their judgment 
 seat, and throw them at your feet. 
 
 Paris, the 22d of the moon of 
 Chahbau, 1720. 
 
 *The seventh letter added in 1754. 
 
 t In the original « my dear Usbek,'* which is evidentlT- a mistake. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 
 
 273 
 
 I/ETTER CXLV* 
 
 USBEK TO * * * 
 
 -^-^.S., 
 
 A MAN of genius is usually fastidious in society. He' 
 chooses few acquaintances ; he finds the vast majority 
 of people whom he is pleased to call bad company 
 very tedious ; and as he cannot altogether hide his disgust, 
 he makes many enemies. 
 
 Sure of pleasing when he likes, he very often does not like. 
 
 He is much given to criticism, because he sees and feels 
 more than others. 
 
 He almost always ruins his fortune, because his genius 
 supplies him with a great variety of means for that purpose. 
 
 He fails in his undertakings because he attempts too 
 much; His vision ~wtoch~ carries far— causes- him -to—have 
 ilLjdgw objects which are too remote, it must also be re- 
 membered that, in projecting a scheme, he is less impressed 
 by the difficulties which spring from it, than by the means of 
 overcoming them, which he derives from his own resources. 
 
 He negl ects_minor det^s, although upon them the suc- 
 cess of almo st all gr eat_aitgrprisga-iSin3s^ 
 
 T*he mediocre man, on the other hand, tries to make use* 
 of everything, he is so well aware that he cannot afford to: 
 neglect trifles. j 
 
 Universal approbation is very generally accorded to the 
 mediocre man. Every one is delighted to give the latter! 
 praise, and enchanted to withhold it from the former. 
 While envy expends itself on the one and nothing is for- 
 given him, everything is construed in the other's favor; 
 vanity declares itself on his side. 
 
 But if so many disadvantages burden the man of genius, 
 what is to be said of the hard lot of a scientific man? 
 
 I never think of it without recalling a letter written by a 
 savant to one of his friends. Here it is : — 
 
 'O 
 
 •e-.5L, 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 j'\- 
 
 "Sir, — I am a man whose nights are spent in studying 
 through telescopes thirty feet long those great bodies which 
 
 *The eighth letter added in 1754. 
 18 
 
274 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 roll over our heads ; and when I wish for relaxation, I take 
 my little microscopes and examine a maggot or a mite. 
 
 " I am not rich, and I have only one room ; I dare not 
 even light a fire in it, because the unnatural warmth would 
 cause the mercury to rise in my thermometer. I^ast winter, 
 I thought I would die of cold ; and although my thermom- 
 eter, which was at the lowest, told me that my hands were 
 freezing, I did not put myself about. And I have the con- 
 solation of knowing exactly the slightest changes in the 
 weather for the whole of the past year. 
 
 " I have little intercourse with others ; and among all the 
 people whom I meet, I know no one. But there is a man 
 at Stockholm, another at I,eipsic and another at I,ondon, 
 whom I have never seen, and whom I shall doubtless never 
 
 ; see, bat with whom I keep up a correspondence so punctual, 
 
 1 that I do not miss a single post. 
 
 ^ "But although I know no one in my neighborhood, my 
 reputation here is so bad, that I shall sooner or later re- 
 quire to leave it. Five years ago I was grossly insulted by 
 a woman for having dissected a dog v/hich she pretended 
 belonged to her. The wife of a butcher, who happened to 
 be present, took her side. And, while the one abused me 
 heartily, the other pelted me with stones, along with 
 
 Dr. , who was in my company, and who received 
 
 such dreadful blows on the head, both back and front, that 
 his mind was much shaken. 
 
 "Since that time, whenever a dog strays away from the 
 street corner, it is at once taken for granted that he has 
 passed through my hands. A decent citizen's wife, who 
 had lost her pet dog, which she said she loved better than 
 her children, came the other day and fainted in my room ; 
 not finding her dog, she summoned me before the magis- 
 trate. I believe I shall never be delivered from the per- 
 sistent malice of these women, who, in shrieking tones, din 
 me daily with the funeral oration of all the beasts that 
 have died during the last six years. I am," etc. 
 
 All scientific men were formerly accused of magic. I am 
 not surpri.sed at it. Each one said to himself, « I have 
 Icarried human capacity as far as it can go ; and yet a cer- 
 
 i-H 
 
 '>'i,/? 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 275 
 
 tain savant has distanced me : beyond a doubt he deals in 
 sorcery. * 
 
 Now that accusations of that kind have been discredited, 
 another course has been taken ; and the scientific man can 
 hardly escape the reproach of ungodliness o r of heresy. It 
 is of little consequence that the people hold him innocent : 
 the wound once made can never be quite closed again. It 
 will always be a tender spot. An opponent will come thirty 
 years after and say to him in an unassuming way, "God 
 forbid that I should think you have been accused justly ; 
 but you were obliged to defend yourself." And thus his 
 justification itself is turned against him. 
 
 If he writes a history, and shows himself possessed of 
 high intelligence and some share of righteousness, a thousand 
 unjust accusations are brought against him. Some one will 
 stir up the magistrate against him about an incident that 
 took place ages ago, and if his pen is not to be bought they 
 would have it restrained. 
 
 They are more fortunate, however, than those recreants 
 who renounce their faith for a trifling pension ; who hardly 
 make a single farthing by all their impostures ; who overturn 
 the constitution of the empire, diminish the rights of one 
 state to increase those of another, give to princes what they 
 have taken from the people, revive obsolete rights, humor 
 the passions which are in vogue in their time, and the 
 favorite vices of the king ; imposing upon posterity all the 
 more infamously, that means are lacking to destroy their 
 evidence. 
 
 But it is not enough that an author should nave to en- 
 dure all these insults ; it is not enough that he should 
 have been continually anxious about the success of his 
 work. When it sees the light at last, that work, which 
 has cost him so much, brings down upon him quarrels from 
 all quarters. How can he avoid them? He holds an opin- 
 ion, and maintains it in his writings, quite unaware that 
 another man two hundred leagues away asserts the very 
 reverse. There you have the way in which war arises. 
 
 But may he not hope to acquire some degree of fame?. 
 No ; at the most he is only esteemed by those who have 
 studied the same branch of science as he. The philosopher \ 
 
 r 
 
276 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 has a supreme contempt for the man whose head is stuffed 
 with facts ; and he in his turn is looked upon as a vision- 
 ary by the possessor of a good memory. 
 
 As for those who profess a haughty ignorance, they 
 would have all mankind buried in the same oblivion as 
 themselves. 
 
 When a man lacks a particular talent, he indemnifies 
 himself by despising it : he removes the impediment be- 
 tween him and merit ; and in that way finds himself on a 
 level with those of whose works he formerly stood in awe, 
 
 lyastly, an author requires in pursuit of an equivocal 
 reputation to abstain from all pleasure and sacrifice his 
 health. 
 
 Paris, the 26th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1720. 
 
 LETTER CXLVI* 
 
 UsBBK TO Rhbdi, at Vbnice 
 
 IT jvAS^Jong_.ago— said that^a jminister cannot be g reat 
 unless he is_sincere. 
 
 A private person may avail himself of the obscurity 
 in which he is placed ; he discredits himself only in the 
 opinion of a few, and the mask he wears deceives others ; 
 but a minister who steps aside from the straight path 
 has a witness, a judge, in every subject of the state he 
 governs. 
 
 Is it too daring to say that the greatest evil done by an 
 
 unscrupulous minister is not the damage to the interests of 
 
 Tus" sovereign, not the ruin wrought among his people, but 
 
 quite another thing, and in my opinion a thousand times 
 
 more dangerous, namely, the bad example which he sets? 
 
 You know that I have for a long time traveled in~ffie 
 Indies. There I beheld a nation, upright by nature, led 
 away in an instant, from the lowest to the highest in the 
 land, by the bad example of a minister ; I beheld an entire 
 race, in whom generosity, integrity, candor, and sincerity 
 * Another satire on the « system » of Law. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 277 
 
 had always been regarded as natural qualities, become, in a 
 flash, the most despicable of peoples; I beheld the conta- 
 gion spread, sparing not even the healthiest members, and 
 the most upright men act in the unworthiest manner, vio- 
 lating the first principles of justice, upon the vain pretext 
 that injustice had been done to them. 
 
 They appealed to detestable laws, necessity, injustice and 
 treachery, in support of the most iniquitous deeds. 
 
 I saw honesty banished from business, the holiest con- 
 tracts become void, and all the laws of the family over- 
 turned. i^Taiir miserly debtors, insolent in their poverty, 
 unworthy instruments of the anger of the law and of the 
 exigency of the time, make a pretense of payment, while 
 they plunged a dagger into the bosom of their benefactors. 
 I saw others, viler still, buy for next to nothing, or rather 
 gather from the ground, oak leaves,* and give them in ex- 
 change for the substance of widows and orphans. 
 
 I saw suddenly spring up in all hearts an insatiable 
 thirst for riches. "I saw men form in a moment a detest- 
 able conspiracy to acquire wealth, not by honest labor and 
 liberal— i»d-ttstry,~ but by the ruin of the sovereign, of the 
 state, aiii of their fellow-citizens. 
 
 I saw a respectable citizen, in these disastrous times, 
 never retire to rest without saying, "To-day I have ruined 
 one family, to-morrow I shall ruin another." 
 
 "I am going," said another, "with a man in black who 
 carries an inkhorn in his hand, and a pointed weapon f be- 
 hind his ear, to assassinate all my creditors." 
 
 Another said, " I find that I am prospering : it is true that 
 when I went three da5'S ago to make a certain payment, I 
 left a whole family in tears ; that I have squandered the 
 portions of two well-born girls ; that I have deprived a boy 
 of the means of education — his father will die of grief, the 
 mother pines away broken hearted : but I have only done 
 what the law allows me." J 
 
 What crime can be greater^ than that which a minister 
 commits ~wEerrT re~corruptF the morals of~a whole nation, 
 debases .Jtheloitiest spirits, tarnishes the. lustre of rank, 
 
 * Paper money. t A pen. 
 
 tThat is, paid a debt in worthless paper. 
 
278 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 obscures,, virtue itself, . and levels the highest born with the 
 most despised? 
 
 What will posterity say when it has to blush for the 
 shame of its forefathers? What will the next generation 
 say when it compares the iron age of earlier times with the 
 age of gold which gave it birth? I doubt not that the 
 nobles will remove from their genealogies a degree of no- 
 bility dishonoring to them, and leave the present genera- 
 tion in the oblivion it has so well deserved. 
 
 I^ETTER CXI.VII 
 The Chief Hunuch to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 THINGS have come to such a pass here that it is not to 
 be endured ; your wives imagine that your departure 
 exempts them from all restraint ; there has been most 
 atrocious behavior: I myself tremble at the harrowing story 
 I am about to tell. 
 
 Some days ago Zelis, on her way to the mosque, let her 
 veil fall, and appeared before the people with her face 
 almost wholly uncovered. 
 
 I found Zachi in bed with one of her maids, a thing ab- 
 solutely forbidden by the laws of the seraglio. 
 
 I intercepted, by the merest chance in the world, a letter 
 which I send you : I have never been able to discover to 
 whom it was sent. 
 
 Yesterday evening a young fellow was observed in the 
 garden of the seraglio; he made his escape over the wall. 
 
 Add to this all that has not come to my knowledge ; for 
 you are certainly betrayed. I await your orders ; and un- 
 til the happy moment of their receipt, I shall be in a state 
 of intolerable anxiety. But, if you do not leave all these 
 women to my discretion, I will not be responsible for one 
 of them, and will have news as heartrending to send you 
 every day. 
 
 The Seragmo at Ispahan, the ist of the 
 moon of Rhegeb, 1717. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 279 
 
 LETTER CXI^VIII 
 
 UsBBK TO th:b Chief Eunuch, at thb Seraguo at 
 
 Ispahan 
 
 RECBivB by this letter unlimited power over the whole 
 seraglio ; give your orders with as much authority 
 as I do ; let fear and terror accompany you ; carry 
 penance and chastisement from room to room ; let dismay 
 be upon all, and tears flow from every eye in your pres- 
 ence ; examine the whole seraglio, beginning with the 
 slaves ; spare not my love : let all bow before your dreaded 
 tribunal ; bring to light the most hidden secrets ; purify 
 that infamous place, and restore banished virtue. For, 
 from this moment, on your head shall be the slightest fault 
 that may be committed. I imagine it was Zelis to whom 
 the letter you intercepted was addressed -■ examine that 
 matter with the eyes of a lynx. 
 
 * * *, the nth of the moon of 
 Zilhage, 1718. 
 
 LETTER CXLIX 
 
 Narsit to Usbee, at Paris 
 
 MAGNIFICENT lord, the chief eunuch has just died : as I 
 am the oldest of your slaves I have taken his place 
 until you make known whom you select. 
 Two days after his death, one of your letters addressed 
 to him was brought to me : I refrained from opening it, 
 but covered it up respectfully, and locked it away, until 
 you shall have informed me of your sacred pleasure. 
 
 Yesterday a slave came to me in the middle of the night, 
 
 and told me that he had seen a young man in the seraglio : I 
 
 rose, inquired into the matter, and found it had been a vision. 
 
 I kiss your feet, most noble lord ; and beg you to confide 
 
 in my zeal, my experience, and my old age. 
 
 The Seraglio at Ispahan, the 5th of the 
 first moon of Gemmadi, 1718. 
 
28o MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I.ETTER CI, 
 USBBK TO Narsit, at thb Seraglio at Ispahan 
 
 MiSBRABi,B slave ! you have in your hands letters which 
 contain orders for prompt and strong measures; the 
 least delay may reduce me to' despair ; and you re- 
 main inactive under an empty pretext ! 
 
 Atrocious things are going on : perhaps the half of my 
 slaves at this very moment merit death. With this I send 
 you the letter which the chief eunuch wrote me before he 
 died concerning these disorders. Had you opened the dis- 
 patch addressed to him, you would have found bloody in- 
 structions. Read these instructions, and execute them, or 
 you shall perish. 
 
 * * *, the 25tli of the moon of 
 Chalval, 1718. 
 
 IvETTER Clyl 
 SoLiM To UsBEK, AT Paris 
 
 WBRB I to be silent any longer, I should be as guilty 
 as the worst of the criminals in your seraglio. 
 I was the confidant of the chief eunuch, the most 
 faithful of your slaves. When he felt himself near his end, 
 he sent for me, and spoke to me as follows : " I am dying ; 
 but the only grief I have in leaving life, is that with my 
 dying eyes I have seen the guilt of my master's wives. 
 May Heaven preserve him from all the misery which I 
 foresee ! After my death, may my threatening shade ap- 
 pear to admonish these faithless ones of their duty, and to 
 keep them still in awe ! Here are the keys of those dreaded 
 places ; take them to the eldest of the black eunuchs. But 
 if, after my death, he should prove a careless guardian, 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 281 
 
 remember to let your master know." He expired in my 
 arms with these words on his lips. 
 
 I know that he wrote you some time before his death 
 about the conduct of your wives : there is in the seraglio 
 a letter which would have carried terror to every bosom 
 had it been opened. That which you wrote since has been 
 intercepted three leagues from here. I know not how it 
 is ; but everything turns out badly. Meantime your wives 
 do not maintain the least reserve : since the death of the 
 chief eunuch, their license knows no limit ; Roxana alone 
 abides by her duty, and preserves her modesty. _ Their 
 morals grow more corrupt every day. The faces of your 
 ^ives 110 longer exhibit that stern^nd noble virtue which 
 reigned there formerly ; the unusual gayety which prevails 
 is in my opinion an infallible sign of some uncustomary 
 pleasure. In the smallest trifles, I notice that liberties are 
 taken before unknown. Even among your slaves there 
 prevails a certain disinclination to do their duty, and to 
 obey rules, which surprises me ; they are no longer inspired 
 by that ardent zeal for your service, which seemed to ani- 
 mate the whole seraglio. 
 
 For the last eight days your wives have been in the 
 country, at one of your most secluded seats. They say 
 that the slave who has charge of it has been bribed ; and 
 that, on the day before your wives arrived, he concealed 
 two men in a secret recess in the wall of the principal 
 room, from which they came out at night, when we had 
 retired. The old eunuch, who is at present our chief, is 
 an imbecile, who can be made to believe anything. 
 
 I am possessed with a burning desire for vengeance on 
 these traitors : and if Heaven, in your interest, ordains 
 that you should think me capable of ruling, I promise you 
 that, though your wives may not be virtuous, they shall 
 at least be faithful. 
 
 Thb Seragwo at Ispahan, the 6th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1719. 
 
282 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 I^ETTER CI^II 
 Narsit to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 RoxANA and Zelis were anxious to go to the country ; 
 and I did not think it necessary to refuse them. 
 Happy Usbek ! the possessor of faithful wives, and 
 ever watchful slaves ; virtue seems to have made its home 
 in the abode which I rule. Be assured that nothing shall 
 happen of which you would not approve. 
 
 A misfortune has occurred which gives me great uneasi- 
 ness. Some Armenian merchants, lately come to Ispahan, 
 brought a letter of yours addressed to me ; I sent a slave 
 for it, but he was robbed on his return and the letter lost. 
 Write me therefore at once ; because I imagine that, at 
 this juncture, you will have matters of importance to com- 
 municate to me. 
 
 Thb Seraglio at Fatme, the 6th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1719. 
 
 IvETTER CI.III 
 Usbek to Solim, at thb Se;ragi,io at Ispahan 
 
 IPLACB the sword in your hand. I intrust you with 
 what is now to me the dearest thing in the world, my 
 vengeance, to wit. In entering upon this new employ- 
 ment, banish all feeling, all pity. I have written to my 
 wives to obey you implicitly ; in their guilty confusion, 
 they will sink down at your glance. I must owe to you 
 my happiness and my peace of mind. Give me back my 
 seraglio as I left it. Begin by purifying * it ; exterminate 
 the guilty, and make those quake with fear who are in- 
 clined to become so. What may you not expect from your 
 
 * Expier in the original. It is used again by Montesquieu in this 
 unusual sense in V Esprit des Lois. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 283 
 
 master for such signal services ? It only remains with 
 yourself to obtain a position far above your present one, 
 and above anything you have ever hoped for. 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 17 19. 
 
 I.ETTER CLIV 
 
 USBBK TO HIS WiVBS, AT THE SERAGLIO AT ISPAHAN 
 
 MAY this letter fall among you like a thunderbolt from 
 a stormy sky ! Solim is your chief eunuch, not to 
 guard you only, but to punish you. I^et the whole 
 seraglio humble itself before him. He is empowered to 
 judge your past deeds; and in future he will subject you 
 to a discipline so harsh, that, if you do not regret your 
 virtue, you will certainly regret your liberty. 
 
 Paris, the 4th of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1719. 
 
 LETTER CI,V 
 
 USBEK TO Nessir, at Ispahan 
 
 HAPPY is he, who, estimating at its full value a life of 
 ease and tranquillity, makes his own family the 
 centre of his thought, and knows no other land save 
 that in which he was born ! 
 
 I live in a barbarous country, surrounded by everything 
 that offends me, and absent from all in which I am inter- 
 ested.'" A sombre melancholy holds me ; I am dreadfully 
 depressed : TTeel as~if I "were about to TdS annihilated ; and 
 I only recover myself when some dismal jealousy awakes 
 within me, and brings in its train fear, suspicion, hatred, 
 and regret. 
 
 You understand me, Nessir ; my heart is as open to you 
 as your own. You would pity me, if you knew my de- 
 plorable condition. Sometimes I have to wait six whole 
 
284 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 months for news of the seraglio ; I count every moment as 
 it passes, prolonging them by my impatience ; and when 
 the expected moment is about to arrive, a sudden revolu- 
 tion takes place in my heart ; my hand trembles to open a letter 
 that may be fatal ; the anxiety which caused my despair 
 seems to me the happiest frame of mind in which I could 
 be, and I dread to be forced from it by some stroke more 
 cruel than a thousand deaths. 
 
 But, whatever reason I may have had to leave my 
 country, and although I owe my life to my flight, I can 
 no longer, Nessir, endure this dreadful exile. Should I not 
 die all the same a prey to grief? I have pressed Rica a 
 thousand times to leave this foreign land, but he always 
 thwarts my purpose, and keeps me here under a thousand 
 pretexts : he seems to have forgotten his country, or rather 
 he seems to have forgotten me, he is so indifferent to my 
 grief. 
 
 How wretched I am ! I wish to see my country again, 
 perhaps only to become more wretched. Ah ! what shall I 
 do there? I shall but hand my head to my enemies. That 
 is not all : I shall enter the seraglio, where I must demand 
 an account of the disastrous time of my absence ; and 
 should I find any criminals, what am I to do? And if the 
 idea of it alone overcomes me at such a distance, how wUl 
 it be when my presence brings it home to me? How shall 
 it be, if I must see, if I must hear what I dare not im- 
 agine without a shudder? How shall it be, in short, if I 
 myself must order the infliction of punishments, which shall 
 be everlasting witnesses to my own vexation and despair? 
 
 I shall shut myself up within walls more terrible to me 
 than to the women which they guard ; I shall take with 
 me all my suspicions; the eagerness of my wives will not 
 remove them in the least; in my bed, in their arms, I 
 shall only possess my anxiety: at a time so unsuitable for 
 reflection, my jealousy will make occasions for it. Worth- 
 less scum of human kind, vile slaves whose hearts are for- 
 ever closed to all the feelings of love, you would no longer 
 grumble at your condition, if you knew the misery of mine. 
 
 Paris, the 4tli of the moon of 
 Chahban, 1719. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 285 
 
 lyETTER CIvVI 
 
 ROXANA TO USBBK, AT PARIS 
 
 HORROR, darkness, and terror reign in the seraglio ; a 
 dreadful affliction is upon us : at every moment a 
 tiger vents on us all his rage. He has tortured two 
 white eunuchs, who have only confessed their innocence ; he 
 has sold part of our slaves, and forced us to share among 
 us the services of those which remained. Zachi and Zelis 
 have received in their chambers, in the darkness of the 
 night, most unworthy treatment ; the wretch has not feared 
 to lay his sacrilegious hands upon them. He keeps us 
 shut up each in her apartment ; and although we are alone 
 there, he forces us to wear our veils. We are no longer 
 allowed to speak ; to write would be a crime : we have no 
 liberty except to weep. 
 
 A crowd of new eunuchs have entered the seraglio, and 
 beset us night and day : our sleep is constantly interrupted 
 by their real or feigned suspicions. What consoles me is, 
 that all this cannot last forever, and that my troubles will 
 end with my life. And the end is not far distant, cruel 
 Usbek : I will not give you time to put an end to all these 
 outrages. 
 
 The Seragwo at Ispahan, the 2d of the 
 moon of Maharram, 1720. 
 
 LETTER CLVII* 
 Zachi to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 OH HbavBn ! a savage has outraged me even in the 
 very manner of punishing me! He has inflicted 
 upon me that chastisement, the first effect of which 
 is to shock one's modesty ; that most humiliating of chas- 
 tisements, which takes one back to one's childhood. 
 
 *The ninth letter added in 1754. 
 
286 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 My soul, at first overpowered by shame, recovered con- 
 sciousness and began to be exasperated, wben my cries re- 
 sounded through the vaults of my apartments. They heard 
 me asking mercy from the vilest of human beings, and 
 trying to excite his pity, in proportion as he became in- 
 exorable. 
 
 Since that time his insolent and slavish mind dominates 
 mine. His presence, his looks, his words, all horrible 
 things, overwhelm me. When I am alone, I have at least 
 the consolation of weeping ; but when he appears before 
 me, frenzy seizes me : I find myself impotent, and I sink 
 into despair. 
 
 The tiger dares to tell me that you are the author of all 
 these barbarities. He wishes to deprive me of my love, 
 and even to desecrate the feelings of my heart. When he 
 utters the name of him whom I love, I am unable to com- 
 plain ; I can only die. 
 
 I have endured your absence, and my love has been pre- 
 served by its own strength. The nights, the days, the 
 moments were all dedicated to you. I was even proud of 
 my love, and yours made me respected here. But now 
 . . . . No, I can no longer bear the humiliation which 
 has overtaken me. If I am innocent, return to love me ; 
 return, if I am guilty, that I may die at your feet. 
 
 The Seragwo at Ispahan, the ad of the 
 moon of Maharram, 1720. 
 
 
 I^ETTER CLVIII* 
 
 !i' , ' Zbws to Usbek, at Paris 
 
 't 
 
 "^ m 
 
 / i^' V- \ /ou are a thousand leagu es from me. and yet you condemn 
 
 meX_Ajthousand leagues^frog^^, and yet vou pnnisb__ 
 
 ^jieJ 
 
 When a barbarous eunuch lays his vile hands upon me, 
 it is by your order : it is the tyrant who outrages me, and 
 not the instrument of his tyranny. 
 
 *The tenth of 1754. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS 287 
 
 You may, if you choose, redouble your cruel treatment. 
 My heart is at peace, since it can no longer love you. 
 Your soul is debased, and you have become cruel. Rest 
 assured that you are not beloved. Farewell. 
 
 Ths Seraguo at Ispahan, the 2d of the 
 moon of Maharram, 1720. 
 
 LETTER CLIX 
 
 SOLIM TO USBBK, AT PARIS 
 
 MAGNIFICBNT lord, I lament for myself, and I lament 
 for you : never did faithful servant sink into such 
 an abyss of despair. Behold your misfortunes and 
 mine ; I write them with a trembling hand. 
 
 I swear, by all the prophets of heaven, that since you 
 confided your wives to me, I have watched them night and 
 day ; that my anxiety has never left me for a single mo- 
 ment. "When I assumed oflSce I commenced with chastise- 
 ment, which I have discontinued without relaxing my 
 accustomed austerity. 
 
 But what am I saying ? Why do I boast of fidelity which 
 has been useless to you ? Forget all my past services : 
 look upon me as a traitor, and punish me for all the crimes 
 which I have been unable to prevent. Roxana, the haughty 
 Roxana — Oh, Heaven ! in whom can we trust henceforth ? 
 You suspected Zelis, and never for a moment doubted Rox- 
 ana ; but her fierce virtue was a cruel imposture : it was the 
 veil of her treachery. I surprised her in the arms of a 
 young man, who, when he saw himself discovered, ran at 
 me, and struck me twice with his dagger : the eunuchs 
 came at the noise and surrounded him : he made a long 
 defense, and wounded several of them ; he wished even to 
 re-enter the room to die, he said, in the presence of Rox- 
 ana. But at last he yielded to numbers, and fell at our feet. 
 
 I know not, sublime lord, if I shall wait for your stern 
 commands. You have placed your vengeance in my hands ; 
 and I ought not to defer it. 
 
 Thb SERAGWO at Ispahan, the 8th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1720. 
 
288 MONTESQUIEU'S 
 
 LETTER CLX* 
 
 SOUM TO USBEK, AT PARIS 
 
 1HAVE made up my mind : your misfortunes shall disap- 
 pear ; I am going to punish. 
 
 Already I feel a secret joy : my soul and yours will 
 soon be appeased : we shall exterminate crime, and make 
 innocence turn pale. 
 
 Oh, all you who seem made only to be unconscious of 
 your own feelings, and to be indignant even at your own 
 desires, everlasting slaves of shame and modesty, would that 
 I could bring you in crowds into this unhappy seraglio, to 
 astonish you with the torrent of blood I am about to 
 shed ! 
 
 Thb Sbraguo at Ispahan, the 8th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1720. 
 
 I.ETTER CIvXI 
 
 ROXANA TO USBBK, AT PARIS 
 
 YES, I have deceived you ; I have led a^ay your eunuchs ; 
 I have made sport of your jealousy ; and I have 
 known how to turn your frightful seraglio into a 
 place of pleasure and delight. 
 
 I am at the point of death ; the poison courses through 
 my veins : for what should I do here, since the only man 
 who bound me to life is no more? I die; but my spirit 
 shall not pass unaccompanied : I have dispatched before me 
 those sacrilegious gaolers who spilt the sweetest blood in 
 the world. 
 
 How could you think that I was such a weakling as to 
 imagine there was nothing for me in the world but to wor- 
 ship your caprices; that while you indulged all your de- 
 sires, you should have the right to thwart me in all mine? 
 
 * The eleventh and last of the letters added in 1754. 
 
PERSIAN LETTERS V ^^V^ 289 
 
 N o : I have live d in slavery, and yet always retaine d my 
 ^freedom : I have remodeled yot ir laws upon those of nature ; y 
 anS my~ mind has always maintained its i ndependence. 
 
 (ou ought to thank me, then, for the sacriSceT! made 
 
 you ; for taviflg sunk so low as to seem to be yours ; for ^ h 
 
 having, like a coward, hidden in my heart -yi rhat lought (J-ca. i 
 to have published to all the earth ; finally, for having pro- 
 faned virtue, by permitting my submission to your humors 
 to Ije called by that name. 
 
 You were amazed never to find in me the transports of 
 love : had you known me better you would have found all 
 the violence of hate. 
 
 For a long time you have had the satisfaction of believ- 
 ing that you had conquered a heart like mine : now we are 
 both delighted : you thought me deceived, and I have 
 deceived you. 
 
 Doubtless such a letter as this you little expected to re- 
 ceive. Can it be possible that after having overwhelmed 
 you with affliction I shall still force you to admire my cour- 
 age ? But all is ended now ; the poison destroys me, my 
 strength leaves me, my pen drops from my hand; even my 
 hate grows weaker: I die. 
 
 The SBragwo at Ispahan, the 8th of the 
 first moon of Rebiab, 1720. 
 
 THB BND, 
 19 
 
CHINESE LETTERS 
 
 THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith 
 
 (291 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 THE oriental tale had hit the public taste of French and 
 Knglish readers when Montesquieu turned it to a new 
 use. He made it the vehicle of his gentle satire, and 
 Voltaire framed some of his romances on the same model. 
 Goldsmith followed suit in these charming letters, purport- 
 ing to be the impressions of a cultured Chinese during 
 a sojourn in Ivondon. He quoted, in an article in the 
 "Monthly Review," from Voltaire this pacsage referring to 
 Montesquieu's " L,ettres Persanes" : "It is written in imita- 
 tion of the * Siamese lyetters' of Du Freny, and of 'The 
 Turkish Spy * ; but it is an imitation which shows what 
 the originals should have been. The success their works 
 met with was, for the most part, owing to the foreign air 
 of their performances ; the success of the * Persian Letters ' 
 arose from the delicacy of their satire. That satire which in 
 the mouth of an Asiatic is poignant, would lose all its 
 force when coming from an European." The Citizen of 
 the World is none other than our delightful Goldsmith, 
 who is never so enjoyable as when affecting a disguise. 
 
I.ETTER I 
 
 From I^ibn Chi Altangi to thb Cars of Fipsihi, Resi- 
 dent IN Moscow, TO BE Forwarded by the Russian 
 Caravan to Fum Hoam, First President of the 
 Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China. 
 
 How insupportable, ,0 thou possessor of heavenly wis- 
 dom, would be this separation, this immeasurable 
 distance from my friend, were I not able thus to 
 delineate my heart upon paper, and to send thee daily a 
 map of my mind ! 
 
 I am every day better reconciled to the people among 
 whom I reside, and begin to fancy, that in time I shall 
 find them more opulent, more charitable, and more hos- 
 pitable, than I at first imagined. I begin to learn some- 
 what of their manners and customs, and to see reasons for 
 several deviations which they make from us, from whom 
 all other nations derive their politeness, as well as their 
 original. 
 
 In spite of taste, in spite of prejudice, I now begin to 
 think their women tolerable. I can now look on a lan- 
 guishing blue eye without disgust, and pardon a set of 
 teeth, even though whiter than ivory. I now begin to 
 fancy there is no universal standard for beauty. The truth 
 is, the manners of the ladies in this city are so very open, 
 and so vastly engaging, that I am inclined to pass over 
 the more glaring defects of their persons, since compen- 
 sated by the more solid yet latent beauties of the mind. 
 What though they want black teeth, or are deprived of 
 the allurements of feet no bigger than their thumbs, yet 
 still they have souls, my friend; such souls — so free, so 
 pressing, so hospitable, and so engaging ! I have received 
 more invitations in the streets of lyondon from the sex in 
 one night, than I have met with at Pekin in twelve revo- 
 lutions of the moon. 
 
 (295) 
 
296 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 Every evening, as I return home from my usual solitary 
 excursions, I am met by several of these well-disposed 
 daughters of hospitality, at different times, and in different 
 streets, richly dressed, and with minds not less noble than 
 their appearance. You know that nature has indulged me 
 with a person by no means agreeable ; yet are they too 
 generous to object to my homely appearance ; they feel no 
 repugnance at my broad face and flat nose ; they perceive 
 me to be a stranger, and that alone is a sufficient recom- 
 mendation. They even seem to think it their duty to do 
 the honors of the country by every act of complaisance in 
 their power. One takes me under the arm, and in a man- 
 ner forces me along ; another catches me around the neck, 
 and desires to partake in this office of hospitality ; while a 
 third, kinder still, invites me to refresh my spirits with 
 wine. Wine is, in England, reserved only for the rich ; 
 yet here even wine is given away to the stranger. 
 
 A few nights ago, one of these generous creatures, 
 dressed all in white, and flaunting like a meteor by my 
 side, forcibly attended me home to my own apartment. 
 She seemed charmed with the elegance of the furniture, 
 and the convenience of my situation ; and well indeed she 
 might, for I have hired an apartment for not less than two 
 shillings of their money every week. But her civility did 
 not rest here ; for, at parting, being desirous to know the 
 hour, and perceiving my watch out of order, she kindly 
 took it to be repaired by a relation of her own, which, you 
 may imagine, will save some expense ; and she assures me 
 that it will cost her nothing. I shall have it back in a 
 few days, when mended, and am preparing a proper 
 speech, expressive of my gratitude on the occasion : 
 " Celestial excellence ! " I intend to say, * happy I am in 
 having found out, after many painful adventures, a land 
 of innocence, and a people of humanity : I may rove into 
 other climes, and converse with nations yet unknown ; 
 but where shall I meet a soul of such purity as that which 
 resides in thy breast ! Sure thou hast been nurtured by 
 the bill of the Shin Shin, or sucked the breasts of the 
 provident Gin Hiung. The melody of thy voice could rob 
 the Chong Fou of her whelps, or inveigle the Boh that 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 297 
 
 lives in the midst of the waters. Thy servant shall ever 
 retain a sense of thy favors ; and one day boast of thy 
 virtue, sincerity, and truth, among the daughters of 
 China.* — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER II 
 To THB Samb 
 
 I HAVE been deceived ! She whom I fancied a daughter 
 of paradise, has proved to be one of the infamous dis- 
 ciples of Han ! I have lost a trifle ; I have gained the 
 consolation of having discovered a deceiver. I once more, 
 therefore, relax into my former indifference with regard to 
 the English ladies ; they once more begin to appear disa- 
 greeable in my eyes. Thus is my whole time passed in 
 forming conclusions which the next minute's experience 
 may probably destroy ; the present moment becomes a com- 
 ment on the past, and I improve rather in humility than 
 wisdom. 
 
 Their laws and religion forbid the English to keep more 
 than one woman ; I therefore concluded, that prostitutes 
 were banished from society. I was deceived ; every man 
 here keeps as many wives as he can maintain : the laws 
 are cemented with blood, praised and disregarded. The 
 very Chinese, whose religion allows him two wives, takes 
 not half the liberties of the English in this particular. 
 Their laws may be compared to the books of the Sybils, — 
 they are held in great veneration, but seldom read, or more 
 seldom understood ; even those who pretend to be their 
 guardians, dispute about the meaning of many of them, 
 and confess their ignorance of others. The law, therefore, 
 which commands them to have but one wife, is strictly 
 observed only by those for whom one is more than suffi- 
 cient, or by such as have not money to buy two. As for 
 the rest, they violate it publicly, and some glory in its 
 violation. They seem to think, like the Persians, that 
 they give evident marks of manhood by increasing their 
 seraglio. A mandarine, therefore, here generally keeps 
 four wives, a gentleman three, and a stage-player two. 
 
298 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 As for the magistrates, the country justices and squires, 
 they are employed first in debauching young virgins, and 
 then punishing the transgression. 
 
 From such a picture you will be apt to conclude, that 
 he who employs four ladies for his amusement has four 
 times as much constitution to spare as he who is contented 
 with one ; that a mandarine is much more clever than a gen- 
 tleman, and a gentleman than a player ; and yet it is quite 
 the reverse : a mandarine is frequently supported on spin- 
 dle shanks, appears emaciated by luxury, and is obliged to 
 have recourse to variety, merely from the weakness, not 
 the vigor, of his constitution, the number of his wives 
 being the most equivocal symptom of his virility. 
 
 Besides the country squire, there is also another set of 
 men whose whole employment consists in corrupting 
 beauty ; these the silly part of the fair sex call amiable ; 
 the more sensible part of them, however, give them the 
 title of abominable. You will iprobably demand, what are 
 the talents of a man thus caressed by the majority of the 
 opposite sex? what talents or what beauty is he possessed 
 of, superior to the rest of his fellows? To answer you 
 directly, he has neither talents nor beauty ; but then he is 
 possessed of impudence and assiduity. With assiduity and 
 impudence, men of all ages, and all figures, may commence 
 admirers. I have even been told of some who made pro- 
 fessions of expiring for love, when all the world could per- 
 ceive they were going to die of old age ; and, what is 
 more surprising still, such battered beaux are generally 
 most infamously successful. 
 
 A fellow of this kind employs three hours every morn- 
 ing in dressing his head, by which is understood only his 
 hair. 
 
 He is a professed admirer, not of any particular lady, 
 but of the whole sex. 
 
 He is to suppose every lady has caught cold every night, 
 which gives him an opportunity of calling to see how she 
 does the next morning. 
 
 He is, upon all occasions, to show himself in very great 
 pain for the ladies : if a lady drop even a pin, he is to fly 
 in order to present it. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 299 
 
 He never speaks to a lady without advancing his mouth 
 to her ear, by which he frequently addresses more senses 
 than one. 
 
 Upon proper occasions, he looks excessively tender. This 
 is performed by laying his hand upon his heart, shutting 
 his eyes, and showing his teeth. 
 
 He is excessively fond of dancing a minuet with the 
 ladies, by which is only meant walking round the floor 
 eight or ten times with his hat on, affecting great gravity, 
 and sometimes looking tenderly on his partner. 
 
 He never affronts any man himself, and never resents an 
 affront from another. 
 
 He has an infinite variety of small talk upon all occa- 
 sions, and laughs when he has nothing more to say. 
 
 Such is the killing creature who prostrates himself to 
 the sex till he has undone them ; all whose submissions are 
 the effects of design, and who, to please the ladies, almost 
 becomes himself a lady. 
 
 LETTER III 
 To THB Samb 
 
 I AM just returned from Westminster Abbey, the place of 
 sepulture for the philosophers, heroes, and kings of 
 England. What a gloom do monumental inscriptions 
 and all the venerable remains of deceased merit inspire ! 
 Imagine a temple marked with the hand of antiquity, sol- 
 emn as religious awe, adorned with all the magnificence of 
 barbarous profusion, dim windows, fretted pillars, long 
 colonnades, and dark ceilings. Think, then, what were my 
 sensations at being introduced to such a scene. I stood in 
 the midst of the temple, and threw my eyes round on the 
 walls, filled with the statues, the inscriptions, and the 
 monuments of the dead. 
 
 Alas ! I said to myself, how does pride attend the puny 
 child of dust even to the grave ! Even humble as I am, 
 I po&sess more consequence in the present scene than the 
 greatest hero of them all : they have toiled for an hour to 
 
300 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 gain a transient 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 such reflections, a gentleman dressed 
 in black, perceiving me to be a stranger, came up, entered 
 into conversation, and politely offered to be my instructor 
 and guide through the temple. "If any monument," said 
 he, "should particularly excite your curiosity, I shall en- 
 deavor to satisfy your demands." I accepted, with thanks, 
 the gentleman's offer, adding, that " I was come to observe 
 the policy, the wisdom, and the justice of the Knglish, in 
 conferring rewards upon deceased merit. If adulation like 
 this," continued I, "be properly conducted, as it can no ways 
 injure those who are flattered, so it may be a glorious incen- 
 tive to those who are now capable of enjoying it. It is the 
 duty of every good government to turn this monumental 
 pride to its own advantage ; to become strong in the aggre- 
 gate from the weakness of the individual. If none but the 
 truly great have a place in this awful repository, a temple 
 like this will give the finest lessons of morality, and be a 
 strong incentive to true ambition. I am told, that none 
 have a place here but characters of the most distinguished 
 merit." The Man in Black seemed impatient at my obser- 
 vations, so I discontinued 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 finest objects, I 
 could not avoid being particularly curious about one monu- 
 ment, which appeared more beautiful than the rest. 
 "That," said I to my guide, "I take to be the tomb 
 of some very great man. By the peculiar excellence of 
 the workmanship, and the magnificence of the design, this 
 must be a trophy raised to the memory of some king who 
 has saved his country from ruin, or lawgiver who has re- 
 duced his fellow-citizens from anarchy into just subjection." 
 — "It is not requisite," replied my companion, smiling, "to 
 have such qualifications in order to have a very fine monu- 
 ment here: more humble abilities will suffice." — "What! 
 I suppose, then, the gaining two or three battles, or the 
 taking half a score of towns, is thought a sufficient quali- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 301 
 
 fication?" — « Gaining battles, or taking towns," replied the 
 Man in Black, " may be of service ; but a gentleman may 
 have a very fine monument here without ever seeing a 
 battle or a siege. " — " This, then, is the monument of some 
 poet, I presume — of one whose wit has gained him immor- 
 tality?" — * No, sir," replied my guide, "the gentleman 
 who lies here never made verses ; and as for wit, he de- 
 spised it in others, because he had none himself." — "Pray 
 tell me then, in a word," said I, peevishly, " what is the 
 great man who lies here particularly remarkable for ? " — " Re- 
 markable, sir ! " said my companion ; " why, sir, the gentle- 
 man that lies here is remarkable, very remarkable — for a 
 tomb in Westminster Abbey. " — " But, head of my ances- 
 tors ! 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 seen among company where even 
 moderate merit would look like infamy ? " — "I suppose, " 
 replied the Man in Black, "the gentleman was rich, and 
 his friends, as is usual in such a case, told him he was 
 great. He readily believed them ; the guardians of the tem- 
 ple, as they got by the self-delusion, were ready to be- 
 lieve him too ; so he paid his money for a fine monument ; 
 and the workman, as you see, has made him one of the 
 most beautiful. Think not, however, that this gentleman is 
 singular in his desire of being buried among the great ; 
 there are several others in the temple, who, hated and 
 shunned by the great while alive, have come here fully re- 
 solved to keep them company now they are dead." 
 
 As we walked along to a particular part of the temple, 
 "There," says the gentleman, pointing with his finger, 
 "that is the Poet's Corner; there you see 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, " these hundred years ; he is 
 not long dead ; people have not done hating him yet. " — 
 " Strange," cried I ; " can any be found to hate a man whose 
 life was wholly spent in entertaining and instructing his 
 fellow-creatures?'" — "Yes," says my guide, "they hate 
 him for that very reason. There are a set of men called 
 
302 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 answerers of books, who take upon them to watch the repub- 
 lic of letters, and distribute reputation by the sheet ; they 
 somewhat resemble the eunuchs in a seraglio, who are in- 
 capable of giving pleasure themselves, and hinder those that 
 would. These answerers have no other employment but 
 to cry out Dunce and Scribbler ; to praise the dead and re- 
 vile the living ; to grant a man of confessed abilities some 
 small share of merit ; to applaud twenty blockheads in order 
 to gain the reputation of candor ; and to revile the moral 
 character of the man whose writings they cannot injure. 
 Such wretches are kept in pay by some mercenary book- 
 seller, or more frequently the bookseller himself takes this 
 dirty work oflE their hands, as all that is required is to be 
 very abusive and very dull. Every poet of any genius is 
 sure to find such enemies ; he feels, though he seems to 
 despise, their malice ; they make him miserable here, and 
 in the pursuit of empty fame, at last he gains solid anx- 
 iety. » 
 
 " Has this been the case with every poet I see here ? ** 
 cried I. — ** Yes, with every mother's son of them," replied 
 he, " except he happened to be born a mandarine. If he 
 has much money, he may buy reputation from your book- 
 answerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of 
 the temple." 
 
 "But are there not some men of distinguished taste, as 
 in China, who are willing to patronize men of merit, and 
 soften the rancor of malevolent dullness ? " 
 
 " I own there are many," replied the Man in Black ; 
 " but, alas ! sir, the book-answerers crowd about them, and 
 call themselves the writers of books ; and the patron is too 
 indolent to distinguish ; thus poets are kept at a distance, 
 while their enemies eat up all their rewards at the man- 
 darine's table." 
 
 I,eaving this part of the temple, we made up to an iron 
 gate, through which my companion told me we were to 
 pass, in order to see the monuments of the kings. Accord- 
 ingly, I marched up without further ceremony, and was 
 going to enter, when a person who held the gate in his 
 hand told me I must pay first. I was surprised at such a 
 demand ; and asked the man, whether the people of Eng- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 303 
 
 land kept a show? — -whether the paltry sum he demanded 
 was not a national reproach? — whether it was not more to 
 the honor of the country to let their magnificence or their 
 antiquities be openly seen, than thus meanly to tax a 
 curiosity which tended to their own honor ? — * As for your 
 questions," rephed the gate-keeper, «to be sure they may 
 be very right, because I don't understand them ; but, 
 as for that there threepence, I farm it from one — 
 who rents it from another — who hires it from a third 
 — who leases it from the guardians of the temple : and 
 we all must live." I expected, upon paying here, to 
 see something extraordinary, since what I had seen for 
 nothing filled me with so much surprise : but in this I 
 was disappointed ; there was little more within than black 
 coffins, rusty armor, tattered standards, and some few 
 slovenly figures in wax. I was sorry I had paid, but I 
 comforted myself by considering it would be my last pay- 
 ment. A person attended us who without once blushing 
 told a hundred lies : he talked of a lady who died by prick- 
 ing her finger ; of a king with a golden head, and twenty 
 such pieces of absurdity. "Look ye there, gentlemen," 
 says he, pointing to an old oak chair, "there's a curiosity 
 for ye ; in that chair the kings of England were crowned : 
 you see also a stone underneath, and that stone is Jacob's 
 pillow." I could see no curiosity either in the oak chair 
 or the stone : could I, indeed, behold one of the old 
 kings of England seated in this, or Jacob's head laid upon 
 the other, there might be something curious in the sight ; 
 but in the present case, there was no more reason for 
 my surprise, than if I should pick a stone from their 
 streets, and call it a curiosity, merely because one of the 
 kings happened to tread upon it as he passed in a proces- 
 sion. 
 
 From hence our conductor led us through several dark 
 walks and winding ways, uttering lies, talking to himself, 
 and flourishing a wand which he held in his hand. He re- 
 minded me of the black magicians of Kobi. After we had 
 been almost fatigued with a variety of objects, he at last 
 desired me to consider attentively a certain suit of armor, 
 which seemed to show nothing remarkable. "This armor," 
 
304 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 said he, "belonged to General Monk." — "Very surprising 
 that a general should wear armor!" — "And pray," added 
 he, "observe this cap ; this is General Monk's cap." — "Very 
 strange indeed, very strange, that a general should have a 
 cap also ! Pray, friend, what might this cap have cost 
 originally ?"—" That, sir," says he, "I don't know; but 
 this cap is all the wages I have for my trouble." — "A 
 very small recompense, truly," said I. — "Not so very 
 small, " replied he, " for every gentleman puts some money 
 into it, and I spend the money. " — " What; more money ! 
 still more money ! " — " Kvery gentleman gives something, 
 sir." — "I'll give thee nothing," returned I; " the guardians 
 of the temple should pay you your wages, friend, and not 
 permit you to squeeze thus from every spectator. When 
 we pay our money at the door to see a show, we never 
 give more as we are going out. Sure, the guardians of 
 the temple can never think they get enough. Show me the 
 gate ; if I stay longer, I may probably meet with more of 
 those ecclesiastical beggars." 
 
 Thus leaving the temple precipitately, I returned to my 
 lodgings, in order to ruminate over what was great, and to 
 'despise what was mean, in the occurrences of the day. 
 
 I^BTTER IV 
 To THE Same 
 
 1WAS some days ago agreeably surprised by a message 
 from a lady of distinction, who sent me word, that 
 she most passionately desired the pleasure of my ac- 
 quaintance, and with the utmost impatience expected an 
 interview. I will not deny, my dear Fum Hoam, but 
 that my vanity was raised at such an invitation : I flattered 
 myself that she had seen me in some public place, and had 
 conceived an affection for my person, which thus induced 
 her to deviate from the usual decorums of the sex. My 
 imagination painted her in all the bloom of youth and 
 beauty. I fancied her attended by the I^oves and Graces ; 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 305 
 
 and I set out with the most pleasing expectations of seeing 
 the conquest I had made. 
 
 When I was introduced into her apartment, my expecta- 
 tions were quickly at an end : I perceived a little shriveled 
 figure indolently reclined on a sofa, who nodded, by way 
 of approbation, at my approach. This, as I was afterward 
 informed, was the lady herself, — a woman equall5' distin- 
 guished for rank, politeness, taste, and understanding. As 
 I was dressed after the fashion of Burope, she had taken 
 me for an Knglishman, and consequently saluted me in her 
 ordinary manner : but when the footman informed her grace 
 that I was the gentleman from China, she instantly lifted 
 herself from the couch, while her eyes sparkled with un- 
 usual vivacity. " Bless me ! can this be the gentleman that 
 was born so far from home ? What an unusual share of 
 SOMBTHiNGNBSS in his whole appearance ! Lord, how I am 
 charmed with the outlandish cut of his face ! how bewitch- 
 ing the exotic breadth of his forehead ! I would give the 
 world to see him in his own country dress. Pray, turn 
 about, sir, and let me see you behind. There, there's 
 a traveled air for you ! You that attend there, bring up 
 a plate of beef cut into small pieces ; I have a violent pas- 
 sion to see him eat. Pray, sir, have you got your chop- 
 sticks about you? It will be so pretty to see the meat 
 carried to the mouth with a jerk. Pray, speak a little 
 Chinese : I have learned some of the language myself. 
 Lord ! have you nothing prettj' from China about you ; 
 something that one does not know what to do with? I 
 have got twenty things from China that are of no use in 
 the world. Look at those jars ; they are of the right pea- 
 green : these are the furniture!" — ^"Dear madam," said I, 
 " these, though they may appear fine in your eyes, are but pal- 
 try to a Chinese ; but as they are useful utensils, it is 
 proper they should have a place in every apartment. " — 
 " Useful, sir ! " replied the lady ; * sure you mistake ; they 
 are of no use in the world." — "What ! are they not filled 
 with an infusion of tea, as in China ? " replied I. " Quite 
 empty and useless, upon my honor, sir." — "Then they are 
 the most cumbrous and clumsy furniture in the world, as 
 nothing is truly elegant but what unites use with beauty.* 
 
3o6 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 — "I protest," says the lady, "I shall begin to suspect 
 thee of being an actual barbarian. I suppose you hold my 
 two beautiful pagods in contempt. " — " "What ! " cried I, 
 " has Fohi spread his gross superstitions here also ! Pagods 
 of all kinds are my aversion. " — * A Chinese, a traveler, 
 and want taste ! It surprises me. Pray, sir, examine the 
 beauties of that Chinese temple which you see at the end 
 of the garden. Is there anything in China more beauti- 
 ful?* — "Where I stand, I see nothing, madam, at the 
 end of the garden, that may not as well be called an 
 Egyptian pyramid as a Chinese temple ; for that little 
 building in view is as like the one as t'other." — *What, 
 sir ! is not that a Chinese temple ? you must surely be 
 mistaken. Mr. Freeze, who designed it, calls it one, and 
 nobody disputes his pretensions to taste." I now found it 
 vain to contradict the lady in anything she thought fit to 
 advance ; so was resolved rather to act the disciple than the 
 instructor. She took me through several rooms, all fur- 
 nished, as she told me, in the Chinese manner ; sprawling 
 dragons, squatting pagods, and clumsy mandarines were 
 stuck upon every shelf : in turning round, one must have 
 used caution not to demolish a part of the precarious fur- 
 niture. 
 
 In a house like this, thought I, one must live continually 
 upon the watch ; the inhabitant must resemble a knight 
 in an enchanted castle, who expects to meet an adventure 
 at every turning. **But, madam," said I, "do not acci- 
 dents ever happen to all this finery?" — "Man, sir," re- 
 plied the lady, " is born to misfortunes ; and it is but fit I 
 should have a share. Three weeks ago, a careless servant 
 snapped off the head of a favorite mandarine : I had scarce 
 done grieving for that, when a monkey broke a beautiful 
 jar; this I took the more to heart, as the injury was done 
 me by a friend ! However, I survived the calamity ; when 
 yesterday crash went half a dozen dragons upon the marble 
 hearthstone : and yet I live ; I survive it all : you can't 
 conceive what comfort I find under afflictions from philos- 
 ophy. There is Seneca, and Bolingbroke, and some others, 
 who guide me through life, and teach me to support its 
 calamities." I could not but smile at a woman who makes 
 
CITIZEN O'F THE WORLD 307 
 
 her own misfortunes, and then deplores the miseries of her 
 situation. Wherefore, tired of acting with dissimulation, 
 and willing to indulge my meditations in solitude, I took 
 leave just as the servant was bringing in a plate of beef, 
 pursuant to the directions of his mistress. — Adieu. 
 
 lyETTER V 
 To THB Sam^ 
 
 THB English love their wives with much passion, the 
 Hollanders with much prudence : the English, when 
 they give their hands, frequently give their hearts; 
 the Dutch give the hand, but keep the heart wisely in their 
 own possession. The English love with violence, and ex- 
 pect violent love in return ; the Dutch are satisfied with 
 the slightest acknowledgment, for they give little away. 
 The English expend many of the matrimonial comforts in 
 the first year ; the Dutch frugally husband out their pleas- 
 ures, and are always constant, because they are always 
 indifferent. 
 
 There seems very little difference between a Dutch bride- 
 groom and a Dutch husband. Both are equally possessed 
 of the same cool unexpecting serenity ; they can see 
 neither Elysium nor Paradise behind the curtain ; and Yif- 
 frow is not more a goddess on the wedding-night than 
 after twenty years matrimonial acquaintance. On the other 
 hand, many of the English marry in order to have one 
 happy month in their lives ; they seem incapable of looking 
 beyond that period ; they unite in hopes of finding rapture, 
 and, disappointed in that, disdain ever to accept of happi- 
 ness. From hence we see open hatred ensue ; or, what is 
 worse, concealed disgust under the appearance of fulsome 
 endearment. Much formality, great civility, and studied 
 compliments are exhibited in public ; cross looks, sulky si- 
 lence, or open recrimination, fill up their hours of private 
 entertainment. 
 
 Hence I am taught, whenever I see a new married 
 couple more than ordinarily fond before faces, to consider 
 
3o8 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 them as attempting to impose upon the company or them- 
 selves ; either hating each other heartily, or consuming that 
 stock of love in the beginning of their course which should 
 serve them through their whole journey. Neither side 
 should expect those instances of kindness which are incon- 
 sistent with true freedom or happiness to bestow. lyove, 
 when founded in the heart, will show itself in a thousand 
 unpremeditated sallies of fondness ; but every cool deliber- 
 ate exhibition of the passion only argues little understand- 
 ing, or great insincerity. 
 
 Choang was the fondest husband, and Hansi the most 
 endearing wife, in all the kingdom of Korea : they were a 
 pattern of conjugal bliss ; the inhabitants of the country 
 around saw, and envied their felicity : wherever Choang 
 came, Hansi was sure to follow : and in all the pleasures 
 of Hansi, Choang was admitted a partner. They walked 
 hand in hand wherever they appeared, showing every 
 mark of mutual satisfaction, embracing, kissing — their 
 mouths were forever joined ; and, to speak in the lan- 
 guage of anatomy, it was with them one perpetual anas- 
 tomosis. 
 
 Their love was so great, that it was thought nothing 
 could interrupt their mutual peace, when an accident hap- 
 pened, which, in some measure, diminished the husband's 
 assurance of his wife's fidelitj'^ ; for love so refined as his 
 was subject to a thousand little disquietudes. 
 
 Happening to go one day alone among the tombs that 
 lay at some distance from his house, he there perceived a 
 lady dressed in the deepest mourning (being clothed all 
 over in white), fanning the wet day that was raised over 
 one of the graves with a large fan which she held in her 
 hand. Choang, who had early been taught wisdom in the 
 school of Tao, was unable to assign a cause for her pres- 
 ent employment ; and coming up, civilly demanded the rea- 
 son. "Alas,* replied the lady, her eyes bathed in tears, 
 ** how is it possible to survive the loss of my husband, who 
 lies buried in this grave ! He was the best of men, the 
 most tender of husbands: with his dying breath he bid me 
 never marry again till the earth over his grave should be 
 dry ; and here you see me steadily resolving to obey his 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 309 
 
 •will, and endeavoring to dry it with my fan. I have 
 employed two whole days in fulfilling his commands, and am 
 determined not to marry till they are punctually obeyed, 
 even though his grave should take up four days in dry- 
 ing." 
 
 Choang, who was struck with the widow's beauty, could 
 not, however, avoid smiling at her haste to be married ; 
 but, concealing the cause of his mirth, civilly invited her 
 home, adding, that he had a wife who might be capable of 
 giving her some consolation. As soon as he and his guest 
 were returned, he imparted to Hansi in private what he 
 had seen, and could not avoid expressing his uneasiness 
 that such might be his own case if his dearest wife should 
 one day happen to survive hhn. 
 
 It is impossible to describe Hansi's resentment at so un- 
 kind a suspicion. As her passion for him was not only 
 great, but extremely delicate, she employed tears, anger, 
 frowns, and exclamations, to chide his suspicions : the 
 widow herself was inveighed against ; and Hansi declared, 
 she was resolved never to sleep under the same roof with 
 a wretch, who, like her, could be guilty of such barefaced 
 inconstancy. The night was cold and stormy ; however, the 
 stranger was obliged to seek another lodging, for Choang 
 was not disposed to resist, and Hansi would have her 
 way. 
 
 The widow had scarce been gone an hour, when an old 
 disciple of Choang' s, whom he had not seen for many 
 years, came to pay him a visit. He was received with the 
 utmost ceremony, placed in the most honorable seat at sup- 
 per, and the wine began to circulate with great freedom. 
 Choang and Hansi exhibited open marks of mutual tender- 
 ness and unfeigned reconciliation : nothing could equal their 
 apparent happiness ; so fond a husband, so obedient a wife, 
 few could behold without regretting their own infelicity ; 
 when, lo ! their happiness was at once disturbed by a most 
 fatal accident. Choang fell lifeless in an apoplectic fit 
 upon the floor. Every method was used, but in vain, for 
 his recovery. Hansi was at first inconsolable for his 
 death : after some hours, however, she found spirits to read 
 his last will. The ensuing day, she began to moralize and 
 
3IO GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 talk wisdom ; the next day, she was able to comfort the 
 young disciple ; and on the third, to shorten a long story, 
 they both agreed to be married. 
 
 There was now no longer mourning in the apartments ; the 
 body of Choang was now thrust into an old coffin, and placed 
 in one of the meanest rooms, there to lie unattended until the 
 time prescribed by law for his interment. In the meantime, 
 Hansi and the young disciple were arrayed in the most mag- 
 nificent habits ; the bride wore in her nose a jewel of immense 
 price, and her lover was dressed in all the finery of his 
 former master, together with a pair of artificial whiskers that 
 reached down to his toes. The hour of their nuptials was 
 arrived ; the whole family sympathized with their approach- 
 ing happiness ; the apartments were brightened up with 
 lights that diffused the most exquisite perfume, and a lustre 
 more bright than noon-day. The lady expected her youth- 
 ful lover in an inner apartment with impatience ; when his 
 servant, approaching with terror in his countenance, in- 
 formed her that his master was fallen into a fit which 
 would certainly be mortal, unless the heart of a man lately 
 dead could be obtained, and applied to his breast. She 
 scarcely waited to hear the end of his story, when, tucking 
 up her clothes, she ran with a mattock in her hand to the 
 coffin where Choang lay, resolving to apply the heart of 
 her dead husband as a cure for the living. She therefore 
 struck the lid with the utmost violence. In a few blows 
 the coffin flew open, when the body, which to all appear- 
 ance had been dead, began to move. Terrified at the sight, 
 Hansi dropped the mattock, and Choang walked out, aston- 
 ished at his own situation, his wife's unusual magnificence, 
 and her more amazing surprise. He went among the apart- 
 ments, unable to conceive the cause of so much splendor. 
 He was not long in suspense before his domestics informed 
 him of every transaction since he first became insensible. 
 He could scarce believe what they told him, and went in 
 pursuit of Hansi herself, in order to receive more certain 
 information, or to reproach her infidelity. But she pre- 
 vented his reproaches : he found her weltering in blood ; for 
 she had stabbed herself to the heart, being unable to sur- 
 vive her shame and disappointment. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 311 
 
 Choang, being a philosopher, was too wise to make any 
 loud lamentations : he thought it best to bear his loss with 
 serenity ; so, mending up the old coffin where he had lain 
 himself, he placed his faithless spouse in his room ; and un- 
 willing that so many nuptial preparations should be expended 
 in vain, he the same night married the widow with the 
 large fan. 
 
 As they both were apprised of the foibles of each other 
 beforehand, they knew how to excuse them after marriage. 
 The lived together for many years in great tranquillity, and 
 not expecting rapture, made a shift to find contentment. — 
 Farewell. 
 
 I^ETTER VI 
 To THE Same 
 
 THE gentleman dressed in black, who was my companion 
 through Westminster Abbey, came yesterday to pay 
 me a visit ; and after drinking tea we both resolved 
 to take a walk together, in order to enjoy the freshness of 
 the country, which now begins to resume its verdure. Be- 
 fore we got out of the suburbs, however, we were stopped 
 in one of the streets by a crowd of people, gathered in a 
 circle round a man and his wife, who seemed too loud and 
 too angry to be understood. The people were highly pleased 
 with the dispute, which, upon inquiry, we found to be 
 between Dr. Cacafogo, an apothecary, and his wife. The 
 doctor, it seems, coming unexpectedly into his wife's 
 apartment, found a gentleman there, in circumstances not 
 in the least equivocal. 
 
 The doctor, who was a person of nice honor, resolving 
 to revenge the flagrant insult, immediately flew to the 
 chimney-piece, and, taking down a rusty blunderbuss, drew 
 the trigger upon the defiler of his bed : the delinquent 
 would certainly have been shot through the head, but that 
 the piece had not been charged for many years. The gal- 
 lant made a shift to escape through the window, but the 
 lady still remained ; and, as she well knew her husband's 
 temper, undertook to manage the quarrel without a second. 
 
312 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 He was furious, and she loud ; their noise had gathered all 
 the mob, who charitably assembled on the occasion, not to 
 prevent, but to enjoy the quarrel. 
 
 " Alas ! " said I to my companion, " what will become of 
 this unhappy creature thus caught in adultery ? Believe me, 
 I pity her from my (heart; her husband, I suppose, will 
 show her no mercy. Will they burn her, as in India, or 
 behead her, as in Persia? Will they load her with stripes, 
 as in Turkey, or keep her in perpetual imprisonment, as 
 with us in China? Prithee, what is the wife's punishment 
 in England for such offenses ? " — " When a lady is thus 
 caught tripping," replied my companion, "they never punish 
 her, but the husband. " — " You surely jest, " interrupted I ; 
 " I am a foreigner, and you would abuse my ignorance ! " 
 
 — "I am really serious, " returned he : " Dr. Cacaf ogo has 
 caught his wife in the act ; but, as he had no witnesses, 
 his small testimony goes for nothing : the consequence, 
 therefore, of his discovery will be, that she will be packed 
 off to live among her relations, and the doctor must be 
 obliged to allow her a separate maintenance." — "Amazing! " 
 cried I ; "is it not enough that she is permitted to live 
 separate from the object she detests, but must he give her 
 money to keep her in spirits too ? " — " That he must, " said 
 my guide, " and be called a cuckold by all his neighbors into 
 the bargain. The men will laugh at him, the ladies will pity 
 him ; and all that his warmest friends can say in his favor 
 will be that * the poor good soul has never had any harm 
 in him.' " — "I want patience," interrupted I. " What ! are 
 there no private chastisements for the wife — no schools of 
 penitence to show her folly — no rods for such delinquents ? " 
 
 — "Pshaw, man," replied he, smiling, "if every delinquent 
 among us were to be treated in your manner, one half of 
 the kingdom would flog the other." I must confess, my 
 dear Fum, that if I were an English husband, of all things 
 I would take care not to be jealous, nor busily pry into 
 those secrets my wife was pleased to keep from me. Should 
 I detect her infidelity, what is the consequence? If I 
 calmly pocket the abuse, I am laughed at by her and her 
 gallant: if I talk my griefs aloud, like a tragedy hero, I 
 am laughed at by the whole world. The course, then, I 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 313 
 
 would take would be, whenever I went out, to tell my wife 
 where I was going, lest I should unexpectedly meet her 
 abroad in company with some dear deceiver. Whenever I 
 returned, I would use a peculiar rap at the door, and give 
 four loud hems as I walked deliberately up the staircase. 
 I would never inquisitively peep under her bed, or look be- 
 hind the curtains. And even though I knew the captain 
 was there, I would calmly take a dish of my wife's cool 
 tea, and talk of the army with reverence. 
 
 Of all nations, the Russians seem to me to behave most 
 wisely in such circumstances. The wife promises her hus- 
 band never to let him see her transgressions of this nature ; 
 and he as punctually promises, whenever she is so detected, 
 without the least anger, to beat her without mercy : so 
 they both know what each has to expect; the lady trans- 
 gresses, is beaten, taken again into favor, and all goes on 
 as before. 
 
 When a Russian young lady, therefore, is to be married, 
 her father, with a cudgel in his hand, asks the bridegroom, 
 whether he chooses this virgin for his bride ? to which the 
 other replies in the affirmative. Upon this, the father, 
 turning the lady three times round, and giving her three 
 strokes with his cudgel on the back, — *My dear," cries 
 he, " these are the last blows you are ever to receive from 
 your tender father : I resign my authority, and my cudgel, 
 to your husband ; he knows better than me the use of 
 either." The bridegroom knows decorum too well to accept 
 of the cudgel abruptly ; he assures the father that the lady 
 will never want it, and that he would not for the world 
 make any use of it : but the father, who knows what the 
 lady may want better than he, insists upon his acceptance ; 
 upon this there follows a scene of Russian politeness, while 
 one refuses, and the other offers, the cudgel. The whole, 
 however, ends with the bridegroom's taking it ; upon which 
 the lady drops a courtesy in token of obedience, and the 
 ceremony proceeds as usual. 
 
 There is something excessively fair and open in this 
 method of courtship : by this both sides are prepared for 
 all the matrimonial adventures that are to follow. Marriage 
 has been compared to a game of skill for life : it is gener- 
 
314 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 ous thus in both parties to declare they are sharpers in the 
 beginning. In England, I am told, both sides use every 
 art to conceal their defects from each other before marriage, 
 and the rest of their lives may be regarded as doing pen- 
 ance for their former dissimulation. — Farewell. 
 
 I^ETTER VII 
 
 To THE Same 
 
 I WAS some days ago in company with a politician, who 
 very pathetically declaimed upon the miserable sit- 
 uation of his country : he assured me that the whole 
 political machine was moving in a wrong track, and that 
 scarce even abilities like his own could ever set it right 
 again. "What have we," said he, "to do with the wars 
 on the Continent ? We are a commercial nation ; we have 
 only to cultivate commerce, like our neighbors the Dutch ; 
 it is our business to increase trade by settling new colonies ; 
 riches are the strength of a nation ; and for the rest, our 
 ships, our ships alone, will protect us." I found it vain to 
 oppose my feeble arguments to those of a man who 
 thought himself wise enough to direct even the ministry. 
 I fancied, however, that I saw with more certainty, because 
 I reasoned without prejudice: I therefore begged leave, in- 
 stead of argument, to relate a short history. He gave me 
 a smile at once of condescension and contempt ; and I pro- 
 ceeded as follows to describe *The RISE and deci,ension 
 
 OP THE KINGDOM OF lyAO." 
 
 Northward of China, and in one of the doublings of the 
 Great Wall, the fruitful province of I^ao enjoyed its 
 liberty, and a peculiar government of its own. As the in- 
 habitants were on all sides surrounded by the wall, they 
 feared no sudden invasion from the Tartars ; and being 
 each possessed of property, they were zealous in its de- 
 fense. 
 
 The natural consequence of security and affluence in any 
 country is a love of pleasure ; when the wants of nature 
 are supplied, we seek after the conveniences; when pos- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 315 
 
 sessed of these, we desire the luxuries of life ; and when every 
 luxury is provided, it is then ambition takes up the man, 
 and leaves him still something to wish for. The inhabitants 
 of the country, from primitive simplicity, soon began to aim 
 at elegance, and from elegance proceeded to refinement. It 
 was now found absolutely requisite, for the good of the 
 state, that the people should be divided. Formerly, the 
 same hand that was employed in tilling the ground, or in 
 dressing up the manufactures, was also, in time of need, a 
 soldier ; but the custom was now changed ; for it was per- 
 ceived, that a man bred up from childhood to the arts of 
 either peace or war, became more eminent by this means in 
 his respective profession. The inhabitants were, therefore, 
 now distinguished into artisans and soldiers ; and while 
 those improved the luxuries of life, these watched for the 
 security of the people. 
 
 A country possessed of freedom has always two sorts of 
 enemies to fear, — foreign foes, who attack its existence 
 from without, and internal miscreants, who betray its liber- 
 ties within. The inhabitants of I^ao were to guard against 
 both. A country of artisans were most likely to preserve 
 internal liberty ; and a nation of soldiers were fittest to 
 repel a foreign invasion. Hence naturally arose a division 
 of opinion between the artisans and soldiers of the king- 
 dom. The artisans, ever complaining that freedom was 
 threatened by an armed internal force, were for disbanding 
 the soldiers, and insisted that their walls, their walls alone, 
 were sufficient to repel the most formidable invasion : the 
 warriors, on the contrary, represented the power of the 
 neighboring kings, the combinations formed against their 
 state, and the weakness of the wall which every earthquake 
 might overturn. While this altercation continued, the 
 kingdom might be justly said to enjoy its greatest share of 
 vigor : every order in the state, by being watchful over 
 each other, contributed to diffuse happiness equally, and bal- 
 anced the state. The arts of peace flourished, nor were 
 those of war neglected : the neighboring powers, who had 
 nothing to apprehend from the ambition of men whom they 
 only saw solicitous, not for riches, but freedom, were con- 
 tented to traffic with them : they sent their goods to be 
 
3i6 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 manufactured in I/ao, and paid a large price for them upon 
 their return. 
 
 By these means, this people at length became moderately 
 rich, and their opulence naturally invited the invader : a 
 Tartar prince led an immense army against them, and they 
 as bravely stood up in their own defense; they were still 
 inspired with a love of their country ; they fought the bar- 
 barous enemy with fortitude, and gained a complete victory. 
 
 From this moment, which they regarded as the comple- 
 tion of their glory, historians date their downfall. They 
 had risen in strength by a love of their country, and fell 
 by indulging ambition. The country possessed by the in- 
 vading Tartars seemed to them a prize that would not 
 only render them more formidable for the future, but 
 which would increase their opulence for the present ; it 
 was unanimously resolved, therefore, both by soldiers 
 and artisans, that those desolate regions should be peopled 
 by colonies from Lao. When a trading nation begins to 
 act the conqueror, it is then perfectly undone. It subsists 
 in some measure by the support of its neighbors : while 
 they continue to regard it without envy or apprehension, 
 trade may flourish; but when once it presumes to assert as 
 its right what is only enjoyed as a favor, each country re- 
 claims that part of commerce which it has power to take 
 back, and turns it into some other channel more honorable, 
 though perhaps less convenient. 
 
 Every neighbor now began |,to regard with jealous eyes 
 this ambitious commonwealth, and forbade their subjects 
 any future intercourse with them. The inhabitants of I/ao, 
 however, still pursued the same ambitious maxims : it was 
 from their colonies alone they expected riches ; and riches, 
 said they, are strength, and strength is security. Number- 
 less were the migrations of the desperate and enterprising 
 of this country to people the desolate dominions lately pos- 
 sessed by the Tartar. Between these colonies and the 
 mother country a very advantageous trafiBc was at first 
 carried on : the republic sent their colonies large quantities 
 of the manufactures of the country, and they in return 
 provided the republic with an equivalent in ivory and gin- 
 seng. By this means the inhabitants became immensely 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 317 
 
 rich, and this produced an equal degree of voluptuousness ; 
 for men who have much money will always find some fan- 
 tastical modes of enjoyment. How shall I mark the steps 
 by which they declined? Kvery colony in process of time 
 spreads over the whole country where it first was planted. 
 As it grows more populous, it becomes more polite ; and 
 those manufactures for which it was in the beginning 
 obliged to others, it learns to dress up itself. Such was the 
 case with the colonies of I/ao : they, in less than a century, 
 became a powerful and a polite people, and the more polite 
 they grew, the less advantageous was the commerce which 
 still subsisted between them and others. By this means the 
 mother country, being abridged in its commerce, grew 
 poorer, but not less luxurious. Their former wealth had 
 introduced luxury ; and wherever luxury once fixes, no art 
 can either lessen or remove it. Their commerce with their 
 neighbors was totally destroyed, and that with their colo- 
 nies was every day naturally and necessarily declining ; they 
 still, however, preserved the insolence of wealth, without 
 a power to support it, and persevered in being luxurious, 
 while contemptible from poverty. In short, the state re- 
 sembled one of those bodies bloated with disease, whose 
 bulk is only a symptom of its wretchedness. 
 
 Their former opulence only rendered them more impo- 
 tent, as those individuals who are reduced from riches to 
 poverty are of all men the most unfortunate and helpless. 
 They had imagined, because their colonies tended to make 
 them rich upon the first acquisition, they would still con- 
 tinue to do so ; they now found, however, that on them- 
 selves alone they should have depended for support ; that 
 colonies ever afforded but temporary affluence ; and when 
 cultivated and polite, are no longer useful. From such a 
 concurrence of circumstances they soon became contemptible. 
 The Emperor Honti invaded them with a powerful army. 
 Historians do not say whether their colonies were too re- 
 mote to lend assistance, or else were desirous of shaking 
 off their dependence ; but certain it is, they scarce made 
 any resistance : their walls were now found but a weak 
 defense, and they at length were obliged to acknowledge 
 subjection to the empire of China. 
 
3i8 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 Happy, very happy might they have been, had they 
 known when to bound their riches and their glory ; had 
 they known that extending empire is often diminishing 
 power ; that countries are ever strongest which are inter- 
 nally powerful ; that colonies, by draining away the brave 
 and enterprising, leave the country in the hands of the 
 timid and avaricious ; that walls give little protection, unless 
 manned with resolution ; that too much commerce may in- 
 jure a nation as well as too little ; and that there is a 
 wide difference between a conquering and a flourishing em- 
 pire. — Adieu. 
 
 I.ETTER VIII 
 To THE Same 
 
 I AM disgusted, O Fum Hoam ! even to sickness dis- 
 gusted ! Is it possible to bear the presumption of these 
 Islanders, when they pretend to instruct me in the 
 ceremonies of China? They lay it down as a maxim, that 
 every person who comes from thence must express himself 
 in metaphor, swear by Alia, rail against wine, and behave, 
 and talk, and write, like a Turk or Persian. They make 
 no distinction between our elegant manners and the volup- 
 tuous barbarities of our Eastern neighbors. Wherever I 
 come, I raise either difiSdence or astonishment : some fancy 
 me no Chinese, because I am formed more like a man than 
 a monster ; and others wonder to find one bom five thou- 
 sand miles from England endued with common sense. 
 "Strange," say they, "that a man who has received his 
 education at such a distance from I^ondon should have com- 
 mon sense ; to be born out of England, and yet have com- 
 mon sense ! Impossible ! He must be some Englishman in 
 disguise ; his very visage has nothing of the true exotic 
 barbarity.* 
 
 I yesterday received an invitation from a lady of distinc- 
 tion, who, it seems, had collected all her knowledge of 
 Eastern manners from fictions every day propagated here, 
 under the titles of Eastern tales and Oriental histories. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 319 
 
 She received me very politely, but seemed to wonder that 
 I neglected bringing opium and a tobacco box : when 
 chairs were drawn for the rest of the company, I was as- 
 signed my place on a cushion on the floor. It was in vain 
 that I protested the Chinese used chairs, as in Europe ; 
 she understood decorum too well to entertain me with the 
 ordinary civilities. 
 
 I had scarcely been seated according to her directions, 
 when the footman was ordered to pin a napkin under my 
 chin : this I protested against, as being no way Chinese ; 
 however, the whole company, who, it seems, were a club 
 of connoisseurs, gave it unanimously against me, and the 
 napkin was pinned accordingly. 
 
 It was impossible to be angry with people who seemed 
 to err only from an excess of politeness, and I sat con- 
 tented, expecting their importunities were now at an end ; 
 but, as soon as ever dinner was served, the lady demanded 
 whether I was for a plate of bear's claws, or a slice of 
 birds' nests. As these were dishes with which I was utterly 
 unacquainted, I was desirous of eating only what I knew, 
 and therefore begged to be helped from a piece of beef 
 that lay on the side table : my request at once disconcerted 
 the whole company. A Chinese eat beef ! that could never 
 be : there was no local propriety in Chinese beef, whatever 
 there might be in Chinese pheasant. " Sir, " said my enter- 
 tainer, " I think I have some reason to fancy myself a 
 judge of these matters ; in short, the Chinese never eat 
 beef ; so that I must be permitted to recommend the pilaw. 
 There was never better dressed at Pekin; the saffron and 
 rice are well boiled, and the spices in perfection." 
 
 I had no sooner begun to eat what was laid before me, 
 than I found the whole company as much astonished as 
 before ; it seems I made no use of my chop-sticks. A 
 grave gentleman, whom I take to be an author, harangued 
 very learnedly (as the company seemed to think) upon the 
 use which was made of them in China. He entered into a 
 long argument with himself about their first introduction, 
 without once appealing to me, who might be supposed 
 best capable of silencing the inquiry. As the gentleman 
 therefore took my silence for a mark of his own superior 
 
320 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 sagacity, lie was resolved to pursue the triumph ; he talked 
 of our cities, mountains, and animals as familiarly as if he 
 had been born in Quamsi, but as erroneously as if a native 
 of the moon. He attempted to prove that I had nothing 
 of the true Chinese cut in my visage ; showed that my 
 high cheek-bones should have been higher, and my forehead 
 broader. In short, he almost reasoned me out of my coun- 
 try, and effectually persuaded the rest of the company to 
 be of his opinion. 
 
 I was going to expose his mistakes, when it was insisted, 
 that I had nothing of the true Eastern manner in my de- 
 livery. "This gentleman's conversation,* says one of the 
 ladies, who was a great reader, "is like our own, — mere 
 chit-chat and common sense : there is nothing like sense in 
 the true Kastern style, where nothing more is required but 
 sublimity. Oh ! for a history of Aboulfaouris, the grand 
 voyager, of genii, magicians, rocks, bags of bullets, giants, 
 and enchanters, where all is great, obscure, magnificent, 
 and unintelligible. " — " I have written many a sheet of 
 Eastern tale myself, " interrupts the author, " and I defy 
 the severest critic to say but that I have stuck close to 
 the true manner. I have compared a lady's chin to the 
 snow upon the mountains of Bomek; a soldier's sword to 
 the clouds that obscure the face of heaven. If riches are 
 mentioned, I compare them to the flocks that graze the 
 verdant Tefflis; if poverty, to the mists that veil the brow 
 of Mount Baku. I have used Thbje and THOU upon all occa- 
 sions ; I have described fallen stars and splitting mountains, 
 not forgetting the little houris, who make a pretty figure 
 in every description. But you shall hear how I generally 
 begin — * Eben-benbolo, who was the son of Ban, was born 
 on the foggy summits of Benderabassi. His beard was 
 whiter than the feathers which veil the breast of the pen- 
 guin ; his eyes were like the eyes of doves when washed 
 by the dews of the morning ; his hair, which hung like 
 the willow weeping over the glossy stream, was so beauti- 
 ful that it seemed to reflect its own brightness; and his 
 feet were as the feet of a wild deer which fleeth to the 
 tops of the mountains.' There, there is the true Eastern 
 taste for you; every advance made toward sense is only a 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 321 
 
 deviation from sound. Eastern tales should always be 
 sonorous, lofty, musical, and unmeaning.'* 
 
 I could not avoid smiling, to hear a native of England 
 attempt to instruct me in the true Eastern idiom; and 
 after he looked round some time for applause, I presumed 
 to ask him, whether he had ever traveled into the East; 
 to which he replied in the negative. I demanded whether 
 he understood Chinese or Arabic; to which also he 
 answered as before. "Then how, sir," said I, "can you pre- 
 tend to determine upon the Eastern style, who are entirely 
 unacquainted with the Eastern writings? Take, sir, the 
 word of one who is professedly a Chinese, and who is 
 actually acquainted with the Arabian writers, that what is 
 palmed upon you daily for an imitation of Eastern writing 
 no way resembles their manner, either in sentiment or dic- 
 tion. In the East similes are seldom used, and metaphors 
 almost wholly unknown ; but in China particularly, the 
 very reverse of what you allude to takes place: a cool 
 phlegmatic method of writing prevails there. The writers 
 of that country, ever more assiduous to instruct than to 
 please, address rather the judgment than the fancy. Un- 
 like many authors of Europe, who have no consideration 
 of the reader's time, they generally leave more to be un- 
 derstood than they express. 
 
 "Besides, sir, you must not expect from an inhabitant 
 of China the same ignorance, the same unlettered simplicity, 
 that you find in a Turk, Persian, or native of Peru. The 
 Chinese are versed in the sciences as well as you, and are 
 masters of several arts unknown to the people of Europe. 
 Many of them are instructed not only in their own national 
 learning, but are perfectly well acquainted with the 
 languages and learning of the West. If my word in such 
 a case is not to be taken, consult your own travelers on 
 this head, who affirm that the scholars of Pekin and Siam 
 sustain theological theses in I^atin. *The college of Mas- 
 prend, which is but a league from Siam,' says one of 
 your travelers, 'came in a body to salute our ambassador. 
 Nothing gave me more sincere pleasure, than to behold a 
 number of priests, venerable both from age and modesty, 
 followed by a number of youths of all nations, Chinese, 
 
322 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 Japanese, Tonquinese, of Cochin China, Pegu, and Siam, 
 all willing to pay their respects in the most polite manner 
 imaginable. A Cochin Chinese made an excellent I^atin 
 oration upon this occasion ; he was succeeded, and even 
 outdone, by a student of Tonquin, who was as well skilled 
 in the Western learning as any scholar of Paris.' Now, 
 sir, if youths who never stirred from home are so perfectly 
 skilled in your laws and learning, surely more must be ex- 
 pected from one like me, who have traveled so many thou- 
 sand miles ; who have conversed familiarly for several 
 years with the English factors established at Canton and 
 the missionaries sent us from every part of Europe. The 
 unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and 
 a page of our Confucius and of your Tillotson have scarce 
 any material difference. Paltry affectation, strained allu- 
 sions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those 
 who choose to wear them : and they are but too frequently 
 the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would 
 endeavor to please." 
 
 I was proceeding in my discourse, when, looking round, 
 I perceived the company no way attentive to what I at- 
 tempted, with so much earnestness, to enforce. One lady 
 was whispering her that sat next, another was studying 
 the merits of a fan, a third began to yawn, and the author 
 himself fell fast asleep. I thought it, therefore, high time 
 to make a retreat ; nor did the company seem to show 
 any regret at my preparations for departure : even the lady 
 who had invited me, with the most mortifying insensibility, 
 saw me seize my hat, and rise from my cushion ; nor was I 
 invited to repeat my visit, because it was found that I 
 aimed at appearing rather a reasonable creature, than an 
 outlandish idiot. — Adieu. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 323 
 
 I.BTTER IX 
 
 From I,ien Chi Altangi to , Mb;rchant in Am- 
 sterdam. 
 
 CEREMONIES are different in every country ; but true po- 
 liteness is everywhere the same. Ceremonies, which 
 take up so much of our attention, are only artificial 
 helps which ignorance assumes in order to imitate polite- 
 ness, which is the result of good sense and good nature. 
 A person possessed of those qualities, though he had never 
 seen a court, is truly agreeable ; and if without them, would 
 continue a clown, though he had been all his life a gentle- 
 man usher. 
 
 How would a Chinese, bred up in the formalities of an 
 Eastern court, be regarded should he carry all his good 
 manners beyond the Great Wall? How would an English- 
 man, skilled in all the decorums of Western good breeding, 
 appear at an Eastern entertainment? Would he not be 
 reckoned more fantastically savage than even his unbred 
 footman ? 
 
 Ceremony resembles that base coin which circulates through 
 a country by the royal mandate ; it serves every purpose of 
 real money at home, but is entirely useless if carried abroad : 
 a person who should attempt to circulate his native trash in 
 another country would be thought either ridiculous or culpable. 
 He is truly well-bred, who knows when to value and when 
 to despise those national peculiarities, which are regarded 
 by some with so much observance ; a traveler of taste at 
 once perceives that the wise are polite all the world over, 
 but that fools, are polite only at home. 
 
 I have now before me two very fashionable letters upon 
 the same subject, both written by ladies of distinction ; one 
 of whom leads the fashion in England, and the other sets 
 the ceremonies of China : they are both regarded in their 
 respective countries by all the beau monde, as standards of 
 taste and models of true politeness, and both give us a true 
 idea of what they imagine elegant in their admirers : which 
 of them understands true politeness, or whether either, you 
 
324 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 shall be at liberty to determine. The English lady writes 
 thus to her female confidant : — 
 
 "As I live, my dear Charlotte, I believe the colonel will 
 carry it at last ; he is a most irresistible fellow, that is 
 flat. So well dressed, so neat, so sprightly, and plays about 
 one so agreeably, that I vow he has as much spirits as the 
 Marquis of Monkeyman's Italian greyhound. I first saw him 
 at Ranelagh ; he shines there : he is nothing without Rane- 
 lagh, and Ranelagh nothing without him. The next day 
 he sent a card and compliments, desiring to wait on mamma 
 and me to the music subscription. He looked all the time 
 with such irresistible impudence, that positively he had 
 something in his face gave me as much pleasure as a pair- 
 royal of naturals in my own hand. He waited on mamma 
 and me the next morning to know how we got home : you 
 must know the insidious devil makes love to us both. Rap 
 went the footman at the door ; bounce went my heart : I 
 thought he would have rattled the house down. Chariot 
 drove up to the window, with his footmen in the prettiest 
 liveries ; he has infinite taste, that is flat. Mamma had 
 spent all the morning at her head ; but, for my part, I was 
 in an undress to receive him ; quite easy, mind that ; no 
 way disturbed at his approach : mamma pretended to be as 
 degagie as I ; and yet I saw her blush in spite of her. 
 Positively he is a most killing devil ! We did nothing but 
 laugh all the time he stayed with us ; I never heard so 
 many very good things before : at first he mistook mamma 
 for my sister, at which she laughed ; then he mistook my 
 natural complexion for paint, at which I laughed ; and then 
 he showed us a picture in the lid of his snuffbox, at which 
 we all laughed. He plays picquet so very ill, and is so 
 very fond of cards, and loses with such a grace, that posi- 
 tively he has won me ; I have got a cool hundred, but have 
 lost my heart. I need not tell you that he is only a colonel 
 of the trainbands. I am, dear Charlotte, yours forever, 
 
 "Bbunda.* 
 
 The Chinese lady addresses her confidant, a poor relation 
 of the family, upon the same occasion ; in which she seems 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 325 
 
 to understand decorums even better than the Western beauty. 
 You who have resided so long in China will readily ac- 
 knowledge the picture to be taken from nature ; and, by 
 being acquainted with the Chinese customs, will better appre- 
 hend the lady's meaning. 
 
 FROM YAOUA TO YAYA 
 
 "Papa insists upon one, two, three, four hundred taels 
 from the colonel, my lover, before he parts with a lock of 
 my hair. Oh, how I wish the dear creature may be able 
 to produce the money, and pay papa my fortune ! The 
 colonel is reckoned the politest man in all Shensi. The 
 first visit he paid at our house — mercy, what stooping and 
 cringing, and stopping, and fidgeting, and going back, and 
 creeping forward, there was between him and papa ! one 
 would have thought he had got the seventeen books of cer- 
 emonies all by heart. When he was come into the hall, he 
 flourished his hands three times in a very graceful manner. 
 Papa, who would not be outdone, flourished his four times ; 
 upon this the colonel began again, and both thus continued 
 flourishing for some minutes in the politest manner imagi- 
 nable. I was posted in the usual place behind the screen, 
 where I saw the whole ceremony through a slit. Of this 
 the colonel was sensible, for papa informed him. I would 
 have given the world to have shown him my little shoes, 
 but had no opportunity. It was the first time I had ever 
 the happiness of seeing any man but papa, and I vow, 
 my dear Yaya, I thought my three souls would actually 
 have fled from my lips. Ho ! but he looked most charm- 
 ingly : he is reckoned the best shaped man in the whole 
 province, for he is very fat and very short ; but even those 
 natural advantages are improved by his dress, which is fash- 
 ionable past description. His head was close shaven, all but 
 the crown, and the hair of that was braided into a most 
 beautiful tail, that reached down to his heels, and was ter- 
 minated by a bunch of yellow roses. Upon his first enter- 
 ing the room I could easily perceive he had been highly 
 perfumed with assafoetida. But then his looks — his looks, 
 my dear Yaya, were irresistible. He kept his eyes stead- 
 
326 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 fastly fixed on the wall during the whole ceremony, and I 
 sincerely believe no accident could have discomposed his 
 gravity, or drawn his eyes away. After a polite silence of 
 two hours, he gallantly begged to have the singing women 
 introduced, purely for my amusement. After one of them 
 had for some time entertained us with her voice, the colonel and 
 she retired for some minutes together. I thought they 
 would never have come back : I must own he is a most agree- 
 able creature. Upon his return they again renewed the con- 
 cert, and he continued to gaze upon the wall as usual, when, 
 in less than half an hour more, ho ! but he retired out of the 
 room with another. He is, indeed, a most agreeable creature. 
 * When he came to take his leave, the whole ceremony 
 began afresh : papa would see him to the door ; but the 
 colonel swore he would rather see the earth turned upside 
 down than to permit him to stir a single step, and papa 
 was at last obliged to comply. As soon as he was got to 
 the door, papa went out to see him on horseback : here 
 they continued half an hour bowing and cringing, before 
 one would mount or the other go in; but the colonel was 
 at last victorious. He had scarce gone an hundred paces 
 from the house, when papa running out hallooed after him, 
 ' A good journey * ; upon which the colonel returned, and 
 would see papa into his house before ever he would depart. 
 He was no sooner got home than he sent me a very fine 
 present of duck eggs painted of twenty different colors. His 
 generosity, I own, has won me. I have ever since been 
 trying over the eight letters of good fortune, and have great 
 hopes. All I have to apprehend is, that after he has mar- 
 ried me, and that I am carried to his house close shut up 
 in my chair, when he comes to have the first sight of my 
 face, he may shut me up a second time, and send me back 
 to papa. However, I shall appear as fine as possible : 
 mamma and I have been to buy the clothes for my wed- 
 ding. I am to have a new foong hoang in my hair, the 
 beak of which will reach down to my nose ; the milliner 
 from whom we bought that and our ribands cheated us as 
 if she had no conscience, and so, to quiet mine, I cheated 
 her. All this is fair, you know. I remain, my dear Yaya, 
 your ever faithful Yaoua." 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 327 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 From I,ien Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Presi- 
 dent OP THE Ceremoniai, Academy at Pekin in 
 China 
 
 YOTJ have always testified the highest esteem for the Eng- 
 hsh poets, and thought them not inferior to the 
 Greeks, Romans, or even the Chinese, in the art. But 
 it is now thought, even by the English themselves, that the 
 race of their poets is extinct ; ' every day produces some 
 pathetic exclamation upon the decadence of taste and genius. 
 "Pegasus," say they, "has slipped the bridle from his 
 mouth, and our modern bards attempt to direct his flight 
 by catching him by the tail." 
 
 Yet, my friend, it is only among the ignorant that such 
 discourses prevail ; men of true discernment can see several 
 poets still among the English, some of whom equal, if not 
 surpass, their predecessors. The ignorant term that alone 
 poetry which is couched in a certain number of syllables in 
 every line, where a vapid thought is drawn out into a num- 
 ber of verses of equal length, and perhaps pointed with 
 rhymes at the end. But glowing sentiment, striking im- 
 agery, concise expression, natural description, and modulated 
 periods, are fully sufficient entirely to fill up my idea of this 
 art, and make way to every passion. 
 
 If my idea of poetry, therefore, be just, the English are 
 not at present so destitute of poetical merit as they seem to 
 imagine. I can see several poets in disguise among them, 
 — men furnished with the strength of soul, sublimity of 
 sentiment, and grandeur of expression, which constitutes 
 the character. Many of the writers of their modern odes, 
 sonnets, tragedies, or rebusses, it is true, deserve not the 
 name, though they have done nothing but clink rhymes and 
 measure syllables for years together : their Johnsons and 
 SmoUetts are truly poets ; though for aught I know, they 
 never made a single verse in their whole lives. 
 
 In every incipient language the poet and the prose writer 
 are very distinct in their qualifications : the poet ever pro- 
 ceeds first; treading unbeaten paths, enriching his native 
 
338 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 funds, and employed in new adventures. The other fol- 
 lows with more cautious steps, and though slow in his 
 motions, treasures up every useful or pleasing discovery. 
 But when once all the extent and the force of the language 
 is known, the poet then seems to rest from his labor, and 
 is at length overtaken by his assiduous pursuer. Both 
 characters are then blended into one: the historian and 
 orator catch all the poet's fire, and leave him no real mark 
 of distinction, except the iteration of numbers regularly re- 
 turning. Thus, in the decline of ancient European learning, 
 Seneca, though he wrote in prose, is as much a poet as 
 lyucan ; and Longinus, though but a critic, more sublime 
 than ApoUonius. 
 
 From this then it appears that poetry is not discontinued, 
 but altered among the English at present ; the outward form 
 seems different from what it was, but poetry still continues 
 internally the same : the only question remains, whether 
 the metric feet used by the good writers of the last age or 
 the prosaic numbers employed by the good writers of this 
 be preferable? And here the practice of the last age ap- 
 pears to me superior : they submitted to the restraint of 
 numbers and similar sounds; and this restraint, instead of 
 diminishing, augmented the force of their sentiment and 
 style. Fancy restrained may be compared to a fountain, 
 which plays highest by diminishing the aperture. Of the 
 truth of this maxim in every language every fine writer is per- 
 fectly sensible from his own experience, and yet to explain 
 the reason would be perhaps as difficult as to make a frigid 
 genius profit by the discovery. 
 
 There is still another reason in favor of the practice of 
 the last age, to be drawn from the variety of modulation. 
 The musical period in prose is confined to a very few 
 changes ; the numbers in verse are capable of infinite varia- 
 tion. I speak not now from the practice of modern verse 
 writers, few of whom have any idea of musical variety, but 
 run on in the same monotonous flow through the whole 
 poem; but rather from the example of their former poets, 
 who were tolerable masters of this variety, and also from 
 a capacity in the language of still admitting various unan- 
 ticipated music. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 329 
 
 Several rules have been drawn up for varying the poetic 
 measure, and critics have elaborately talked of accents and 
 syllables; but good sense and a fine ear, which rules can 
 never teach, are what alone can in such a case determine. 
 The rapturous Sowings of joy, or the interruptions of indig- 
 nation, require accents placed entirely different, and a 
 structure consonant to the emotions they would express. 
 Changing passions, and numbers changing with those pas- 
 sions, make the whole secret of Western as well as Eastern 
 poetry. In a word, the great faults of the modern pro- 
 fessed English poets are, that they seem to want numbers 
 which should vary with the passion, and are more employed in 
 describing to the imagination than striking at the heart. — 
 Adieu. 
 
 I<ETTER XI 
 To THE Samk 
 
 SOMK time since I sent thee, O holy disciple of Confucius, 
 an account of the grand abbey, or mausoleum, of the 
 kings and heroes of this nation : I have since been in- 
 troduced to a temple, not so ancient, but far superior in 
 beauty and magnificence. In this, which is the most con- 
 siderable of the empire, there are no pompous inscriptions, 
 no flattery paid the dead, but all is elegant and awfully 
 simple. There are, however, a few rags hung round the 
 walls, which have, at a vast expense, been taken from the 
 enemy in the present war. The silks of which they are 
 composed, when new, might be valued at half a string of 
 copper money in China ; yet this wise people fitted out a 
 fleet and an army in order to seize them, though now grown 
 old, and scarcely capable of being patched up into a hand- 
 kerchief. By this conquest the English are said to have 
 gained, and the French to have lost, much honor. Is 
 the honor of European nations placed only in tattered 
 silk? 
 
 In this temple I was permitted to remain during the whole 
 service; and were you not already acquainted with the 
 
330 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 religion of the English, you might from my description be 
 inclined to believe them as grossly idolatrous as the dis- 
 ciples of lyao. The idol which they seem to address strides 
 like a colossus over the door of the inner temple, which 
 here, as with the Jews, is esteemed the most sacred part of 
 the building. Its oracles are delivered in a hundred various 
 tones, which seem to inspire the worshipers with enthusiasm 
 and awe : an old woman, who appeared to be the priestess, 
 was employed in various attitudes as she felt the inspira- 
 tion. When it began to speak, all the people remained 
 fixed in silent attention, nodding assent, looking approba- 
 tion, appearing highly edified by those sounds which to a 
 stranger might seem inarticulate and unmeaning. 
 
 When the idol had done speaking, and the priestess had 
 locked up its lungs with a key, observing almost all the com- 
 pany leaving the temple, I concluded the service was over, 
 and taking my hat, was going to walk away with the 
 crowd, when I was stopped by the Man in Black, who as- 
 sured me that the ceremony had scarcely yet begun. 
 " What ! " cried I, " do I not see almost the whole body of 
 the worshipers leaving the church ? Would you persuade me 
 that such numbers who profess religion and morality would, 
 in this shameless manner, quit the temple before the service 
 was concluded ? You surely mistake : not even the Kal- 
 mucks would be guilty of such an indecency, though all the 
 object of their worship was but a joint-stool." My friend 
 seemed to blush for his countrymen, assuring me that those 
 whom I saw running away were only a parcel of musical 
 blockheads, whose passion was merely for sounds, and 
 whose heads are as empty as a fiddle-case : those who re- 
 main behind, says he, are the true religious : they make 
 use of music to warm their hearts, and to lift them to a 
 proper pitch of rapture : examine their behavior, and you 
 will confess there are some among us who practice true 
 devotion. 
 
 I now looked round me as directed, but saw nothing of 
 that fervent devotion which he had promised : one of the 
 worshipers appeared to be ogling the company through a 
 glass; another was fervent, not in addresses to Heaven, but 
 to his mistress ; a third whispered ; a fourth took snuff ; 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 331 
 
 and the priest himself, in a drowsy tone, read over the 
 DUTIKS of the day. 
 
 « Bless my eyes ! » cried I, as I happened to look toward 
 the door, "what do I see? one of the worshipers fallen fast 
 asleep, and actually sunk down on his cushion ! He is now 
 enjoying the benefit of a trance, or does he receive the 
 influence of some mysterious vision ? " — « Alas ! alas ! " re- 
 plied, my companion, « no such thing ; he has only had the 
 misfortune of eating too hearty a dinner, and finds it impos- 
 sible to keep his eyes open." Turning to another part of 
 the temple, I perceived a young lady just in the same cir- 
 cumstances and attitude : " Strange, " cried I ; " can she, 
 too, have over-eaten herself?" — "Oh, fie!" replied my 
 friend, " you now grow censorious. She grow drowsy from 
 eating too much ! that would be profanation. She only sleeps 
 now from having set up all night at a brag party." 
 "Turn me where I will, then," says I, "I can perceive no 
 single symptom of devotion among the worshipers, except 
 from that old woman in the corner, who sits groaning be- 
 hind the long sticks of a mourning fan ; she indeed seems 
 greatly edified with what she hears. " — " Ay, " replied my 
 friend, " I knew we should find some to catch you : I 
 know her ; that is the deaf lady who lives in the clois- 
 ters." 
 
 In short, the remissness of behavior in almost all the 
 worshipers, and some even of the guardians, struck me 
 with surprise. I had been taught to believe that none were 
 ever promoted to offices in the temple but men remarkable 
 for their superior sanctity, learning, and rectitude ; that 
 there was no such thing heard of as persons being intro- 
 duced into the church merely to oblige a senator, or pro- 
 vide for the younger branch of a noble family : I expected, 
 as their minds were continually set upon heavenly things, to 
 see their eyes directed there also ; and hoped from their 
 behavior to perceive their inclinations corresponding with 
 their duty. But I am since informed that some are ap- 
 pointed to preside over temples they never visit ; and, while 
 they receive all the money, are contented with letting 
 others do all the good. — Adieu. 
 
332 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 I.ETTER XII 
 To THE Same 
 
 UPON finishing my last letter I retired to rest, reflecting 
 upon the wonders of the glass of I,ao, wishing to be 
 possessed of one here, and resolved in such case to 
 oblige every lady with a sight of it for nothing. What 
 fortune denied me waking, fancy supplied in a dream : 
 the glass, I know not how, was put into my possession, 
 and I could perceive several ladies approaching, some vol- 
 untarily, others driven forward against their wills, by a set 
 of discontented genii, whom by intuition I knew were their 
 husbands. 
 
 The apartment in which I was to show away was filled 
 with several gaming-tables, as if just forsaken ; the candles 
 were burnt to the socket, and the hour was five o'clock in 
 the morning. Placed at one end of the room, which was 
 of prodigious length, I could more easily distinguish every 
 female figure as she marched up from the door ; but, guess 
 my surprise, when I could scarce perceive one blooming or 
 agreeable face among the number. This, however, I attrib- 
 uted to the early hour, and kindly considered that the 
 face of a lady just risen from bed ought always to find a 
 compassionate advocate. 
 
 The first person who came up in order to view her in- 
 tellectual face was a commoner's wife, who, as I afterward 
 found, being bred up during her virginity in a pawnbrok- 
 er's shop, now attempted to make up the defects of breed- 
 ing and sentiment by the magnificence of her dress and the 
 expensiveness of her amusements. "Mr. Showman," cried 
 she, approaching, "I am told you has something to show 
 in that there sort of magic lanthorn, by which folks can 
 see themselves on the inside : I protest, as my I,ord Beetle 
 says, I am sure it will be vastly pretty, for I have never 
 seen anything like it before. But how, — Are we to strip 
 off our clothes, and be turned inside out? if so, as I/Drd 
 Beetle says, I absolutely declare off ; for I would not strip 
 for the world before a man's face, and so I tells his I^ord- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 333 
 
 ship almost every night of my life.* I informed the lady 
 that I would dispense with the ceremony of stripping, and 
 immediatelj'- presented my glass to her view. 
 
 As when a first-rate beauty, after having with difficulty 
 escaped the smallpox, revisits her favorite mirror — that 
 mirror which had repeated the flattery of every lover, and 
 even added force to the compliment — expecting to see 
 what had so often given her pleasure, she no longer be- 
 holds the cherry lip, the polished forehead, and speaking 
 bluish, but a hateful phiz, quilted into a thousand seams by 
 the hand of deformity ; grief, resentment, and rage fill her 
 bosom by turns — she blames the fates and the stars, but, 
 most of all, the unhappy glass feels her resentment : so it 
 was with the lady in question; she had never seen her 
 own mind before, and was now shocked at its deformity. 
 One single look was sufficient to satisfy her curiosity : I 
 held up the glass to her face, and she shut her eyes ; no 
 entreaties could prevail upon her to gaze once more. She 
 was even going to snatch it from my hands, and break it 
 in a thousand pieces. I found it was time, therefore, to 
 dismiss her as incorrigible, and show away to the next that 
 offered. 
 
 This was an unmarried lady, who continued in a state of 
 virginity till thirty-six, and then admitted a lover when she 
 despaired of a husband. No woman was louder at a revel 
 than she, perfectly free-hearted, and almost, in every respect, 
 a man ; she understood ridicule to perfection, and was 
 known even to sally out in order to beat the watch. 
 " Here, you, my dear, with the outlandish face," said she, 
 addressing me, "let me take a single peep. Not that I 
 care three damns what figure I may cut in the glass of 
 such an old-fashioned creature : if I am allowed the beau- 
 ties of the face by people of fashion, I know the world 
 will be complaisant enough to toss me the beauties of the 
 mind into the bargain. " I held my glass before her as she 
 desired, and, must confess, was shocked with the reflection. 
 The lady, however, gazed for some time with the utmost 
 complacency ; and, at last, turning to me with the most 
 satisfled smile, said she never could think she had been 
 half so handsome. 
 
334 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 Upon her dismission, a lady of distinction was reluctantly 
 hauled along to the glass by her husband. In bringing 
 her forward, as he came first to the glass himself, his mind 
 appeared tinctured with immoderate jealousy, and I was go- 
 ing to reproach him for using her with such severity ; but 
 when the lady came to present herself, I immediately re- 
 tracted : for, alas ! it was seen that he had but too much 
 reason for his suspicions. 
 
 The next was a lady who usually teased all her acquaint- 
 ance in desiring to be told of her faults, and then never 
 mended any. Upon approaching the glass, I could readily 
 perceive vanity, affectation, and some other ill-looking blots 
 on her mind ; wherefore, by my advice, she immediately set 
 about mending. But I could easily find she was not ear- 
 nest in the work; for as she repaired them on one side, 
 they generally broke out on another. Thus, after three or 
 four attempts, she began to make the ordinary use of the 
 glass in setting her hair. 
 
 The company now made room for a woman of learning, 
 who approached with a slow pace and a solemn counte- 
 nance, which, for her own sake, I could wish had been 
 cleaner. "Sir," cried the lady, flourishing her hand, which 
 held a pinch of snuff, * I shall be enraptured by having 
 presented to my view a mind with which I have so long 
 studied to be acquainted ; but, in order to give the sex a 
 proper example, I must insist that all the company may be 
 permitted to look over my shoulder." I bowed assent, and, 
 presenting the glass, showed the lady a mind by no means 
 so fair as she had expected to see. Ill-nature, ill-placed 
 pride, and spleen were too legible to be mistaken. Nothing 
 could be more amusing than the mirth of her female com- 
 panions who had looked over. They had hated her from 
 the beginning, and now the apartment echoed with a uni- 
 versal laugh. Nothing but a fortitude like hers could have 
 withstood their raillery : she stood it, however ; and when 
 the burst was exhausted, with great tranquillity she as- 
 sured the company, that the whole was a deceptio visus, and 
 that she was too well acquainted with her own mind, to 
 believe any false representations from another. Thus, say- 
 ing, she retired with a sullen satisfaction, resolved not to 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 335 
 
 mend her faults, but to write a criticism on the mental 
 reflector. 
 
 I must own, by this time I began myself to suspect the 
 fidelity of my mirror ; for as the ladies appeared at least to 
 have the merit of rising early, since they were up at five, 
 I was amazed to find nothing of this good quality pictured 
 upon their minds in the reflection : I was resolved, there- 
 fore, to communicate my suspicions to a lady whose intel- 
 lectual countenance appeared more fair than any of the 
 rest, not having above seventy-nine spots in all, besides 
 slips and foibles. «I own, young woman," said I, "that 
 there are some virtues upon that mind of yours ; but there 
 is still one which I do not see represented, — I mean that 
 of rising betimes in the morning ; I fancy the glass false 
 in that particular." The young lady smiled at my sim- 
 plicity ; and, with a blush, confessed, that she and the 
 whole company had been up all night gaming. 
 
 By this time all the ladies, except one, had seen them- 
 selves successively, and disliked the show or scolded the 
 showman : I was resolved, however, that she who seemed 
 to neglect herself, and was neglected by the rest, should 
 take a view ; and, going up to a corner of the room where 
 she still continued sitting, I presented my glass full in her 
 face. Here it was that I exulted in my success ; no blot, 
 no stain appeared on any part of the faithful mirror. As 
 when the large unwritten page presents its snowy spotless 
 bosom to the writer's hand, so appeared the glass to my 
 view. " Here, O ye daughters of English ancestors ! " cried 
 I, " turn hither, and behold an object worthy imitation ! 
 I/Ook upon the mirror now, and acknowledge its justice, 
 and this woman's pre-eminence ! " The ladies, obeying the 
 summons, came up in a group, and looking on, acknowl- 
 edged there was some truth in the picture, as the person 
 now represented had been deaf, dumb, and a fool from her 
 cradle ! 
 
 This much of my dream I distinctly remember ; the rest 
 was filled with chimeras, enchanted castles, and flying drag- 
 ons, as usual. As you, my dear Fum Hoam, are particu- 
 larly versed in the interpretation of those midnight warnings, 
 what pleasure should I find in your explanation 1 But 
 
336 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 that, our distance prevents : I make no doubt, however, 
 but that, from my description, you will very much vener- 
 ate the good qualities of the English ladies in general, 
 since dreams, you know, go always by contraries. — Adieu. 
 
 IvETTER XIII 
 From IvIBn Chi Altangi to , Merchant in Am- 
 
 STBRDAM. 
 
 HAPPBNiNG some days ago to call at a painter's to 
 amuse myself in examining some pictures (I had no 
 design to buy), it surprised me to see a young 
 prince in the working room, dressed in a painter's apron, 
 and assiduously learning the trade. We instantly remem- 
 bered to have seen each other; and, after the usual compli- 
 ments, I stood by while he continued to paint on. As 
 everything done by the rich is praised ; as princes here, as 
 well as in China, are never without followers ; three or 
 four persons, who had the appearance of gentlemen, were 
 placed behind to comfort and applaud him at every stroke. 
 Need I tell, that it struck me with very disagreeable sen- 
 sations, to see a youth, who by his station in life had it 
 in his power to be useful to thousands, thus letting his 
 mind run to waste upon canvas, and at the same time 
 fancying himself improving in taste, and filling his rank 
 with proper decorum? 
 
 As seeing an error and attempting to redress it are only 
 one and the same with me, I took occasion, upon his lord- 
 ship's desiring my opinion of a Chinese scroll, intended for 
 the frame of a picture, to assure him, that a mandarin of 
 China thought a minute acquaintance with such mechanical 
 trifles below his dignity. 
 
 This reply raised the indignation of some, and th^ con- 
 tempt of others : I could hear the names of Vandal, Goth, 
 taste, polite arts, delicacy, and" fire, repeated in tones of 
 ridicule or resentment. But considering that it was in 
 vain to argue against people who had so much to say, 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 337 
 
 without contradicting them, I begged leave to repeat a 
 fairy tale. This request redoubled their laughter; but, 
 not easily abashed at the raillery of boys, I persisted, ob- 
 serving, that it would set the absurdity of placing our 
 affections upon trifles in the strongest point of view; and 
 adding, that it was hoped the moral would compensate for 
 its stupidity. "For Heaven's sake,* cried the great man, 
 washing his brush in water, "let us have no morality at 
 present ; if we must have a story, let it be without any 
 moral." I pretended not to hear; and, while he handled 
 the brush, proceeded as follows : — 
 
 "In the kingdom of Bonbobbin, which, by the Chinese 
 annals, appears to have flourished twenty thousand years 
 ago, there reigned a prince endowed with every accomplish- 
 ment which generally distinguishes the sons of kings. His 
 beauty was brighter than the sun. The sun, to which he 
 was nearly related, would sometimes stop his course, in 
 order to look down and admire him. 
 
 " His mind was not less perfect than his body : he knew 
 all things, without having ever read : philosophers, poets, 
 and historians submitted their works to his decision ; and 
 so penetrating was he, that he could tell you the merit of 
 a book by looking on the cover. He made epic poems, 
 tragedies, and pastorals with surprising facility ; song, epi- 
 gram, or rebus, was all one to him, though it was ob- 
 served he could never finish an acrostic. In short, the 
 fairy who presided at his birth had endowed him with 
 almost every perfection, or, what was just the same, his 
 subjects were ready to acknowledge he possessed them 
 all ; and, for his own part, he knew nothing to the 
 contrary. A prince so accomplished received a name 
 suitable to his merit ; and he was called Bonbennin bon- 
 bobbin- bonbobbinet, which signifies, EnlighTEner of the 
 Sun. 
 
 "As he was very powerful, and yet unmarried, all the 
 neighboring kings earnestly sought his alliance. Bach 
 sent his daughter, dressed out in the most magnificent 
 manner, and with the most sumptuous retinue imaginable, 
 in order to allure the prince ; so that at one time there 
 were seen at his court not less than seven hundred foreign 
 
338 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 princesses, of exquisite sentiment and beauty, each alone 
 suflacient to make seven hundred ordinary men happy. 
 
 "Distracted in such a variety, the generous Bonbennin, 
 had he not been obliged by the laws of the empire to 
 make choice of one, would very willingly have married 
 them all, for none understood gallantry better. He spent 
 numberless hours of .solicitude in endeavoring to determine 
 whom he should choose : one' lady was possessed of every 
 perfection, but he disliked her eyebrows; another was 
 brighter than the morning star, but he disapproved her 
 Fong- Whang; a third did not lay white enough on her 
 cheek; and a fourth did not sufiBciently blacken her nails. 
 At last, after numberless disappointments on the one side 
 and the other, he made choice of the incomparable Nanhoa, 
 Queen of the Scarlet Dragons. 
 
 "The preparations for the roykl nuptials, or the envy of 
 the disappointed ladies, need no description ; both the one 
 and the other were as great as they could be : the beauti- 
 ful princess was conducted amidst admiring multitudes to 
 the royal couch, where, after being divested of every en- 
 cumbering ornament, she was placed, in expectance of the 
 youthful bridegroom, who did not keep her long in expec- 
 tation. He came more cheerful than the morning, and 
 printing on her lips a burning kiss, the attendants took this 
 as a proper signal to withdraw. 
 
 " Perhaps I ought to have mentioned in the beginning 
 that, among several other qualifications, the prince was 
 fond of collecting and breeding mice, which being a harm- 
 less pastime, none of his counselors thought proper to dis- 
 suade him from : he therefore kept a great variety of these 
 pretty little animals, in the most teautiful cages, enriched 
 with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls, and other precious 
 stones : thus he innocently spent four hours each day in 
 contemplating their innocent little pastimes. 
 
 *' But to proceed : the prince and princess were now in 
 bed; one with all the love and expectation, the other with 
 all the modesty and fear, which is natural to suppose ; 
 both willing, yet afraid to begin ; when the prince, happen- 
 ing to look toward the outside of the bed, perceived one 
 of the most beautiful animals in the world, a white mouse 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 339 
 
 with green eyes, playing about the floor, and performing a 
 hundred pretty tricks. He was already master of blue 
 mice, red mice, and even white mice with yellow eyes; but 
 a white mouse with green eyes was what he had long en- 
 deavored to possess : wherefore, leaping from bed with the 
 utmost impatience and agility, the youthful prince at- 
 tempted to seize the little charmer ; but it was fled in a 
 moment ; for, alas ! the mouse was sent by a discontented 
 princess, and was itself a fairy. 
 
 " It is impossible to describe the agony of the prince upon 
 this occasion ; he sought round and round every part of the 
 room ; even the bed where the princess lay was not ex- 
 empt from the inquiry : he turned the princess on one side 
 and the other, stripped her quite naked, but no mouse was 
 to be found ; the princess herself was kind enough to as- 
 sist, but still to no purpose. 
 
 " * Alas ! ' cried the young prince in agony, * how un- 
 happy am I to be thus disappointed ! never, sure, was so 
 beautiful an animal seen : I would give half my kingdom, 
 and my princess, to him that would find it. ' The princess, 
 though not much pleased with the latter part of his offer, 
 endeavored to comfort him as well as she could : she let 
 him know that he had an hundred mice already, which 
 ought to be at least sufficient to . satisfy any philosopher 
 like him. Though none of them had green eyes, yet he 
 should learn to thank Heaven that they had eyes. She 
 told him ( for she was a profound moralist ) that incurable 
 evils must be borne, and that useless lamentations were 
 vain, and that man was born to misfortunes ; she even en- 
 treated him to return to bed, and she would endeavor to 
 lull him on her bosom to repose : but still the prince con- 
 tinued inconsolable ; and regarding her with a stern air, for 
 which his family was remarkable, he vowed never to sleep 
 in the royal palace, or indulge himself in the innocent 
 pleasures of matrimony, till he had found the white mouse 
 with the green eyes." 
 
 "Prithee, Colonel I<eech,» cried his I^ordship, interrupt- 
 ing me, "how do you like that nose? don't you think 
 there is something of the manner of Rembrandt in it? — A 
 prince in all this agony for a white mouse, oh, ridiculous ! 
 
340 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 — Don't you think, Major Vampyre, that eyebrow stippled 
 very prettily? —But pray, what are the green eyes to the 
 purpose, except to amuse children? — I would give a thou- 
 sand guineas to lay on the coloring of his cheek more 
 smoothly. But I ask pardon; pray sir, proceed." 
 
 LETTER XIV 
 
 To THE Same 
 
 "TyTiNGS," continued I, "at that time were different 
 j^ from what they are now ; they then never en- 
 gaged their word for anything which they did not 
 rigorously intend to perform. This was the case of Bon- 
 bennin, who continued all night to lament his misfortunes 
 to the princess, who echoed groan for groan. When morn- 
 ing came, he published an edict, offering half his kingdom, 
 and his princess, to the person who should catch and bring 
 him the white mouse with the green eyes. 
 
 " The edict was scarcely published, when all the traps in 
 the kingdom were baited with cheese ; numberless mice were 
 taken and destroyed ; but still the much-wished-for mouse 
 was not among the number. The privy council was assem- 
 bled more than once to give their advice ; but all their de- 
 liberations came to nothing, even though there were two 
 complete vermin-killers and three professed rat-catchers of 
 the number. Frequent addresses, as is usual on extraor- 
 dinary occasions, were sent from all parts of the empire ; 
 but though these promised well, though in them he re- 
 ceived an assurance that his faithful subjects would assist 
 in his search with their lives and fortunes, yet with all 
 their loyalty, they failed when the time came that the 
 mouse was to be caught. 
 
 "The prince, therefore, was resolved to go himself in 
 search, determined never to lie two nights in one place, 
 till he had found what he sought for. Thus, quitting 
 his palace without attendants, he set out upon his journey, 
 and traveled through many a desert, and crossed many a 
 river, over high hills, and down long vales, still restless, 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 341 
 
 Still inquiring wherever he came; but no white mouse was 
 to be found. 
 
 "As one day, fatigued with his journey, he was shading 
 himself from the heat of the midday sun, under the arch- 
 ing branches of a banana tree, meditating on the object of 
 his pursuit, he perceived an old woman, hideously deformed, 
 approaching him ; by her stoop, and the wrinkles of her 
 visage, she seemed at least five hundred years old ; and the 
 spotted toad was not more freckled than was her skin. 
 'Ah! Prince Bonbennin-bonbobbin-bonbobbinet,' cried the 
 creature, *what has led you so many thousand miles from 
 your own kingdom? what is it you look tor? and what in- 
 duces you to travel into the kingdom of the Emmets ? ' 
 The prince, who was excessively complaisant, told her the 
 whole story three times over ; for she was hard of hearing. 
 'Well,' says the old fairy, for such she was, *I promise to 
 put you in possession of the white mouse with green eyes, 
 and that immediately too, upon one condition. ' — * One con- 
 dition,' cried the prince in a rapture ; 'name a thousand : 
 I shall undergo them all with pleasure.' — 'Nay,' inter- 
 rupted the old fairy, ' I ask but one, and that not very 
 mortifying neither ; it is only that you instantly consent to 
 marry me.' 
 
 " It is impossible to express the prince's confusion at this 
 demand ; he loved the mouse, but he detested the bride : 
 he hesitated ; he desired time to think upon the proposal ; 
 he would have been glad to consult his friends on such an 
 occasion. 'Nay, nay,* cried the odious fairy, 'if you de- 
 mur, I retract my promise ; I do not desire to force my 
 favors on any man. Here, you my attendants,' cried she, 
 stamping with her foot, ' let my machine be driven up ; 
 Barbacela, Queen of Emmets, is not used to contemptuous 
 treatment. ' She had no sooner spoken than her fiery chariot 
 appeared in the air, drawn by two snails ; and she was 
 just going to step in, when the prince reflected, that now 
 or never was the time to be possessed of the white mouse ; 
 and quite forgetting his lawful princess Nanhoa, falling on 
 his knees, he implored forgiveness for having rashly re- 
 jected so much beauty. This well-timed compliment in- 
 stantly appeased the angry fairy. She affected a hideous 
 
342 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 leer of approbation, and taking the young prince by the 
 hand, conducted him to a neighboring church, where they 
 were married together in a moment. As soon as the cere- 
 mony was performed, the prince, who was to the last de- 
 gree desirous of seeing his favorite mouse, reminded the 
 bride of her promise. * To confess a truth, my prince,* 
 cried she, 'I myself am that very white mouse you saw on 
 your wedding night in the royal apartment. I now, there- 
 fore, give you the choice, whether you would have me a 
 mouse by day and a woman by night, or a mouse by night 
 and a woman by day ? * Though the prince was an excel- 
 lent casuist, he was quite at a loss how to determine ; but 
 at last thought it most prudent to have recourse to a blue 
 cat that had followed him from his own dominions, and 
 frequently amused him with its conversation, and assisted 
 him with its advice : in fact, this cat was no other than the 
 faithful princess Nanhoa herself, who had shared with him 
 all his hardships in this disguise. 
 
 " By her instructions he was determined in his choice, 
 and returning to the old fairy, prudently observed, that as 
 she must have been sensible he had married her 'only 
 for the sake of what she had,' and not for her personal 
 qualifications, he thought it would, for several reasons, be 
 most convenient if she continued a woman by day, and ap- 
 peared a mouse by night. 
 
 " The old fairy was a good deal mortified at her husband's 
 want of gallantry, though she was reluctantly obliged to 
 comply : the day was therefore spent in the most polite 
 amusements ; the gentlemen talked smut, the ladies laughed, 
 and were angry. At last the happy night drew near, the 
 blue cat still stuck by the side of its master, and even fol- 
 lowed him to the bridal apartment. Barbacela entered the 
 chamber, wearing a train fifteen yards long, supported by 
 porcupines, and all over beset with jewels, which served to 
 render her more detestable. She was just stepping into bed 
 to the prince, forgetting her promise, when he insisted upon 
 seeing her in the shape of a mouse. She had promised, 
 and no fairy can break her word ; wherefore, assuming the 
 figure of the most beautiful mouse in the world, she skipped 
 and played about with an infinity of amusement. The 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 343 
 
 prince, in an agony of rapture, was desirous of seeing his 
 pretty playfellow move a slow dance about the floor to his 
 own singing ; he began to sing, and the mouse immedi- 
 ately to perform with the most perfect knowledge of time, 
 and the finest grace and greatest gravity imaginable. It 
 only began ; for Nanhoa, who had long waited for the op- 
 portunity in the shape of a cat, flew upon it instantly 
 without remorse, and eating it up in the hundredth part 
 of a moment, broke the charm, and then resumed her 
 natural figure. 
 
 " The prince now found that he had all along been under 
 the power of enchantment, that his passion for the white 
 mouse was entirely fictitious, and not the genuine complex- 
 ion of his soul ; he now saw that his earnestness after mice 
 was an illiberal amusement, and much more becoming a rat- 
 catcher than a prince. All his meannesses now stared him 
 in the face ; he begged the discreet princess's pardon a 
 hundred times. The princess very readily forgave him ; 
 and both returning to their palace in Bonbobbin, lived 
 very happily together, and reigned many years, with all 
 that wisdom which, by the story, they appear to have been 
 possessed of ; perfectly convinced by their former adven- 
 tures, that they who place their affections on trifles at first 
 for amusement, will find those trifles at last become their 
 most serious concern. ** — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XV 
 From Lien Chi Altangi to Eum Hoam, First Prbsi- 
 
 DENT OF THS CBREMONIAI^ AcADEMY AT PBKIN IN 
 
 China 
 
 ASK an Englishman what nation in the world enjoys 
 most freedom, and he immediately answers, his own. 
 Ask him in what that freedom principally consists, 
 and he is instantly silent. This happy pre-eminence does 
 not arise from the people's enjoying a larger share 
 in legislation than elsewhere, for in this particular sev- 
 eral states in Europe excel them ; nor does it arise from 
 
344 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 a greater exemption from taxes, for few countries pay 
 more ; it does not proceed from their being restrained by 
 fewer laws, for no people are burdened with so many ; nor 
 does it particularly consist in the security of their property, 
 for property is pretty well secured in every polite state in 
 Europe. 
 
 How, then, are the English more free — for more free 
 they certainly are — than the people of any other country, 
 or under any other form of government whatever? Their 
 freedom consists in their enjoying all the advantages of 
 democracy, with this superior prerogative borrowed from 
 monarchy, that the severity of their laws may be relaxed 
 without endangering the constitution. 
 
 In a monarchical state, in which the constitution is 
 strongest, the laws may be relaxed without danger; for 
 though the people should be unanimous in the breach of 
 any one in particular, yet still there is an effective power 
 superior to the people, capable of enforcing obedience, 
 whenever it may be proper to inculcate the law either to- 
 ward the support or welfare of the community. 
 
 But in all those governments where laws derive their 
 sanction from the people alone, transgressions cannot be 
 overlooked without bringing the constitution into danger. 
 They who transgress the law in such a case are those who 
 prescribe it, by which means it loses not only its influence, 
 but its sanction. In every republic the laws must be strong, 
 because the constitution is feeble ; they must resemble an 
 Asiatic husband, who is justly jealous, because he knows 
 himself impotent. Thus, in Holland, Switzerland, and 
 Genoa, new laws are not frequently enacted, but the old 
 ones are observed with unremitting severity. In such re- 
 publics, therefore, the people are slaves to laws of their 
 own making, little less than in unmixed monarchies, where 
 they are slaves to the will of one subject to frailties like 
 themselves. 
 
 In England, from a variety of happy accidents, their 
 constitution is just strong enough, or, if you will, mo- 
 narchical enough, to permit a relaxation of the severity of 
 laws, and yet those laws still to remain sufficiently strong 
 to govern the people. This is the most perfect state of 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 345 
 
 civil liberty of whicli we can form any idea: here we see 
 a greater number of laws than in any other country, while 
 the people at the same time obey only such as are imme- 
 diately conducive to the interests of society ; several are un- 
 noticed, many unknown ; some kept to be revived and 
 enforced upon proper occasions ; others left to grow obso- 
 lete, even without the necessity of abrogation. 
 
 There is scarcely an Englishman who does not almost 
 every day of his life offend with impunity against some 
 express law, and for which, in a certain conjuncture of 
 circumstances, he would not receive punishment. Gaming- 
 houses, preaching at prohibited places, assembled crowds, 
 nocturnal amusements, public shows, and a hundred other 
 instances, are forbid and frequented. These prohibitions 
 are useful ; though it be prudent in their magistrates, and 
 happy for the people, that they are not enforced, and none 
 but the venal or mercenary attempt to enforce them. 
 
 The law in this case, like an indulgent parent, still keeps 
 the rod, though the child is seldom corrected. Were those 
 pardoned offenses to rise into enormity, were they likely 
 to obstruct the happiness of society, or endanger the state, 
 it is then that justice would resume her terrors, and punish 
 those faults she had so often overlooked with indulgence. 
 It is to this ductility of the laws that an Englishman owes 
 the freedom he enjoys superior to others in a more popular 
 government : every step, therefore, the constitution takes 
 toward a democratic form, every diminution of the regal 
 authority, is, in fact, a diminution of the subject's free- 
 dom ; but every attempt to render the government more 
 popular not only impairs natural liberty, but even will at 
 last dissolve the political constitution. 
 
 Every popular government seems calculated to last only 
 for a time : it grows rigid with age ; new laws are multi- 
 plying, and the old continue in force ; the subjects are op- 
 pressed, burdened with a multiplicity of legal injunctions; 
 there are none from whom to expect redress, and nothing 
 but a strong convulsion in the state can vindicate them 
 into former liberty : thus the people of Rome, a few great 
 ones excepted, found more real freedom under their em- 
 perors, though tyrants, than they had experienced in the 
 
346 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 old age of the commonwealth, in which their laws were 
 become numerous and painful, in which new laws were 
 every day enacting, and the old ones executed with rigor. 
 They even refused to be reinstated in their former preroga- 
 tives, upon an offer made them to this purpose ; for they 
 actually found emperors the only means of softening the 
 rigors of their constitution. 
 
 The constitution of England is at present possessed of 
 the strength of its native oak and the flexibility of the 
 bending tamarisk ; but should the people at any time, with 
 a mistaken zeal, pant after an imaginary freedom, and 
 fancy that abridging monarchy was increasing their privi- 
 leges, they would be very much mistaken, since every 
 jewel plucked from the crown of majesty would only be 
 made use of as a bribe to corruption : it might enrich the 
 few who shared it among them, but would in fact impov- 
 erish the public. 
 
 As the Roman senators, by slow and imperceptible de- 
 grees, became masters of the people, yet still flattered them 
 with a show of freedom, while themselves only were free : 
 so it is possible for a body of men, while they stand up for 
 privileges, to grow into an exuberance of power themselves ; 
 and the public become actually dependent, while some of 
 its individuals only govern. 
 
 If then, my friend, there should in this country ever be 
 on the throne a king who, through good nature or age, 
 should give up the smallest part of his prerogative to the 
 people ; if there should come a minister of merit and popu- 
 larity — but I have room for no more. — Adieu. 
 
 I,ETTER XVI 
 To THS Same 
 
 As I was yesterday seated at breakfast over a pensive 
 dish of tea, my meditations were interrupted by my 
 old friend and companion, who introduced a stranger, 
 dressed pretty much like himself. The gentleman made 
 several apologies for his visit, begged of me to impute his 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 347 
 
 intrusion to the sincerity of his respect and the warmth of 
 his curiosity. 
 
 As I am very suspicious of my company when I find 
 them very civil without any apparent reason, I answered 
 the stranger's caresses at first with reserve ; which my 
 friend perceiving, instantly let me into my visitant's trade 
 and character, asking Mr. Fudge, whether he had lately 
 published anything new ? I now conjectured that my guest 
 was no other than a bookseller, and his answer confirmed 
 my suspicions. 
 
 "Excuse me, sir," says he, "it is not the season; books 
 have their time as well as cucumbers. I would no more 
 bring out a new work in sumiyer than I would sell pork 
 in the dog days. Nothing in my way goes off in summer, 
 except very light goods indeed. A review, a magazine, or 
 a sessions' paper, may amuse a summer reader ; but all our 
 stock of value we reserve for a spring and winter trade. * — 
 " I must confess, sir, " says I, " a curiosity to know what 
 you call a valuable stock, which can only bear a winter 
 perusal.'* — "Sir," replied the bookseller, "it is not my way 
 to cry up my own goods ; but, without exaggeration, I 
 will venture to show with any of the trade : my books at 
 least have the peculiar advantage of being always new ; 
 and it is my way to clear off my old to the trunk-makers 
 every season. I have ten new title-pages now about me, 
 which only want books to be added to make them the 
 finest things in nature. Others may pretend to direct the 
 vulgar ; but that is not my way ; I always let the vulgar 
 direct me ; wherever popular clamor arises, I always echo 
 the million. For instance, should the people in general 
 say that such a man is a rogue, I instantly give orders to 
 set him down in print a villain ; thus every man buys the 
 book, not to learn new sentiments, but to have the pleas- 
 ure of seeing his own reflected." — "But, sir," interrupted 
 I, " you speak as if you yourself wrote the books you pub- 
 lished ; may I be so bold as to ask a sight of some of those 
 intended publications which are shortly to surprise the 
 world ? " — " As to that, sir, " replied the talkative book- 
 seller, " I only draw out the plans myself ; and though I 
 am very cautious of communicating them to any, yet, as 
 
348 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 in the end I have a favor to ask, you shall see a few of 
 them. Here, sir, here they are ; diamonds of the first 
 water, I assure you. Imprimis, a translation of several 
 medical precepts for the use of such physicians as do not 
 understand I^atin. Item, the young clergyman's art of 
 placing patches regularly, with a dissertation on the differ- 
 ent manners of smiling without distorting the face. Item, 
 the whole art of love made perfectly easy, by a broker of 
 Change Alley. Item, the proper manner of cutting black- 
 lead pencils, and making crayons, by the Right Hon. the 
 Earl of . Item, the muster-master-general, or the re- 
 view of reviews." — "Sir," cried I, interrupting him, "my 
 curiosity with regard to title-pages is satisfied ; I should be 
 glad to see some longer manuscript, a history or an epic 
 poem. " — " Bless me, " cries the man of industry, " now you 
 speak of an epic poem, you shall see an excellent farce. 
 Here it is; dip into it where you will, it will be found re- 
 plete with true modem humor. Strokes, sir ; it is filled 
 with strokes of wit and satire in every line." — "Do you 
 call these dashes of the pen strokes ? " replied I ; " for I 
 must confess I can see no other." — "And pray, sir," re- 
 turned he, "what do you call them? Do you see anything 
 good now-a-days, that is not filled with strokes — and 
 dashes? — Sir, a well-placed dash makes half the wit of 
 our writers of modern humor. I bought a piece last sea- 
 son that had no other merit upon earth than nine hundred 
 and ninety-five breaks, seventy- two ha-ha's, three good 
 things, and a garter. And yet it played off", and bounced, 
 and cracked, and made more sport than a firework." — "I 
 fancy, then, sir, you were a considerable gainer ? " — " It 
 must be owned the piece did pay ; but, upon the whole, I 
 cannot much boast of last winter's success : I gained by 
 two murders; but then I lost by an ill-timed charity sermon. 
 I was a considerable sufferer by my 'Direct Road to an 
 Estate,' but the 'Infernal Guide* brought me up again. 
 Ah, sir, that was a piece touched off by the hand of a 
 master ; filled with good things from one end to the other. 
 The author had nothing but the jest in view ; no dull 
 moral lurking beneath, nor ill-natured satire to sour the 
 reader's good humor ; he wisely considered, that moral and 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 349 
 
 humor at the same time were quite overdoing the busi- 
 ness." — "To what purpose was the book then published?" 
 cried I. — " Sir, the book was published in order to be sold ; 
 and no book sold better, except the criticisms upon it, 
 which came out soon after : of all kinds of writing, that 
 goes ofi best at present ; and I generally fasten a criticism 
 upon every selling book that is published. 
 
 " I once had an. author who never left the least opening 
 for the critics : close was the word, always very right and 
 very dull, ever on the safe side of an argument ; yet, with 
 all his qualifications, incapable of coming into favor. I 
 soon perceived that his bent was for criticism ; and, as he 
 was good for nothing else, supplied him with pens and 
 paper, and planted him, at the beginning of every month, 
 as a censor on the works of others. In short, I found 
 him a treasure ; no merit could escape him : but what is 
 most remarkable of all, he ever wrote best and bitterest 
 when drunk." — "But are there not some works," inter- 
 rupted I, " that, from the very manner of their composition, 
 must be exempt from criticism ; particularly such as pro- 
 fess to disregard its laws ? " — " There is no work whatso- 
 ever but he can criticise, " replied the bookseller ; " even 
 though you wrote in Chinese, he would have a pluck at 
 you. Suppose you should take it into your head to pub- 
 lish a book, let it be a volume of Chinese letters, for 
 instance; write how you will, he shall show the world you 
 could have written better. Should you, with the most 
 local exactness, stick to the manners and customs of the 
 country from whence you come; should you confine your- 
 self to the narrow limits of Eastern knowledge, and be 
 perfectly simple and perfectly natural, he has then the 
 strongest reason to exclaim. He may, with a sneer, send 
 you back to China for readers. He may observe that, after 
 the first or second letter, the iteration of the same sim- 
 plicity is insupportably tedious ; but the worst of all is, 
 the public, in such a case, will anticipate his censures, and 
 leave you, with all your uninstructive simplicity, to be 
 mauled at discretion." 
 
 "Yes," cried I, "but in order to avoid his indignation, 
 and, what I should fear more, that of the public, I would, 
 
3SO GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 in such a case, write with all the knowledge I was master 
 of. As I am not possessed of much learning, at least I 
 would not suppress what little I had ; nor would I appear 
 more stupid than nature has made me." — "Here, then," 
 cries the bookseller, " we should have you entirely in our 
 power: unnatural, un-Eastem, quite out of character, 
 erroneously sensible, would be the whole cry. Sir, we 
 should then hunt you down like a rat." — "Head of my 
 father ! " said I, " sure there are but two ways ; the door 
 must either be shut or it must be open. I must either be 
 natural or unnatural." — "Be what you will, we shall criti- 
 cise you," returned the bookseller, "and prove you a dunce 
 in spite of your teeth. But, sir, it is time that I should 
 come to business. I have just now in the press a history 
 of China ; and if you will but put your name to it as the 
 author, I shall repay the obligation with gratitude." — 
 "What, sir!" replied I, "put my name to a work which I 
 have not written ? Never ! while I retain a proper respect 
 for the public and myself." The bluntness of my reply 
 quite abated the ardor of the bookseller's conversation ; 
 and, after about half an hour's disagreeable reserve, he, 
 with some ceremony, took his leave and withdrew. — 
 Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XVII 
 
 From thb Same 
 
 THOUGH naturally pensive, yet I am fond of gay company, 
 and take every opportunity of thus dismissing the 
 mind from duty. From this motive I am often found 
 in the centre of a crowd ; and wherever pleasure is to be 
 sold, am always a purchaser. In those places, without 
 being remarked by any, I join in whatever goes forward ; 
 work my passions into a similitude of frivolous earnestness, 
 shout as they shout, and condemn as they happen to dis- 
 approve. A mind thus sunk for a while below its natural 
 standard is qualified for stronger flights, as those first re- 
 tire who would spring forward with greater vigor. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 351 
 
 Attracted by the serenity of the evening, my friend and 
 I lately went to gaze upon the company in one of the 
 public walks near the city. Here we sauntered together for 
 some time, either praising the beauty of such as were hand- 
 some, or the dresses of such as had nothing else to recom- 
 mend them. We had gone thus deliberately forward for 
 some time, when, stopping on a sudden, my friend caught 
 me by the elbow, and led me out of the public walk. I 
 could perceive by the quickness of his pace, and by his 
 frequently looking behind, that he was attempting to avoid 
 somebody who followed : we now turned to the right, then 
 to the left ; as we went forward, he still went faster ; but 
 in vain : the person whom he attempted to escape hunted 
 us through every doubling, and gained upon us each mo- 
 ment, so that at last we fairly stood still, resolving to face 
 what we could not avoid. 
 
 Our pursuer soon came up, and joined us with all the 
 familiarity of an old acquaintance. " My dear Drybone, " 
 cries he, shaking my friend's hand, "where have you been 
 hiding this half a century ? Positively I had fancied you 
 were gone to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the 
 country." During the reply I had an opportunity of sur- 
 veying the appearance of our new companion : his hat was 
 pinched up with peculiar smartness ; his looks were pale, 
 thin, and sharp ; round his neck he wore a broad black 
 riband, and in his bosom a buckle studded with glass ; his 
 coat was trimmed with tarnished twist ; he wore by his side 
 a sword with a black hilt ; and his stockings of silk, though 
 newly washed, were grown yellow by long service. I was 
 so much engaged with the peculiarity of his dress, that I 
 attended only to the latter part of my friend's reply, in 
 which he complimented Mr. Tibbs on the taste of his 
 clothes, and the bloom in his countenance. "Pshaw, 
 pshaw. Will," cried the figure, «no more of that, if you 
 love me: you know I hate flattery, — on my soul I do; and 
 yet, to be sure, an intimacy with the great will improve 
 one's appearance, and a course of venison will fatten ; and 
 yet, faith, I despise the great as much as you do; but 
 there are a great many damn'd honest fellows among them, 
 and we must not quarrel with one half, because the other 
 
352 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 wants weeding. If they were all such as my Lord Mudler, 
 one of the most good-natured creatures that ever squeezed 
 a lemon, I should myself be among the number of their 
 admirers. I was yesterday to dine at the Duchess of Pic- 
 cadilly's. My lord was there. 'Ned,* says he to me, 
 *Ned,* says he, 'I'll hold gold to silver I can tell you 
 where you were poaching last night. * * Poaching, my lord ? ' 
 says I : ' faith, you have missed already ; for I stayed at 
 home, and let the girls poach for me. That's my way : I 
 take a fine woman as some animals do their prey — stand 
 still, and, swoop, they fall into my mouth.* " 
 
 "Ah, Tibbs, thou art a happy fellow," cried my com- 
 panion, with looks of infinite pity ; " I hope your fortune is 
 as much improved as your understanding in such com- 
 pany." — "Improved !" replied the other: "you shall know, 
 — but let it go no farther — a great secret — five hundred a 
 year to begin with — my lord's word of honor for it. His 
 lordship took me down in his own chariot yesterday, and 
 we had a Uie-h-tite dinner in the country, where we talked 
 of nothing else." — " I fancy you forget, sir," cried I ; 
 "you told us but this moment of your dining yesterday in 
 town. " — " Did I say so ? " replied he coolly ; " to be sure, 
 if I said so, it was so. Dined in town ! egad, now I do 
 remember, I did dine in town ; but I dined in the country 
 too ; for you must know, my boys, I eat two dinners. By 
 the by, I am grown as nice as the devil in mj' eating. 
 I'll tell you a pleasant affair about that : we were a select 
 party of us to dine at I^ady Grogram's, — an affected piece, 
 but let it go no farther — a secret. — Well, there happened 
 to be no assafoetida in the sauce to a turkey, upon which, 
 says I, I'll hold a thousand guineas, and say done first, 
 that — But, dear Drybone, you are an honest creature ; lend 
 
 me half-a-crown for a minute or two, or so, just till ; 
 
 but hearkee, ask me for it the next time we meet, or it 
 may be twenty to one but I forget to pay you." 
 
 When he left us, our conversation naturally turned upon 
 so extraordinary a character. "His very dress," cries my 
 friend, "is not less extraordinary than his conduct. If 
 you meet him this day, you find him in rags; if the next, 
 in embroidery. With those persons of distinction of whom 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 353 
 
 he talks so familiarly he has scarcely a coffee-house 
 acquaintance. However, both for the interests of society, 
 and perhaps for his own. Heaven has made him poor; and 
 while all the world perceives his wants, he fancies them 
 concealed from every eye. An agreeable companion, be- 
 cause he understands flattery ; and all must be pleased with 
 the first part of his conversation, though all are sure of its 
 ending with a demand on their purse. While his youth 
 countenances the levity of his conduct, he may thus earn 
 a precarious subsistence; but when age comes on, the 
 gravity of which is incompatible with buffoonery, then will 
 he find himself forsaken by all ; condemned in the decline 
 of life to hang upon some rich family whom he once 
 despised, there to undergo all the ingenuity of studied con- 
 tempt, to be employed only as a spy upon the servants, or 
 a bugbear to fright the children into obedience.'* — Adieu. 
 
 IvETTER XVIII 
 To THE Same 
 
 1AM apt to fancy I have contracted a new acquaintance 
 whom it will be no easy matter to shake off. My little 
 beau yesterday overtook me again in one of the public 
 walks, and slapping me on the shoulder, saluted me with 
 an air of the most perfect familiarity. His dress was the 
 same as usual, except that he had more powder in his 
 hair, wore a dirtier shirt, a pair of temple spectacles, and 
 his hat under his arm. 
 
 As I knew him to be a harmless, amusing little thing, 
 I could not return his smiles with any degree of severity : 
 so we walked forward on terms of the utmost intimacy, 
 and in a few minutes discussed all the usual topics pre- 
 liminary to particular conversation. The oddities that 
 marked his character, however, soon began to appear; he 
 bowed to several well-dressed persons, who, by their man- 
 ner of returning the compliment, appeared perfect strangers. 
 At intervals he drew out a pocket-book, seeming to take 
 memorandums, before all the company, with much impor- 
 tance and assiduity. In this manner he led me through 
 23 
 
354 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 the length of the whole walk, fretting at his absurdities, 
 and fancying myself laughed at not less than him by every 
 spectator. 
 
 When we were got to the end of our procession, "Blast 
 me," cried he, with an air of vivacity, "I never saw the 
 Park so thin in my life before ! There's no company at 
 all to-day ; not a single face to be seen. '* — " No com- 
 pany ! " interrupted I, peevishly ; " no company, where there 
 is such a crowd? why, man, there's too much. What are 
 the thousands that have been laughing at us but com- 
 pany ? " — " Lord, my dear, " returned he, with the utmost 
 good humor, " you seem immensely chagrined ; but, blast 
 me, when the world laughs at me, I laugh at the world, 
 and so we are even. My Ivord Trip, Bill Squash the 
 Creolian, and I, sometimes make a party at being ridicu- 
 lous ; and so we say and do a thousand things for the 
 joke's sake. But I see you are grave, and if you are for 
 a fine grave sentimental companion, you shall dine with me 
 and my wife to-day ; I must insist ou't. I'll introduce 
 you to Mrs. Tibbs, a lady of as elegant qualifications as 
 any in nature ; she was bred, but that's between ourselves, 
 under the inspection of the Countess of All-night. A 
 charming body of voice ; but no more of that, — she will 
 give us a song. You shall see my little girl too, Carolina 
 Wilhelmina Amelia Tibbs, a sweet pretty creature ! I de- 
 sign her for my I^ord Drumstick's eldest son ; but that's in 
 friendship, let it go no farther ; she's but six years old, and 
 yet she walks a minuet, and plays on the guitar immensely 
 already. I intend she shall be as perfect as possible in 
 every accomplishment. In the first place, I'll make her a 
 scholar : I'll teach her Greek myself, and learn that lan- 
 guage purposely to instruct her ; but let that be a secret. " 
 
 Thus saying, without waiting for a reply, he took me by 
 the arm, and hauled me along. We passed through many 
 dark alleys and winding ways ; for, from some motives to me 
 unknown, he seemed to have a particular aversion to every 
 frequented street : at last, however, we got to the door of 
 a dismal-looking house in the outlets of the town, where 
 he informed me he chose to reside for the benefit of the 
 air. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 355 
 
 We entered the lower door, which ever seemed to lie 
 most hospitably open ; and I began to ascend an old and 
 creaking staircase, when, as he mounted to show me the 
 way, he demanded whether I delighted in prospects ; to 
 which answering in the affirmative, " Then," says he, " I 
 shall show you one of the most charming in the world out 
 of my window ; we shall see the ships sailing, and the 
 whole country for twenty miles round, tip top, quite high. 
 My Ivord Swamp would give ten thousand guineas for such 
 a one ; but, as I sometimes pleasantly tell him, I always 
 love to keep my prospects at home, that my friends may 
 visit me the oftener." 
 
 By this time we were arrived as high as the stairs 
 would permit us to ascend, till we came to what he was 
 facetiously pleased to call the first floor down the chimney ; 
 and knocking at the door, a voice from within demanded, 
 "Who's there?" My conductor answered that it was him. 
 But this not satisfying the querist, the voice again repeated 
 the demand ; to which he answered louder than before ; 
 and now the door was opened by an old woman with cau- 
 tious reluctance. 
 
 When we were got in, he welcomed me to his house 
 with great ceremony, and turning to the old woman, asked 
 where was her lady? "Good troth," replied she, in a 
 peculiar dialect, "she's washing your twa shirts at the 
 next door, because they have taken an oath against lending 
 out the tub any longer."' — "My two shirts!" cried he in 
 a tone that faltered with confusion ; "what does the idiot 
 mean?" — "I ken what I mean weel enough," replied the 
 other; "she's washing your twa shirts at the next door, 
 because . " — " Fire and fury, no more of thy stupid ex- 
 planations ! " cried he ; " go and inform her we have got 
 company. Were that Scotch hag," continued he, turning 
 to me, "to be forever in my family, she would never 
 learn politeness, nor forget that absurd poisonous accent of 
 hers, or testify the smallest specimen of breeding or high 
 life ; and yet it is very surprising too, as I had her from 
 a parliament man, a friend of mine from the Highlands, 
 one of the politest men in the world; but that's a se- 
 cret." 
 
3S6 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 We waited some time for Mrs. Tibbs' arrival, during 
 ■which interval I had a full opportunity of surve)dng the 
 •chamber and all its furniture, which consisted of four chairs 
 with old wrought bottoms, that he assured me were his 
 wife's embroidery ; a square table that had been once ja- 
 panned ; a cradle in one comer, a lumbering cabinet in the 
 other ; a broken shepherdess, and a mandarine without a 
 head, were stuck over the chimney; and round the walls 
 several paltry unframed pictures, which, he observed, were 
 all his own drawing. * What do you think, sir, of that 
 head in the comer, done in the manner of Grisoni ? There's 
 the true keeping in it ; it is my own face, and though 
 there happens to be no likeness, a Countess offered me an 
 hundred for its fellow. I refused her, for, hang it, that 
 would be mechanical, you know." 
 
 The wife at last made her appearance, at once a slattern 
 and a coquette ; much emaciated, but still carrying the re- 
 mains of beauty. She made twenty apologies for being seen 
 in such odious dishabille, but hoped to be excused, as she 
 had stayed out all night at the gardens with the Countess, 
 who was excessively fond of the horns. *And, indeed, my 
 dear," added she, turning to her husband, "his lordship 
 drank your health in a bumper." — "Poor Jack!" cries he; 
 "a dear good-natured creature, I know he loves me. But 
 I hope, my dear, you have given orders for dinner ; you 
 need make no great preparations neither, there are but three 
 of us; something elegant and little will do, — a turbot, an 
 ortolan, a ." — "Or what do you think, my dear," in- 
 terrupts the wife, " of a nice pretty bit of ox-cheek, piping 
 hot, and dressed with a little of my own sauce?" — "The 
 very thing ! " replies he ; "it will eat best with some smart 
 bottled beer : but be sure to let us have the sauce his 
 "Grace was so fond of. I hate your immense loads of meat ; 
 that is country all over; extreme disgusting to those who 
 are in the least acquainted with high life." 
 
 By this time my curiosity began to abate, and my appe- 
 tite to increase : the company of fools may at first make 
 us smile, but at last never fails of rendering us melancholy ; 
 I therefore pretended to recollect a prior engagement, and, 
 after having shown my respect to the house, according to the 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 357 
 
 fashion of the English, by giving the old servant a piece 
 of money at the door, I took my leave; Mrs. Tibbs assur- 
 ing me that dinner, if I stayed, would be ready at least in 
 less than two hours. 
 
 LETTER XIX 
 From Edm Hoam to Ai<tangi, thb Discontbntbd Wak- 
 
 DBRER 
 
 THS distant sounds of music, that catch new sweetness 
 as they vibrate through the long-drawn valley, are 
 not more pleasing to the ear than the tidings of a far 
 distant friend. 
 
 I have just received two hundred of thy letters by the 
 Russian caravan, descriptive of the manners of Europe. 
 You have left it to geographers to determine the site of 
 their mountains and extent of their lakes, seeming only 
 employed in discovering the genius, the government, and 
 disposition of the people. 
 
 In those letters I perceive a journal of the operations of 
 your mind upon whatever occurs, rather than a detail of 
 your travels from one building to another ; of your taking 
 a draft of this ruin, or that obelisk ; of paying so many 
 tomans for this commodity, or laying up a proper store for 
 the passage of some new wilderness. 
 
 From your accounts of Russia, I learn that this nation is 
 again relaxing into pristine barbarity ; that its great em- 
 peror wanted a life of an hundred years more to bring 
 about his vast designs. A savage people may be resembled 
 to their own forests ; a few years are sufficient to clear 
 away the obstructions to agriculture, but it requires many ere 
 the ground acquires a proper degree of fertility ; the Rus- 
 sians, attached to their ancient prejudices, again renew 
 their hatred to strangers, and indulge every former brutal 
 excess. So true it is, that the revolutions of wisdom are 
 slow and difficult ; the revolutions of folly or ambition pre- 
 cipitate and easy. "We are not to be astonished," says 
 Confucius, "that the wise walk more slowly in their 
 
3S8 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 road to virtue, than fools in their passage to vice ; since 
 passion drags us along, while wisdom only points out the 
 way. " 
 
 The German empire, that remnant of the majesty of an- 
 cient Rome, appears, from your accounts, on the eve of disso- 
 lution. The member of it vast body want every tie of gov 
 ernment to unite them, and seem feebly held together only by 
 their respect for ancient institutions. The very name of coun- 
 try and countrymen, which in other nations makes one of the 
 strongest bonds of government, has been here for some time 
 laid aside ; each of its inhabitants seeming more proud of being 
 called from the petty state which gives him birth, than by 
 the more well-known title of German. 
 
 The government may be regarded in the light of a severe 
 master and a feeble opponent. The states which are now 
 subject to the laws of the empire, are only watching a 
 proper occasion to fling off the yoke ; and those which are 
 become too powerful to be compelled to obedience, now be- 
 gin to think of dictating in their turn. The struggles in 
 this state are, therefore, not in order to preserve, but to 
 destroy, the ancient constitution : if one side succeeds, the 
 government must become despotic ; if the other, several 
 states will subsist without even nominal subordination; but 
 in either case the Germanic constitution will be no more. 
 
 Sweden, on the contrary, though now seemingly a stren- 
 uous assertor of its liberties, is probably only hastening on 
 to despotism. Their senators, while they pretend to vindi- 
 cate the freedom of the people, are only establishing their 
 own independence. The deluded people will, however, at 
 last perceive the miseries of an aristocratical government; 
 they will perceive that the administration of a society of 
 men is ever more painful than that of one only. They will 
 fly from this most oppressive of all forms, where one single 
 member is capable of controlling the whole, to take refuge 
 under the throne, which will ever be attentive to their 
 complaints. No people long endure an aristocratical gov- 
 ernment, when they can apply elsewhere for redress. The 
 lower orders of people may be enslaved for a time by a 
 number of tyrants, but, upon the first opportunity, they 
 will ever take a refuge in despotism or democracy. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 359 
 
 As the Swedes are making concealed approaches to des- 
 potism, the French, on the other hand, are imperceptibly 
 vindicating themselves into freedom. When I consider that 
 those parliaments (the members of which are all created by 
 the court, the presidents of which can act only by imme- 
 diate direction) presume even to mention privileges and 
 freedom, who, till of late, received directions from the 
 throne with implicit humility ; when this is considered, I 
 cannot help fancj'ing that the genius of freedom has entered 
 that kingdom in disguise. If they have but three weak 
 monarchs more successively on the throne, the mask will 
 be laid aside, and the country will certainly once more be 
 free. 
 
 When I compare the figure which the Dutch make in 
 Europe with that they assume in Asia, I am struck with 
 surprise. In Asia, I find them the great lords of all the 
 Indian seas ; in Europe, the timid inhabitants of a paltry 
 state. No longer the sons of freedom, but of avarice ; no 
 longer assertors of their rights by cottrage, but by negotia- 
 tions, fawning on those who insult them, and crouching 
 under the rod of every neighboring power. Without a 
 friend to save them in distress, and without virtue to 
 save themselves, their government is poor, and their pri- 
 vate wealth will serve but to invite some neighboring 
 invader. 
 
 I long with impatience for your letters from England, 
 Denmark, Holland, and Italy ; yet why wish for relations 
 which only describe new calamities, which show that ambi- 
 tion and avarice are equally terrible in every region ! — 
 Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XX 
 To THE Same 
 
 A CHARACTER, such as you have represented that of 
 your fair companion, which continues virtuous, though 
 loaded with infamy, is truly great. Many regard 
 virtue because it is attended with applause ; your favorite 
 only for the internal pleasure it confers. I have often 
 
36o GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 wished that ladies like her were proposed as models for 
 female imitation, and not such as have acquired fame by 
 qualities repugnant to the natural softness of the sex. 
 
 Women famed for their valor, their skill in politics, or 
 their learning, leave the duties of their own sex, in order 
 to invade the privileges of ours. I can no more pardon a 
 fair one for endeavoring to wield the club of Hercules, 
 than I could him for attempting to twirl her distaff. 
 
 The modest virgin, the prudent wife, or the careful ma- 
 tron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated phi- 
 losophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who 
 makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims 
 the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a 
 much greater character than ladies described in romance, 
 whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts 
 from their quiver or their eyes. 
 
 Women, it has been observed, are not naturally formed 
 for great cares themselves, but to soften ours. Their ten- 
 derness is the proper reward for the dangers we undergo 
 for their preservation ; and the ease and cheerfulness of 
 their conversation, our desirable retreat from the fatigues 
 of intense application. They are confined within the nar- 
 row limits of domestic assiduity : and, when they stray be- 
 yond them, they move beyond their sphere, and consequently 
 without grace. 
 
 Fame, therefore, has been very unjustly dispensed among 
 the female sex. Those who least deserved to be remem- 
 bered, meet our admiration and applause ; while many, who 
 have been an honor to humanity, are passed over in si- 
 lence. Perhaps no age has produced a stronger instance of 
 misplaced fame than the present : the Semiramis and the 
 Thalestris of antiquity are talked of, while a modem char- 
 acter, infinitely greater than either, is unnoticed and un- 
 known. 
 
 Catharina Alexowna, born near Derpat, a little city in 
 Ivivonia, was heir to no other inheritance than the virtues 
 and frugality of her parents. Her father being dead, she 
 lived with her aged mother in their cottage covered with 
 straw ; and both, though very poor, were very contented. 
 Here, retired from the gaze of the world, by the labor of 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 361 
 
 her hands she supported her parent, who was now incap- 
 able of supporting herself. While Catharina spun, the old 
 woman would sit by and read some book of devotion ; 
 thus, when the fatigues of the day were over, both would 
 sit down contentedly by their fireside, and enjoy the frugal 
 meal with vacant festivity. 
 
 Though her face and person were models of perfection, 
 yet her whole attention seemed bestowed upon her mind ; 
 her mother taught her to read, and an old I^utheran minis- 
 ter instructed her in the maxims and duties of religion. 
 Nature had furnished her, not only with a ready, but a 
 solid turn of thought, not only with a strong, but a right 
 understanding. Such truly female accomplishments pro- 
 cured her several solicitations of marriage from the peas- 
 ants of the country ; but their offers were refused ; for she 
 loved her mother too tenderly to think of a separation. 
 
 Catharina was fifteen when her mother died ; she now 
 therefore left her cottage, and went to live with the Lu- 
 theran minister, by whom she had been instructed from her 
 childhood. In his house she resided in quality of governess 
 to his children, at once reconciling in her character uner- 
 ring prudence with surprising vivacity. 
 
 The old man, who regarded her as one of his own chil- 
 dren, had her instructed in dancing and music by the 
 masters who attended the rest of his family ; thus she con- 
 tinued to improve till he died, by which accident she was 
 once more reduced to pristine poverty. The country of 
 Livonia was at this time wasted by war, and lay in a most 
 miserable state of desolation. Those calamities are ever 
 most heavy upon the poor ; wherefore Catharina, though 
 possessed of so many accomplishments, experienced all the 
 miseries of hopeless indigence. Provisions becoming every 
 day more scarce, and her private stock being entirely ex- 
 hausted, she resolved at last to travel to Marienburgh, a 
 city of greater plenty. 
 
 With her scanty wardrobe packed up in a wallet, she 
 set out on her journey on foot : she was to walk through 
 a region miserable by nature, but rendered still more hid- 
 eous by the Swedes and Russians, who, as each happened 
 to become masters, plundered it at discretion: but hunger 
 
362 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 had taught her to despise the dangers and fatigues of the 
 way. 
 
 One evening upon her journey, as she had entered a cot- 
 tage by the wayside, to take up her lodging for the night, 
 she was insulted by two Swedish soldiers, who insisted 
 upon qualifying her, as they termed it, " to follow the 
 camp." They might probably have carried their insults 
 into violence, had not a subaltern officer, accidentally pass- 
 ing by, come in to her assistance : upon his appearing, the 
 soldiers immediately desisted ; but her thankfulness was 
 hardly greater than her surprise, when she instantly recol- 
 lected in her deliverer, the son of the I^utheran minister, 
 her former instructor, benefactor, and friend. 
 
 This was an happy interview for Catharina : the little 
 stock of money she had brought from home was by this 
 time quite exhausted ; her clothes were gone, piece by piece, 
 in order to satisfy those who had entertained her in their 
 houses : her generous countryman, therefore, parted with 
 what he could spare, to buy her clothes, furnished her 
 with a horse, and gave her letters of recommendation to 
 Mr. Gluck, a faithful friend of his father's, and superin- 
 tendent at Marienburgh. 
 
 Our beautiful stranger had only to appear to be well 
 received ; she was immediately admitted into the superin- 
 tendent's family, as governess to his two daughters ; and 
 though yet but seventeen, showed herself capable of in- 
 structing her sex, not only in virtue, but politeness. Such 
 was her good sense and beauty, that her master himself in 
 a short time offered her his hand, which, to his great sur- 
 prise, she thought proper to refuse. Actuated by a prin- 
 ciple of gratitude, she was resolved to marry her deliverer 
 only, even though he had lost an arm, and was otherwise 
 disfigured by wounds in the service. 
 
 In order, therefore, to prevent further solicitations from 
 others, as soon as the officer came to town upon duty, she 
 offered him her person, which he accepted with transport, 
 and their nuptials were solemnized as usual. But all the 
 lines of her fortune were to be striking : the very day on 
 which they were married, the Russians laid siege to Ma- 
 rienburgh. The unhappy soldier had now no time to enjoy 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 363 
 
 the well-earned pleasures of matrimony ; he was called off, 
 before consummatiou, to an attack, from which he was 
 never after seen to return. 
 
 In the meantime the siege went on with fury, aggra- 
 vated on one side by obstinacy, on the other by revenge. 
 This war between the two northern powers at that time 
 was truly barbarous ; the innocent peasant, and the harm- 
 less virgin, often shared the fate of the soldier in arms. 
 Marienburgh was taken by assault ; and such was the fury 
 of the assailants, that not only the garrison, but almost all 
 the inhabitants, men, women, and children, were put to 
 the sword : at length, when the carnage was pretty well 
 over, Catharina was found hid in an oven. 
 
 She had been hitherto poor, but still was free ; she was 
 now to conform to her hard fate, and learn what it was to 
 be a slave : in this situation, however, she behaved with 
 piety and humility ; and though misfortunes had abated her 
 vivacity, yet she was cheerful. The fame of her merit and 
 resignation reached even Prince Menzikofif, the Russian 
 general; he desired to see her, was struck with her beauty, 
 bought her from the soldier her master, and placed her 
 under the direction of his own sister. Here she was treated 
 with all the respect which her merit deserved, while her 
 beauty every day improved with her good fortune. 
 
 She had not been long in this situation, when Peter the 
 Great, paying the Prince a visit, Catharina happened to 
 come in with some dry fruits, which she served round 
 with peculiar modesty. The mighty monarch saw, and was 
 struck with her beauty. He returned the next day, called 
 for the beautiful slave, asked her several questions, and 
 found her understanding even more perfect than her per- 
 son. 
 
 He had been forced, when young, to marry from motives 
 of interest ; he was now resolved to marry pursuant to his 
 own inclinations. He immediately inquired the history of 
 the fair I^ivonian, who was not yet eighteen. He traced 
 her through the vale of obscurity, through all the vicissi- 
 tudes of her fortune, and found her truly great in them 
 all. The meanness of her birth was no obstruction to his 
 design ; their nuptials were solemnized in private ; the Prince 
 
364 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 assuring his courtiers that virtue alone was the properest 
 ladder to a throne. 
 
 We now see Catharina, from the low mud-walled cottage, 
 empress of the greatest kingdom upon earth. The poor 
 solitary wanderer is now surrounded by thousands, who 
 find happiness in her smile. She, who formerly wanted a 
 meal, is now capable of diffusing plenty upon whole 
 nations. To her fortune she owed a part of this pre- 
 eminence, but to her virtues more. 
 
 She ever after retained those great qualities which first 
 placed her on a throne ; and while the extraordinary prince, 
 her husband, labored for the reformation of his male sub- 
 jects, she studied in her turn the improvement of her 
 own sex. She altered their dresses, introduced mixed as- 
 semblies, instituted an order of female knighthood ; and at 
 length, when she had greatly filled all the stations of em- 
 press, friend, wife, and mother, bravely died without re- 
 gret, regretted by all. — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXI 
 
 From Lien Chi Altangi to Hingpo, by thb way op 
 
 Moscow 
 
 THE Europeans are themselves blind, who describe Fpr- 
 tune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had 
 finer eyes, or saw more clearly : they who have no 
 other trade but seeking their fortune, need never hope to 
 find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, 
 and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic, who stays at 
 home, and minds his business. 
 
 I am amazed how men call her blind, when, by the 
 company she keeps, she seems so very discerning. Wher- 
 ever you see a gaming-table, be very sure Fortune is not 
 there ; wherever you see an house with the doors open, be 
 very sure Fortune is not there ; when you see a man whose 
 pocket-holes are laced with gold, be satisfied Fortune is not 
 there ; wherever you see a beautiful woman good-natured 
 and obliging, be convinced Fortune is never there. In 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 365 
 
 short, she is ever seen accompanying industry, and as often 
 trundling a wheelbarrow as lolling in a coach and six. 
 
 If you would make Fortune your friend, or, to personize 
 her no longer, if you desire, my son, to be rich, and have 
 money, be more eager to save than acquire : when people 
 say, Money is to be got here, and money is to be got 
 there, take no notice ; mind your own business ; stay where 
 you are, and secure all you can get without stirring. 
 When you hear that your neighbor has picked up a purse 
 of gold in the street, never run out into the same street, 
 looking about you in order to pick up such another; or 
 when you are informed that he has made a fortune in one 
 branch of business, never change your own in order to 
 be his rival. Do not desire to be rich all at once ; but 
 patiently add farthing to farthing. Perhaps you despise 
 the petty sum ; and yet they who want a farthing, and 
 have no friend that will lend them it, think farthings 
 very good things. Whang, the foolish miller, when he 
 wanted a farthing in his distress, found that no friend 
 would lend, because they knew he wanted. Did you ever 
 read the story of Whang in our books of Chinese learning? 
 he who, despising small sums, and grasping at all, lost even 
 what he had. 
 
 Whang, the miller, was naturally avaricious; nobody 
 loved money better than he, or more respected those that 
 had it. When people would talk of a rich man in com- 
 pany. Whang would say, I know him very well ; he and I 
 have been long acquainted ; he and I are intimate ; he 
 stood for a child of mine : but if ever a poor man was 
 mentioned, he had not the least knowledge of the man ; 
 he might be very well for ought he knew ; but he was 
 not fond of many acquaintances, and loved to choose his 
 company. 
 
 Whang, however, with all his eagerness for riches, was 
 in reality poor; he had nothing but the profits of his mill 
 to support him; but though these were small, they were 
 certain : while his mill stood and went, he was sure of 
 eating ; and his frugality was such, that he every day laid 
 some money by, which he would at intervals count and 
 contemplate with much satisfaction. Yet still his acquisi- 
 
366 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 tions were not equal to his desires ; he only found himself 
 above want, whereas he desired to be possessed of afflu- 
 ence. 
 
 One day, as he was indulging these wishes, he was in- 
 formed that a neighbor of his had found a pan of money 
 under ground, having dreamed of it three nights running 
 before. These tidings were daggers to the heart of poor 
 Whang. "Here am I,* says he, "toiling and moiling from 
 morning till night for a few paltry farthings, while neigh- 
 bor Hunks only goes quietly to bed, and dreams himself 
 into thousands before morning. Oh that I could dream 
 like him ! with what pleasure would I dig round the pan ; 
 how slyly would I carry it home ; not even my wi-fe should 
 see me; and then, oh, the pleasure of thrusting one's hand 
 into a heap of gold up to the elbow ! * 
 
 Such reflections only served to make the miller unhappy ; 
 he discontinued his former assiduity ; he was quite dis- 
 gusted with small gains, and his customers began to for- 
 sake him. Every day he repeated the wish, and every 
 night laid himself down in order to dream. Fortune, 
 that was for a long time unkind, at last, however, seemed 
 to smile upon his distresses, and indulged him with the 
 wished-for vision. He dreamed, that under a certain part 
 of the foundation of his mill there was concealed a mon- 
 strous pan of gold and diamonds, buried deep in the 
 ground, and covered with a large flat stone. He rose up, 
 thanked the stars that were at last pleased to take pity on 
 his sufferings, and concealed his good luck from every per- 
 son, as is usual in money dreams, in order to have the 
 vision repeated the two succeeding nights, by which he 
 should be certain of its veracity. His wishes in this also 
 were answered ; he still dreamed of the same pan of 
 money, in the very same place. 
 
 Now, therefore, it was past a doubt ; so, getting up 
 early the third morning, he repairs alone, with a mattock 
 in his hand, to the mill, and began to undermine that part 
 of the wall which the vision directed. The first omen of 
 success that he met was a broken mug ; digging still 
 deeper, he turns up a house tile, quite new and entire. 
 At last, after much digging, he came to the broad flat 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 367 
 
 stone, but then so large, that it was beyond one man's 
 strength to remove it. "Here," cried he, in raptures, to 
 himself, " here it is ! under this stone there is room for a 
 very large pan of diamonds indeed ! I must e'en go home 
 to my wife, and tell her the whole affair, and get her to 
 assist me in turning it up." Away therefore he goes, and 
 acquaints his wife with every circumstance of their good 
 fortune. Her raptures on this occasion may easily be im- 
 agined ; she flew round his neck, and embraced him in an 
 agony of joy : but those transports, however, did not de- 
 lay their eagerness to know the exact sum ; returning, 
 therefore, speedily together to the place where Whang had 
 been digging, there they found — not indeed the expected 
 treasure, but the mill, their only support, undermined and 
 fallen. — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXII 
 
 From I/IBn Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Presi- 
 dent OF the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin in 
 China 
 
 THE people of I/ondon are as fond of walking as our 
 friends at Pekin of riding ; one of the principal en- 
 tertainments of the citizens here in summer is to re- 
 pair about nightfall to a garden not far from town, where 
 they walk about, show their best clothes and best faces, 
 and listen to a concert provided for the occasion. 
 
 I accepted an invitation a few evenings ago from my 
 old friend, the Man in Black, to be one of a party that 
 was to sup there ; and at the appointed hour waited upon 
 him at his lodgings. There I found the company as- 
 sembled, and expecting my arrival. Our party consisted 
 of my friend, in superlative finery, his stockings rolled, a 
 black velvet waistcoat, which was formerly new, and a 
 gray wig combed down in imitation of hair; a pawn- 
 broker's widow, of whom, by the by, my friend was a 
 professed admirer, dressed out in green damask, with three 
 gold rings on every finger; Mr. Tibbs, the second-rate beau 
 I have formerly described; together with his lady, in 
 
368 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 flimsy silk, dirty gauze instead of linen, and an hat as big 
 as an umbrella. 
 
 Our first difficulty was in settling how we should set out. 
 Mrs. Tibbs had a natural aversion to the water, and the 
 widow, being a little in flesh, as warmly protested against 
 walking ; a coach was therefore agreed upon ; which being 
 too small to carry five, Mr. Tibbs consented to sit in his 
 wife's lap. 
 
 In this manner, therefore, we set forward, being enter- 
 tained by the way with the bodings of Mr. Tibbs, who as- 
 sured us he did not expect to see a single creature for the 
 evening above the degree of a cheesemonger ; that this was 
 the last night of the gardens, and that consequently we 
 should be pestered with the nobility and gentry from 
 Thames Street and Crooked I^ane ; with several other pro- 
 phetic ejaculations, probably inspired by the uneasiness of 
 his situation. 
 
 The illuminations began before we arrived, and I must 
 confess, that upon entering the gardens I found every sense 
 overpaid with more than expected pleasure : the lights 
 everywhere glimmering through the scarcely moving trees 
 — the full-bodied concert bursting on the stillness of the 
 night — the natural concert of the birds, in the more retired 
 part of the grove, vying with that which was formed by 
 art — the company gayly dressed, looking satisfaction — and 
 the tables spread with various delicacies, — all conspired to 
 fill my imagination with the visionary happiness of the 
 Arabian lawgiver, and lifted me into an ecstasy of admira- 
 tion. "Head of Confucius," cried I to my friend, "this is 
 fine ! this unites rural beauty with courtly magnificence I if 
 we except the virgins of immortality, that hang on every 
 tree, and may be plucked at every desire, I do not see how 
 this falls short of Mahomet's Paradise !" — "As for virgins," 
 cries my friend, "it is true they are a fruit that do not 
 much abound in our gardens here ; but if ladies, as plenty 
 as apples in autumn, and as complying as any Houri of 
 them all, can content you, I fancy we have no need to go 
 to heaven for Paradise." 
 
 I was going to second his remarks, when we were called 
 to a consultation by Mr. Tibbs and the rest of the com- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 369 
 
 pany, to know in what manner we were to lay out the 
 evening to the greatest advantage. Mrs. Tibbs was for 
 keeping the genteel walk of the garden, where, she observed, 
 there was always the very best company ; the widow, on 
 the contrary, who came but once a season, was for secur- 
 ing a good standing place to see the waterworks, which 
 she assured us would begin in less than an hour at 
 farthest: a dispute therefore began, and as it was managed 
 between two of very opposite characters, it threatened to 
 grow more bitter at every reply. Mrs. Tibbs wondered how 
 people could pretend to know the polite world, who had 
 received all their rudiments of breeding behind a counter : 
 to which the other replied, that though some people sat 
 behind counters, yet they could sit at the head of their 
 own tables too, and carve three good dishes of hot meat 
 whenever they thought proper ; which was more than some 
 people could say for themselves, that hardly knew a rabbit 
 and onions from a green goose and gooseberries. 
 
 It is hard to say where this might have ended, had not 
 the husband, who probably knew the impetuosity of his 
 wife's disposition, proposed to end the dispute by adjourn- 
 ing to a box, and try if there was anything to be had for 
 supper that was supportable. To this we all consented ; 
 but here a new distress arose: Mr. and Mrs. Tibbs would 
 sit in none but a genteel box — a box where they might 
 see and be seen — one, as they expressed it, in the very 
 focus of public view ; but such a box was not easy to 
 be obtained, for though we were perfectly convinced of our 
 own gentility, and the gentility of our appearance, yet we 
 found it a difficult matter to persuade the keepers of the 
 boxes to be of our opinion ; they chose to reserve genteel 
 boxes for what they judged more genteel company. 
 
 At last, however, we were fixed, though somewhat ob- 
 scurely, and supplied with the usual entertainment of the 
 place.' The widow found the supper excellent, but Mrs. 
 Tibbs thought everything detestable. «Come, come, my 
 dear," cries the husband, by way of consolation, « to be 
 sure we can't find such dressing here as we have at I<ord 
 Crump's or Lady Crimp's ; but, for Vauxhall dressing, it 
 is pretty good: it is not their victuals, indeed, I find fault 
 24 
 
370 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 with, but their wine; their wine," cries he, drinking off a 
 glass, "indeed, is most abominable." 
 
 By this last contradiction the widow was fairly conquered 
 in point of politeness. She perceived now that she had no 
 pretensions in the world to taste ; her very senses were 
 vulgar, since she had praised detestable custard, and smacked 
 at wretched wine ; she was therefore content to yield the 
 victory, and for the rest of the night to listen and improve. 
 It is true, she would now and then forget herself, and 
 confess she was pleased ; but they soon brought her 
 back again to miserable refinement. She once praised the 
 painting of the box in which we were sitting, but was 
 soon convinced that such paltry pieces ought rather to ex- 
 cite horror than satisfaction : she ventured again to com- 
 mend one of the singers, but Mrs. Tibbs soon let her know, 
 in the style of a connoisseur, that the singer in question 
 had neither ear, voice, nor judgment. 
 
 Mr. Tibbs, now willing to prove that his wife's preten- 
 sions to music were just, entreated her to favor the com- 
 pany with a song ; but to this she gave a positive denial — 
 "for you know very well, my dear," says she, "that I am 
 not in voice to-day, and when one's voice is not equal to 
 one's judgment, what signifies singing? besides, as there is 
 no accompaniment, it would be but spoiling music." All 
 these excuses, however, were overruled by the rest of the 
 company, who, though one would think they already had 
 music enough, joined in the entreaty. But particularly the 
 widow, now willing to convince the company of her breed- 
 ing, pressed so warmly, that she seemed determined to take 
 no refusal. At last, then, the lady compUed, and after 
 humming for some minutes, began with such a voice, and such 
 affectation, as, I could perceive, gave but little satisfaction to 
 any except her husband. He sat with rapture in his eye, 
 and beat time with his hand on the table. 
 
 You must observe, my friend, that it is the custom of 
 this country, when a lady or gentleman happens to sing, 
 for the company to sit as mute and motionless as statues. 
 Every feature, every limb, must seem to correspond in fixed 
 attention ; and while the song continues, they are to re- 
 main in a state of universal petrifaction. In this mortify- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 371 
 
 ing situation we had continued for some time, listening to 
 the song, and looking with tranquillity, when the master of 
 the box came to inform us, that the waterworks were go- 
 ing to begin. At this information I could instantly per- 
 ceive the widow bounce from her seat ; but correcting her- 
 self, she sat down again, repressed by motives of good 
 breeding. Mrs. Tibbs, who had seen the waterworks an 
 hundred times, resolving not to be interrupted, continued 
 her song without any share of mercy, nor had the smallest 
 pity on our impatience. The widow's face, I own, gave 
 me high entertainment ; in it I could plainly read the 
 struggle she felt between good breeding and curiosity : she 
 talked of the waterworks the whole evening before, and 
 seemed to have come merely in order to see them ; but 
 then she could not bounce out in the very middle of a 
 song, for that would be forfeiting all pretensions to high 
 life, or high-lived company, ever after. Mrs. Tibbs, there- 
 fore, kept on singing, and we continued to listen, till at 
 last, when the song was just concluded, the waiter came to 
 inform us that the waterworks were over. 
 
 " The waterworks over ! * cried the widow ; " the water- 
 works over already ! that's impossible ! they can't be over 
 so soon!" — "It is not my business," replied the fellow, 
 "to contradict your ladyship; I'll run again and see." He 
 went, and soon returned with a confirmation of the dismal 
 tidings. No ceremony could now bind my friend's disap- 
 pointed mistress. She testified her displeasure in the 
 openest manner; in short, she now began to find fault in 
 turn, and at last insisted upon going home, just at the 
 time that Mr. and Mrs. Tibbs assured the company that 
 the polite hours were going to begin, and that the ladies 
 would instantaneously be entertained with the horns. — 
 Adieu. 
 
372 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 LETTER XXIII 
 
 From Libn Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Presi- 
 dent OP THE Cbremoniai, Academy at Pekin in 
 China 
 
 THE shops of I<ondon are as well furnished as those of 
 Pekin. Those of I^ondon have a picture hung at 
 their door, informing the passengers what they have 
 to sell, as those at Pekin have a board to assure the buyer 
 that they have no intent to cheat him. 
 
 I was this morning to buy silk for a nightcap. Imme- 
 diately upon entering the mercer's shop, the master and his 
 two men, with wigs plastered with powder, appeared to ask 
 my commands. They were certainly the civillest people 
 alive ; if I but looked, they flew to the place where I cast 
 my eye ; every motion of mine sent them running round 
 the whole shop for my satisfaction. I informed them that I 
 wanted what was good, and they showed me not less than 
 forty pieces, and each was better than the former, the pret- 
 tiest pattern in nature, and the fittest in the world for 
 nightcaps. "My very good friend," said I to the mercer, 
 " you must not pretend to instruct me in silks ; I know these 
 in particular to be no better than your mere flimsy bun- 
 gees. " — " That may be, " cried the mercer, who, I afterward 
 found, had never contradicted a man in his life : " I cannot 
 pretend to say but they may ; but I can assure you, my 
 I/ady Trail has had a sack from this piece this very morn- 
 ing." — "But, friend," said I, "though my lady has chosen 
 a sack from it, I see no necessity that I should wear it for 
 a nightcap." — "That may be," returned he again; "yet 
 what becomes a pretty lady, will at any time look well 
 on a handsome gentleman." This short compliment was 
 thrown in so very seasonably upon my ugly face, that even 
 though I disliked the silk, I desired him to cut me off the 
 pattern of a nightcap. 
 
 While this business was consigned to his journeymen, the 
 master himself took down some pieces of silk still finer than 
 any I had yet seen, and spreading them before me, "There,* 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 373 
 
 cries he, " there's beauty ; my I,ord Snakeskin has bespoke 
 the fellow to this for the birthnight this very morning ; it 
 would look charmingly in waistcoats." — "But I don't want 
 a waistcoat," replied I. — "Not want a waistcoat!" returned 
 the mercer : " then I would advise you to buy one ; when 
 waistcoats are wanted, you may depend upon it they will 
 come dear. Always buy before you want, and you are sure 
 to be well used, as they say in Cheapside. " There was so 
 much justice in his advice, that I could not refuse taking 
 it ; besides, the silk, which was really a good one, increased 
 the temptation ; so I gave orders for that too. 
 
 As I was waiting to have my bargains measured and cut 
 which, I know not how, they executed but slowly, during 
 the interval the mercer entertained me with the modem 
 manner of some of the nobility receiving company in their 
 morning gowns. " Perhaps, sir, " adds he, " you have a 
 mind to see what kind of silk is universally worn." With- 
 out waiting for my reply, he spreads a piece before me, 
 which might be reckoned beautiful even in China. "If the 
 nobility," continues he, "were to know I sold this to any 
 under a Right Honorable, I should certainly lose their cus- 
 tom ; you see, my lord, it is at once rich, tasty, and quite 
 the thing." — " I am no lord," interrupted I. — " I beg pardon," 
 cried he ; " but be pleased to remember, when you intend 
 buying a morning gown, that you had an offer from me of 
 something worth money. Conscience, sir, conscience is my 
 way of dealing ; you may buy a morning gown now, or 
 you may stay till they become dearer and less fashionable ; 
 but it is not my business to advise." In short, most rev- 
 erend Fum, he persuaded me to buy a morning gown also, 
 and would probably have persuaded me to have bought half 
 the goods in his shop, if I had stayed long enough, or was 
 furnished with sufficient money. 
 
 Upon returning home, I could not help reflecting, with 
 some astonishment, how this very man, with such a confined 
 education and capacity, was yet capable of turning me as he 
 thought proper, and molding me to his inclinations. I knew he 
 was only answering his own purposes, even while he attempted 
 to appear solicitous about mine : yet, by a voluntary infat- 
 uation, a sort of passion, compounded of vanity and good 
 
374 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 nature, I walked into the snare with my eyes open, and put 
 myself to future pain in order to give him immediate pleas- 
 ure. The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the 
 instinct of animals ; it is diffused in but a very narrow 
 sphere, but within that circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, 
 and success. — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXIV 
 To THE Same 
 
 1HAVE as yet given you but a short and imperfect de- 
 scription of the ladies of England. Woman, my friend, 
 is a subject not easily understood, even in China ; what, 
 therefore, can be expected from my knowledge of the sex, 
 in a country where they are universally allowed to be rid- 
 dles, and I but a stranger? 
 
 To confess a truth, I was afraid to begin the description 
 lest the sex should undergo some new revolution before it 
 was finished ; and my picture should thus become old be- 
 fore it could well be said to have ever been new. To-day 
 they are lifted upon stilts ; to-morrow they lower their 
 heels, and raise their heads : their clothes at one time are 
 bloated out with whalebone ; at present they have laid their 
 hoops aside, and are become as slim as mermaids. All, all 
 is in a state of continual fluctuation, from the mandarin's 
 wife who rattles through the street in her chariot, to the 
 humble sempstress who clatters over the pavement in iron- 
 shod pattens. 
 
 What chiefly distinguishes the sex at present is the train. 
 As a lady's quality or fashion was once determined here by 
 the circumference of her hoop, both are now measured by 
 the length of her tail. Women of moderate fortunes are 
 contented with tails moderately long ; but ladies of true taste 
 and distinction set no bounds to their ambition in this par- 
 ticular. I am told the lady mayoress, on days of ceremony, 
 carries one longer than a bellwether of Bantam, whose 
 tail, you know, is trundled along in a wheelbarrow. 
 
 Sun of China, what contradictions do we find in this 
 strange world ! not only the people of different countries 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 375 
 
 think in opposition to each other, but the inhabitants of 
 a single island are often found inconsistent with them- 
 selves. Would you believe it? this very people, my Fum, 
 who are so fond of seeing their women with long tails, at 
 the same time dock their horses to the very rump ! 
 
 But you may easily guess, that I am no ways displeased 
 with a fashion which tends to increase a demand for the 
 commodities of the East, and is so very beneficial to the 
 country in which I was born. Nothing can be better calcu- 
 lated to increase the price of silk than the present manner 
 of dressing. A lady's train is not bought but at some ex- 
 pense, and after it has swept the public walks for a very 
 few evenings, is fit to be worn no longer : more silk must 
 be bought in order to repair the breach, and some ladies of 
 peculiar economy are thus found to patch up their tails 
 eight or ten times in a season. This unnecessary consump- 
 tion may introduce poverty here, but then we shall be the 
 richer for it in China. 
 
 The Man in Black, who is a professed enemy to this 
 manner of ornamenting the tail, assures me there are num- 
 berless inconveniences attending it, and that a lady dressed 
 up to the fashion is as much a cripple as any in Nan- 
 kin. But his chief indignation is leveled at those who dress 
 in this manner, without a proper fortune to support it. He 
 assures me, that he has known some who would have a tail 
 though they wanted a petticoat ; and others, who, without 
 any other pretensions, fancied they became ladies merely 
 from the addition of three superfluous yards of ragged silk. 
 " I know a thrifty good woman, " continues he, " who, 
 thinking herself obliged to carry a train like her betters, 
 never walks from home without the uneasy apprehen- 
 sion of wearing it out too soon : every excursion she makes 
 gives her new anxiety ; and her train is every bit as im- 
 portunate, and wounds her peace as much as the bladder we 
 sometimes see tied to the tail of a cat." 
 
 Nay, he ventures to afiirm, that a train may often bring 
 a lady into the most critical circumstances: "for, should a 
 rude fellow," says he, "offer to come up to ravish a kiss, 
 and the lady attempt to avoid it, in retiring she must 
 necessarily tread upon her train, and thus fall fairly upon 
 
376 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 her back ; by which means, every one knows — her clothes 
 may be spoiled." 
 
 The ladies here make no scruple to laugh at the small- 
 ness of a Chinese slipper ; but I fancy our wives in China 
 would have a more real cause of laughter, could they but 
 see the immoderate length of an European train. Head of 
 Confucius ! to view a human being crippling herself with a 
 great unwieldy tail for our diversion. Backward she cannot 
 go, forward she must move but slowly ; and if ever she at- 
 tempts to turn round, it must be in a circle not smaller 
 than that described by the wheeling crocodile, when it 
 would face an assailant. And yet to think that all this 
 confers importance and majesty ! to think that a lad}' ac- 
 quires additional respect from fifteen yards of trailing taf- 
 fety ! I cannot contain — ha ! ha ! ha ! this is certainly a 
 remnant of European barbarity : the female Tartar, dressed 
 in sheep skins, is in far more convenient drapery. Their 
 own writers have sometimes inveighed against the ab- 
 surdity of this fashion ; but perhaps it has never been ridi- 
 culed so well as upon the Italian theatre, where Pasquariello 
 being engaged to attend on the Countess of Femambroco, 
 having one of his hands employed in carrying her muff, 
 and the other her lapdog, he bears her train majestically 
 along, by sticking it in the waistband of his breeches. — 
 Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXV 
 
 To THE Same 
 
 OF ALL the places of amusement where gentlemen and 
 ladies are entertained, I have not been yet to visit 
 Newmarket. This, I am told, is a large field, 
 where, upon certain occasions, three or four horses are 
 brought together, then set a-running, and that horse which 
 runs swiftest wins the wager. 
 
 This is reckoned a very polite and fashionable amuse- 
 ment here, much more followed by the nobility than par- 
 tridge fighting at Java, or paper kites in Madagascar ; 
 several of the great here, I am told, understand as much 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 377 
 
 of farriery as their grooms ; and a horse with any share of 
 merit can never want a patron among the nobility. 
 
 We have a description of this entertainment almost every 
 day in some of the gazettes, as for instance : " On such a 
 day the Give and Take Plate was run for between his 
 Grace's Crab, his Lordship's Periwinkle, and Squire 
 Smackem's Slamerkin. All rode their own horses. There 
 was the greatest concourse of nobility that has been known 
 here for several seasons. The odds were in favor of Crab 
 in the beginning; but Slamerkin, after the first heat, 
 seemed to have the match hollow : however, it was soon 
 seen that Periwinkle improved in wind, which at last 
 turned out accordingly ; Crab was run to a standstill, 
 Slamerkin was knocked up, and Periwinkle was brought 
 in with universal applause." Thus, you see. Periwinkle 
 received universal applause, and, no doubt, his Lordship 
 came in for some share of that praise which was so liber- 
 ally bestowed upon Periwinkle. Sun of China ! how glori- 
 ous must the senator appear in his cap and leather 
 breeches, his whip crossed in his mouth, and thus coming 
 to the goal, among the shouts of grooms, jockeys, pimps, 
 Stable-bred dukes, and degraded generals ! 
 
 From the description of this princely amusement now 
 transcribed, and from the great veneration I have for the 
 characters of its principal promoters, I make no doubt but 
 I shall look upon a horse race with becoming reverence, 
 predisposed as I am by a similar amusement, of which I 
 have lately been a spectator ; for just now I happened to 
 have an opportunity of being present at a cart race. 
 
 Whether this contention between three carts of different 
 parishes was promoted by a subscription among the no- 
 bility, or whether the grand jury, in council assembled, 
 had gloriously combined to encourage plaustral merit, I 
 cannot take upon me to determine ; but certain it is, the 
 whole was conducted with the utmost regularity and 
 decorum, and the company, which made a brilliant appear- 
 ance, were universally of opinion, that the sport was high, 
 the running fine, and the riders influenced by no bribe. 
 
 It was run on the road from I^ndon to a village called 
 Brentford, between a turnip-cart, a dust-cart, and a dung- 
 
378 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 cart ; each of the owners condescending to mount and be 
 his own driver. The odds at starting were, Dust against 
 Dung, five to four ; but, after half a mile's going, the 
 knowing ones found themselves all on the wrong side, and 
 it was Turnip against the field, brass to silver. 
 
 Soon, however, the contest became more doubtful ; Tur- 
 nip indeed kept the way, but it was perceived that Dung 
 had better bottom. The road re-echoed with the shouts of 
 the spectators. " Dung against Turnip ! Turnip against 
 Dung ! '' was now the universal cry ; neck and neck ; one 
 rode lighter, but the other had more judgment. I could 
 not but particularly observe the ardor with which the fair 
 sex espoused the cause of the different riders on this occa- 
 sion : one was charmed with the unwashed beauties of 
 Dung; another was captivated with the patibulary aspect 
 of Turnip ; while, in the meantime, unfortunate gloomy 
 Dust, who came whipping behind, was cheered by the en- 
 couragement of some, and pity of all. 
 
 The contention now continued for some time, without a 
 possibility of determining to whom victory designed the 
 prize. The winning post appeared in view, and he who 
 drove the turnip-cart assured himself of success ; and suc- 
 cessful he might have been, had his horse been as ambi- 
 tious as he ; but upon approaching a turn from the road, 
 which led homewards, the horse fairly stood still, and re- 
 fused to move a foot farther. The dung-cart had scarce 
 time to enjoy this temporary triumph, when it was pitched 
 headlong into a ditch by the wayside, and the rider left 
 to wallow in congenial mud. Dust, in the meantime, soon 
 came up, and not being far from the post, came in, amid 
 the shouts and acclamations of all the spectators, and 
 greatly caressed by all the quality of Brentford. Fortune 
 was kind only to one, who ought to have been favorable to 
 all ; each had peculiar merit, each labored hard to earn the 
 prize, and each richly deserved the cart he drove. 
 
 I do not know whether this description may not have 
 anticipated that which I intended giving of Newmarket. I 
 am told, there is little else to be seen even there. There 
 may be some minute differences in the dress of the specta- 
 tors, but none at all in their understandings : the quality of 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 379 
 
 Brentford are as remarkable for politeness and delicacy as 
 the breeders of Newmarket. The quality of Brentford 
 drive their own carts, and the honorable " fraternity at New- 
 market ride their own horses. In short, the matches in 
 one place are as rational as those in the other; and it is 
 more than probable, that turnips, dust, and dung are all 
 that can be found to furnish out description in either. 
 
 Forgive me, my friend ; but a person like me, bred up in 
 a philosophic seclusion, is apt to regard perhaps with too 
 much asperity those occurrences which sink man below his 
 station in nature, and diminish the intrinsic value of hu- 
 manity. — Adieu. 
 
 I.KTTER XXVI 
 From Fum Hoam to I^ien Chi Ai,tangi 
 
 You tell me the people of Kurope are wise ; but where 
 lies their wisdom? You say they are valiant too; 
 yet I have some reasons to doubt of their valor. 
 They are engaged in war among each other, yet apply to 
 the Russians, their neighbors and ours, for assistance. Cul- 
 tivating such an alliance argues at once imprudence and 
 timidity. All subsidies paid for such an aid, is strengthen- 
 ing the Russians, already too powerful, and weakening the 
 employers, already exhausted by intestine commotions. 
 
 I cannot avoid beholding the Russian empire as the nat- 
 ural enemy of the more western parts of Furope ; as an 
 enemy already possessed of great strength, and, from the 
 nature of the government, every day threatening to become 
 more powerful. This extensive empire, which, both in 
 Europe and Asia, occupies almost a third of the old world, 
 was, about two centuries ago, divided into separate king- 
 doms and dukedoms, and, from such a division, consequently 
 feeble. Since the times, however, of Johan Basilides it has 
 increased its strength and extent ; and those untrodden for- 
 ests, those innumerable savage animals, which formerly cov- 
 ered the face of the country, are now removed, and colonies 
 of mankind planted in their room. A kingdom thus enjoy- 
 ing peace internally, possessed of an unbounded extent of 
 
38o GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 dominion, and learning the military art at the expense of 
 others abroad, must every day grow more powerful : and it 
 is probable we shall hear Russia, in future times, as for- 
 merly, called the Offidna Gentium. 
 
 It was long the wish of Peter, their great monarch, to 
 have a fort in some of the western parts of Europe : many 
 of his schemes and treaties were directed to this end, but, 
 happily for Europe, he failed in them all. A fort in the 
 power of this people would be like the possession of a 
 floodgate; and whenever ambition, interest, or necessity 
 prompted, they might then be able to deluge the whole 
 western world with a barbarous inundation. 
 
 Believe me, my friend, I cannot sufliciently contemn the 
 politicians of Europe, who thus make this powerful people 
 arbitrators in their quarrel. The Russians are now at that 
 period between refinement and barbarity, which seems most 
 adapted to military achievement ; and if once they happen 
 to get footing in the western parts of Europe, it is not the 
 feeble efforts of the sons of effeminacy and dissension that 
 can serve to remove them. The fertile valley and soft 
 climate will ever be sufficient inducements to draw whole 
 myriads from their native deserts, the trackless wild, or 
 snowy mountain. 
 
 History, experience, reason, nature, expand the book of 
 wisdom before the eyes of mankind, but they will not read. 
 We have seen with terror a winged phalanx of famished 
 locusts, each singly contemptible, but from multitude be- 
 come hideous, cover like clouds the face of day, and 
 threaten the whole world with ruin. We have seen them 
 settling on the fertile plains of India and Egypt, destroy- 
 ing in an instant the labors and the hopes of nations ; 
 sparing neither the fruit of the earth nor the verdure of 
 the fields, and changing into a frightful desert landscapes 
 of once luxuriant beauty. We have seen myriads of ants 
 issuing together from the southern desert, like a torrent 
 whose source was inexhaustible, succeeding each other with- 
 out end, and renewing their destroyed forces with unwear- 
 ied perseverance, bringing desolation wherever they came, 
 banishing men and animals, and, when destitute of all sub- 
 sistence, in heaps infecting the wilderness which they had 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 381 
 
 made ! lyike these have been the migrations of men. 
 When as yet savage, and almost resembling their brute 
 partners in the forest, subject like them only to the in- 
 stincts of nature, and directed by hunger alone in the 
 choice of an abode, how have we seen whole armies start- 
 ing wild at once from their forests and their dens ! Goths, 
 Huns, Vandals, Saracens, Turks, Tartars, myriads of men, 
 animals in human form, without country, without name, 
 without laws, overpowering by numbers all opposition, rav- 
 aging cities, overturning empires, and, after having destroyed 
 whole nations, and spread extensive desolation, how have 
 we seen them sink oppressed by some new enemy more 
 barbarous and even more unknown than they ! — Adieu. 
 
 I.ETTER XXVII 
 From Likn Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Prbsi- 
 
 DENT OF THB CBREMONIAI, AcADEMY AT PekIN IN 
 
 China 
 
 As THE instruction of the fair sex in this country is 
 entirely committed to the care of foreigners ; as their 
 language masters, music masters, hair frizzers, and 
 governesses, are all from abroad, I had some intentions of 
 opening a female academy myself, and made no doubt, as 
 I was quite a foreigner, of meeting a favorable reception. 
 
 In this I intended to instruct the ladies in all the con- 
 jugal mysteries ; wives should be taught the art of manag- 
 ing husbands, and maids the skill of properly choosing 
 them ; I would teach a wife how far she might venture to 
 be sick, without giving disgust ; she should be acquainted 
 with the great benefits of the cholic in the stomach, and 
 all the thorough-bred insolence of fashion ; maids should 
 learn the secret of nicely distinguishing every competitor ; 
 they should be able to know the difference between a ped- 
 ant and a scholar, a citizen and a prig, a squire and his 
 horse, a beau and his monkey; but chiefly, they should be 
 taught the art of managing their smiles, from the con- 
 temptuous simper to the long laborious laugh. 
 
382 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 But I have discontinued the project ; for what would 
 signify teaching ladies the manner of governing or choos- 
 ing husbands, when marriage is at present so much out of 
 fashion, that a lady is very well off who can get any hus- 
 band at all ? Celibacy now prevails in every rank of life ; 
 the streets are crowded with old bachelors, and the houses 
 with ladies who have refused good offers, and are never 
 likely to receive any for the future. 
 
 The only advice, therefore, I could give the fair sex, as 
 things stand at present, is to get husbands as fast as they 
 can. There is certainly nothing in the whole creation, not 
 even Babylon in ruins, more truly deplorable than a lady 
 in the virgin bloom of sixty-three, or a battered unmar- 
 ried beau, who squibs about from place to place, showing 
 his pigtail wig and his ears. The one appears to my 
 imagination in the form of a double nightcap or a roll of 
 pomatum, the other in the shape of an electuary or a box 
 of pills. 
 
 I would once more, therefore, advise the ladies to get 
 husbands. I would desire them not to discard an old lover 
 without very sufficient reasons, nor treat the new with ill- 
 nature till they know him false ; let not prudes allege the 
 falseness of the sex, coquettes the pleasures of long court- 
 ship, or parents the necessary preliminaries of penny for 
 penny. I have reasons that would silence even a casuist 
 in this particular. In the first place, therefore, I divide 
 the subject into fifteen heads, and then sic argumentor, 
 But not to give you and myself the spleen, be con- 
 tented at present with an Indian tale. 
 
 " In a winding of the river Amidar, just before it falls 
 into the Caspian Sea, there lies an island unfrequented by 
 the inhabitants of the continent. In this seclusion, blest 
 with all that wild uncultivated nature could bestow, lived 
 a princess and her two daughters. She had been wrecked 
 upon the coast while her children as yet were infants, who, 
 of consequence, though grown up, were entirely unac- 
 quainted with man. Yet, inexperienced as the young 
 ladies were in the opposite sex, both early discovered 
 symptoms, the one of prudery, the other of being a 
 coquette. The eldest was ever learning maxims of wis- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 383 
 
 dom and discretion from her mamma, while the youngest 
 employed all her hours in gazing at her own face in a 
 neighboring fountain. 
 
 " Their usual amusement in this solitude was fishing : 
 their mother had taught them all the secrets of the art ; 
 she showed them which were the most likely places to 
 throw out the line, what baits were most proper for the 
 various seasons, and the best manner to draw up the finny 
 prey, when they had hooked it. In this manner they 
 spent their time, easy and innocent, till one day the 
 princess, being indisposed, desired them to go and catch 
 her a sturgeon or a shark for supper, which she fancied 
 might set easy on her stomach. The daughters obeyed, 
 and clapping on a gold fish, the usual bait on those occa- 
 sions, went and sat upon one of the rocks, letting the 
 gilded hook glide down with the stream. 
 
 " On the opposite shore, farther down, at the mouth of 
 the river, lived a diver for pearls, a youth who, by long 
 habit in his trade, was almost grown amphibious; so that 
 he could remain whole hours at the bottom of the water, 
 without ever fetching breath. He happened to be at that 
 very instant diving when the ladies were fishing with the 
 gilded hook. Seeing therefore the bait, which to him had 
 the appearance of real gold, he was resolved to seize the 
 prize ; but both his hands being already filled with 
 pearl oysters, he found himself obliged to snap at it 
 with his mouth : the consequence is easily imagined ; the 
 hook, before unperceived, was instantly fastened in his 
 jaw, nor could he, with all his efforts or his floundering, 
 get free. 
 
 "'Sister,' cries the youngest princess, 'I have certainly 
 caught a monstrous fish ; I never perceived anything strug- 
 gle so at the end of my line before ; come and help me 
 to draw it in.' They both now, therefore, assisted in fish- 
 ing up the diver on shore ; but nothing could equal their 
 surprise on seeing him. ' Bless my eyes ! ' cries the prude, 
 *what have we got here? this is a very odd fish, to be 
 sure ; I never saw anything in my life look so queer : 
 what eyes, what terrible claws, what a monstrous snout ! 
 I have read of this monster somewhere before — it certainly 
 
384 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 must be a tanlang, that eats women ; let us throw it back 
 again into the sea where we found it.' 
 
 "The diver, in the meantime, stood upon the beach at 
 the end of the line, with the hook in his mouth, using 
 every art that he thought could best excite pity, and par- 
 ticularly looking extremely tender, which is usual in such 
 circumstances. The coquette, therefore, in some measure 
 influenced by the innocence of his looks, ventured to con- 
 tradict her companion. *Upon my word, sister,' says she, 
 'I see nothing in the animal so very terrible as you are 
 pleased to apprehend ; I think it may serve well enough 
 for a change. Always sharks, and sturgeons, and lobsters, 
 and crawfish, make me quite sick. I fancy a slice of this, 
 nicely grilled, and dressed up with shrimp sauce, would be 
 very pretty eating. I fancy mamma would like a bit with 
 pickles above all things in the world ; and if it should not 
 sit easy on her stomach, it will be time enough to discon- 
 tinue it when found disagreeable, you know. ' — * Horrid ! ' 
 cries the prude; 'would the girl be poisoned? I tell you 
 it is a tanlang ; I have read of it in twenty places. It is 
 everywhere described as being the most pernicious animal 
 that ever infested the ocean. I am certain it is the most 
 insidious ravenous creature in the world, and is certain de- 
 struction if taken internally.* The youngest sister was 
 now therefore obliged to submit : both assisted in draw- 
 ing the hook with some violence from the diver's jaw ; 
 and he, finding himself at liberty, bent his breast against 
 the broad wave, and disappeared in an instant. 
 
 "Just at this juncture the mother came down to the 
 beach to know the cause of her daughters' delay ; they 
 told her every circumstance, describing the monster they 
 had caught. The old lady was one of the most discreet 
 women in the world ; she was called the black-eyed princess, 
 from two black eyes she had received in her youth, being 
 a little addicted to boxing in her liquor. 'Alas, my chil- 
 dren,' cries she, 'what have you done! the fish you caught 
 was a man-fish ; one of the most tame domestic animals in 
 the world. We could have let him run and play about 
 the garden, and he would have been twenty times more 
 entertaining than our squirrel or monkey. ' — ' If that be 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 385 
 
 all,' said the young coquette, <we will fish for him again. 
 If that be all, I'll hold three toothpicks to one pound of 
 snuff, I catch him whenever I please.' Accordingly they 
 threw in their line once more, but with all their gilding, 
 and paddling, and assiduity, they could never after catch 
 the diver. In this state of solitude and disappointment 
 they continued for many years, still fishing, but without 
 success; till at last the Genius of the place, in pity to 
 their distresses, changed the prude into a shrimp, and the 
 coquette into an oyster." — Adieu. 
 
 i,ette;r XXVIII 
 
 To th:^ Same 
 
 WHEN the men of this country are once turned of 
 thirty, they regularly retire every year, at proper 
 intervals, to lie in of the spleen. The vulgar, un- 
 furnished with the luxurious comforts of the soft cushion, 
 down bed, and easy chair, are obliged, when the fit is on 
 them, to nurse it up by drinking, idleness, and ill humor. 
 In .such dispositions unhappy is the foreigner who happens 
 to cross them ; his long chin, tarnished coat, or pinched 
 hat, are sure to receive no quarter. If they meet no for- 
 eigner, however, to fight with, they are, in such cases, 
 generally content with beating each other. 
 
 The rich, as they have more sensibility, are operated 
 upon with greater violence by this disorder. Different from 
 the poor, instead of becoming more insolent, they grow 
 totally unfit for opposition. A general here, who would 
 have faced a culverin when well, if the fit be on him, shall 
 hardly find courage to snuff a candle. An admiral, who 
 could have opposed a broadside without shrinking, shall sit 
 whole days in his chamber, mobbed up in double nightcaps, 
 shuddering at the intrusive breeze, and distinguishable from 
 his wife only by his black beard and heavy eyebrows. 
 
 In the country this disorder mostly attacks the fair sex ; 
 in town it is most unfavorable to the men. A lady who 
 has pined whole years amid cooing doves and complaining 
 25 
 
386 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 nightingales, in rural retirement, shall resume all her vi- 
 vacity in one night at a city gaming-table ; her husband, 
 who roared, hunted, and got drunk at home, shall grow 
 splenetic in town in proportion to his wife's good humor. 
 Upon their arrival in London, they exchange their disorders. 
 In consequence of her parties and excursions, he puts on 
 the furred cap and scarlet stomacher, and perfectly resem- 
 bles an Indian husband, who, when his wife is safely de- 
 livered, permits her to transact business abroad, while he 
 undergoes all the formality of keeping his bed, and receiv- 
 ing all the condolence in her place. 
 
 But those who reside constantly in town, owe this disorder 
 mostly to the influence of the weather. It is impossible to 
 describe what a variety of transmutations an east wind 
 shall produce ; it has been known to change a lady of fash- 
 ion into a parlor couch ; an alderman into a plate of custards ; 
 and a dispenser of justice into a rat-trap. Even philoso- 
 phers themselves are not exempt from its influence ; it has 
 often converted a poet into a coral and bells, and a patriot 
 senator into a dumb waiter. 
 
 Some days ago I went to visit the Man in Black, and 
 entered his house with that cheerfulness which the certainty 
 of a favorable reception always inspires. Upon opening the 
 door of his apartment, I found him with the most rueful face 
 imaginable, in a morning gown and flannel nightcap, ear- 
 nestly employed in learning to blow the German flute. 
 Struck with the absurdity of a man in the decline of life 
 thus blowing away all his constitution and spirits, even 
 without the consolation of being musical, I ventured to ask 
 what could induce him to attempt learning so difficult 
 an instrument so late in life? To this he made no reply, 
 but groaning, and still holding the flute to his lips, contin- 
 ued to gaze at me for some moments very angrily, and then 
 proceeded to practice his gamut as before. After having 
 produced a variety of the most hideous tones in nature, at 
 last turning to me, he demanded, whether I did not think 
 he had made a surprising progress in two days? "You 
 see," continues he, "I have got the ambusheer already; 
 and as for fingering, my master tells me, I shall have that 
 in a few lessons more. " I was so much astonished with this 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 387 
 
 instance of inverted ambition, that I knew not wliat to 
 reply ; but soon discerned the cause of all his absurdities : 
 my friend was under a metamorphosis by the power of 
 spleen, and flute-blowing was unluckily become his adven- 
 titious passion. 
 
 In order, therefore, to banish his anxiety imperceptibly, 
 by seeming to indulge it, I began to descant on those 
 gloomy topics by which philosophers often get rid of 
 their own spleen, by communicating it : the wretchedness 
 of a man in this life ; the happiness of some wrought out 
 of the miseries of others ; the necessity that wretches should 
 expire under punishment, that rogues might enjoy affluence 
 in tranquillity : I led him on from the inhumanity of the 
 rich to the ingratitude of the beggar ; from the insincerity 
 of refinement to the fierceness of rusticity ; and at last had 
 the good fortune to restore him to his usual serenity of 
 temper, by permitting him to expatiate upon all the modes 
 of human misery. 
 
 "Some nights ago," says my friend, "sitting alone by my 
 fire, I happened to look into an account of the detection of 
 a set of men called the thief-takers. I read over the many 
 hideous cruelties of those haters of mankind, of their pre- 
 tended friendship to wretches they meant to betray, of their 
 sending men out to rob, and then hanging them. I could not 
 avoid sometimes interrupting the narrative, by crying out, 
 * Yet these are men ! ' As I went on, I was informed that 
 they had lived by this practice several years, and had been 
 enriched by the price of blood: 'And yet,' cried I, *I 
 have been sent into this world, and am desired to call these 
 men my brothers ! * I read that the very man who led the con- 
 demned wretch to the gallows, was he who falsely swore his 
 life away: 'And yet,* continued I, 'that perjurer had just 
 such a nose, such lips, such hands, and such eyes, as Newton.* 
 I at last came to the account of the wretch that was searched 
 after robbing one of the thief- takers of half-a-crown. 
 Those of the confederacy knew that he had got but that 
 single half-crown in the world ; after a long search, there- 
 fore, which they knew would be fruitless, and taking from 
 him the half-crown, which they knew was all he had, one 
 of the gang compassionately cried out, ' Alas ! poor crea- 
 
388 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 ture, let him keep all the rest he has got ; it will do him 
 service in Newgate, where we are sending him.' This was 
 an instance of such complicated guilt and hypocrisy, that I 
 threw down the book in an agony of rage, and began to 
 think with malice of all the human kind. I sat silent for 
 some minutes, and soon perceiving the ticking of my watch 
 beginning to grow noisy and troublesome, I quickly placed 
 it out of hearing, and strove to resume my serenity. But 
 the watchman soon gave me a second alarm. I had scarcely 
 recovered from this, when my peace was assaulted by the 
 wind at my window ; and when that ceased to blow, I 
 listened for death-watches in the wainscot. I now found 
 my whole system discomposed. I strove to find a resource 
 in philosophy and reason ; but what could I oppose, or 
 where direct my blow, when I could see no enemy to com- 
 bat? I saw no misery approaching, nor knew any I had 
 to fear, yet still I was miserable. Morning came ; I sought 
 for tranquillity in dissipation, sauntered from one place of 
 public resort to another, but found myself disagreeable to 
 my acquaintance, and ridiculous to others. I tried at dif- 
 ferent times dancing, fencing, and riding ; I solved geomet- 
 rical problems, shaped tobacco-stoppers, wrote verses, and 
 cut paper. At last I placed my affections on music, and 
 find, that earnest employment, if it cannot cure, at least will 
 palliate every anxiety." — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXIX 
 Erom lyiBN Chi Ai,tangi to Hingpo at Moscow 
 
 YOUR misfortunes are mine ; but, as every period of life 
 is marked with its own, you must learn to endure 
 them. Disappointed love makes the misery of youth ; 
 disappointed ambition, that of manhood ; and successless 
 avarice, that of age. These three attack us through life ; 
 and it is our duty to stand upon our guard. To love we 
 ought to oppose dissipation, and endeavor to change the ob- 
 ject of the affections ; to ambition, the happiness of indo- 
 lence and obscurity ; and to avarice, the fear of soon dying. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 389 
 
 These are the shields with which we should arm ourselves ; 
 and thus make every scene of life, if not pleasing, at least 
 supportable. 
 
 Men complain of not finding a place of repose. They are 
 in the wrong : they have it for seeking. "What they shotdd 
 indeed complain of, is that the heart is an enemy to that 
 very repose they seek. To themselves alone should they 
 impute their discontent. They seek within the short span 
 of life to satisfy a thousand desires, each of which alone is in- 
 satiable. One month passes, and another comes on ; the 
 year ends, and then begins ; but man is still unchanging in 
 folly, still blindly continuing in prejudice. To the wise 
 man every climate and every soil is pleasing ; to him a par- 
 terre of flowers is the famous valley of gold ; to him a little 
 brook the fountain of the young peach trees ; to such a 
 man the melody of birds is more ravishing than the har- 
 mony of a full concert ; and the tincture of the cloud pref- 
 erable to the touch of the finest pencil. 
 
 The life of man is a journey ; a journey that must be 
 traveled, however bad the roads or the accommodation. If 
 in the beginning it is found dangerous, narrow, and diflS- 
 cult, it must either grow better in the end, or we shall by 
 custom learn to bear its inequality. 
 
 But, though I see you incapable of penetrating into grand 
 principles, attend at least to a simile, adapted to every ap- 
 prehension. I am mounted upon a wretched ass, I see 
 another man before me upon a sprightly horse, at which 
 I find some uneasiness. I look behind me and see num- 
 bers on foot, stooping under heavy burdens ; let me learn 
 to pity their estate, and thank Heaven for my own. 
 
 Shingfu, when under misfortunes, would in the beginning 
 weep like a child ; but he soon recovered his former tran- 
 quillity. After indulging grief for a few days, he would be- 
 come, as usual, the most merry old man in all the province 
 of Shansi. About the time that his wife died, his posses- 
 sions were all consumed by fire, and his only son sold into 
 captivity ; Shingfu grieved for one day, and the next went 
 to dance at a mandarin's door for his dinner. The com- 
 pany were surprised to see the old man so merry, when 
 suffering such great losses ; and the mandarin himself 
 
390 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 coming out, asked him, how he, who had grieved so much 
 and given way to calamity the day before, could now be 
 so cheerful? "You ask me one question, » cries the old 
 man ; " let me answer by asking another : Which is the most 
 durable, a hard thing, or a soft thing; that which resists, 
 or that which makes no resistance?'* — "A hard thing, to 
 be sure,* replied the mandarin. "There you are wrong,* 
 returned Shingfu. " I am now four score years old ; and, 
 if you look in my mouth, you will find that I have lost 
 all my teeth, but not a bit of my tongue." — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXX 
 
 From Lien Chi Ai,tangi to Fum Hoam, First Presi- 
 dent OF THE Ceremonial Academy at Pekin in 
 China 
 
 THE manner of grieving for our departed friends in 
 China is very difEerent from that of Europe. The 
 mourning color of Europe is black ; that of China 
 white. When a parent or relation dies here — for they 
 seldom mourn for friends — it is only clapping on a 
 suit of sables, grimacing it for a few days, and all, soon 
 forgotten, goes on as before ; not a single creature missing 
 the deceased, except perhaps a favorite housekeeper or favor- 
 ite cat. 
 
 On the contrary, with us in China it is a very serious 
 affair. The piety with which I have seen you behave on 
 one of these occasions, should never be forgotten. I re- 
 member it was upon the death of thy grandmother's maiden 
 sister. The coffin was exposed in the principal hall, in pub- 
 lic view. Before it were placed the figures of eunuchs, 
 horses, tortoises, and other animals, in attitudes of grief 
 and respect. The more distant relations of the old lady, 
 and I among the number, came to pay our compliments of 
 condolence, and to salute the deceased after the manner of 
 our country. We had scarce presented our wax candles 
 and perfumes, and given the howl of departure, when, 
 crawling on his belly from under a curtain, out came the 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 391 
 
 reverend Fum Hoam himself, in all the dismal solemnity of 
 distress. Your looks were set for sorrow; your clothing 
 consisted in a hempen bag tied round the neck with a 
 string. For two long months did this mourning continue. 
 By night you lay stretched on a single mat, and sat on the 
 stool of discontent by day. Pious man ! who could thus set 
 an example of sorrow and decorum to our country. Pious 
 country ! where, if we do not grieve at the departure of our 
 friends for their sakes, at least we are taught to regret them 
 for our own. 
 
 All is very different here ; amazement all ! What sort of 
 people am I got amongst? Fum, thou son of Fo, what 
 sort of people am I got amongst? No crawling round the 
 coffin; no dressing up in hempen bags; no lying on mats, 
 or sitting on stools ! Gentlemen here shall put on first 
 mourning with as sprightly an air as if preparing for a 
 birthnight ; and widows shall actually dress for another 
 husband in their weeds for the former. The best jest of 
 all is, that our merry mourners clap bits of muslin on their 
 sleeves, and these are called wbspers, weeping muslin ! alas, 
 alas, very sorrowful truly ! f bese weepers, then it seems, 
 are to bear the whole burden of the distress. 
 
 But I have had the strongest instance of this contrast, 
 this tragi-comical behavior in distress, upon a recent oc- 
 casion. Their king, whose departure though sudden was 
 not unexpected, died after a reign of many j'ears. His age 
 and uncertain state of health served, in some measure, to 
 diminish the sorrow of his subjects ; and their expectations 
 from his successor seemed to balance their minds between 
 uneasiness and satisfaction. But how ought they to have 
 behaved on such an occasion ? Surely they ought rather to have 
 endeavored to testify their gratitudb to their deceased 
 friend, than to proclaim their hopes of the future ! Sure, 
 even the successor must suppose their love to wear the face 
 of adulation, which so quickly changed the object ! How- 
 ever, the very same day on which the old king died they made 
 rejoicings for the new. 
 
 For my part, I have no conception of this new manner 
 of mourning and rejoicing in a breath ; of being merry and 
 sad ; of mixing a funeral procession with a jig and a bon- 
 
392 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 fire. At least, it would have been just, that they who flat- 
 tered the king while living for virtues which he had not 
 should lament him dead for those he really had. 
 
 In this universal cause for national distress, as I had no in- 
 terest myself, so it is but natural to suppose I felt no real affic- 
 tion. "In all the losses of our friends," says an European 
 philosopher, "we first consider how much our own welfare-^-V 
 is affected by their departure, and moderate our real gfief 
 just in the same proportion." Now, as I had neither re- 
 ceived, nor expected to receive, favors from kings or their 
 flatterers ; as I had no acquaintance in particular with their 
 late monarch as I know that the place of a king is soon 
 supplied ; and as the Chinese proverb has it, that though the 
 world may sometimes want cobblers to mend their shoes, 
 there is no danger of its wanting emperors to rule their 
 kingdoms : from such considerations, I could bear the loss 
 of a king with the most philosophic resignation. However, 
 I thought it my duty at least to appear sorrowful, to put on a 
 melancholy aspect, or to set my face by that of the people. 
 
 The first company I came amongst, after the news became 
 general, was a set of jolly companions, who were drinking 
 prosperity to the ensuing reign. I entered the room with 
 looks of despair, and even expected applause for the super- 
 lative misery of my countenance. Instead of that, I was 
 universally condemned by the company for a grimacing son 
 of a whore, and desired to take away my penitential phiz 
 to some other quarter. I now corrected my former mistake, 
 and, with the most sprightly air imaginable, entered a com- 
 pany where they were talking over the ceremonies of the 
 approaching funeral. Here I sat for some time with an air 
 of pert vivacity ; when one of the chief mourners immedi- 
 ately observing my good humor, desired me, if I pleased, to 
 go and grin somewhere else ; they wanted no disaffected 
 scoundrels there. Ivcaving this company, therefore, I was 
 resolved to assume a look perfectly neutral ; and have ever 
 since been studjdng the fashionable air ; something between 
 jest and earnest : a complete virginity of face, uncontami- 
 nated with the smallest symptom of meaning. 
 
 But though grief be a very slight affair here, the mourn- 
 ing, my friend, is a very important concern. When an 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 393 
 
 emperor dies in China, the whole expense of the solemni- 
 ties is defrayed from the royal coffers. When the great die 
 here, mandarins are ready enough to order mourning ; but 
 I do not see they are so ready to pay for it. If they send 
 me down from court the gray undress frock, or the black 
 coat without pocket-holes, I am willing enough to comply 
 witli their commands, and wear both ; but, by the head of 
 Confucius ! to be obliged to wear black, and buy it into 
 the bargain, is more than my tranquillity of temper can 
 bear. What ! order me to wear mourning before they know 
 whether I can buy it or no ! Fum, thou son of Fo, what 
 sort of a people am I got amongst, where being out of black 
 is a certain symptom of poverty, where those who have 
 miserable faces cannot have mourning, and those who have 
 mourning will not wear a miserable face ! 
 
 I^ETTER XXXI 
 To THB Sams 
 
 I HAD some intentions lately of going to visit Bedlam, the 
 place where those who go mad are confined. I went 
 to wait upon the Man in Black to be my conductor, 
 but I found him preparing to go to Westminster Hall, 
 where the English hold their courts of justice. It gave me 
 some surprise to find my friend engaged in a lawsuit, but 
 more so when he informed me that it had been depending 
 for several years. "How is it possible,'* cried I, "for a 
 man who knows the world to go to law? I am well ac- 
 quainted with the courts of justice in China : they resemble 
 rat-traps every one of them ; nothing more easy than to 
 get in, but to get out again is attended with some difficulty, 
 and more cunning than rats are generally found to pos- 
 sess ! " 
 
 "Faith," replied my friend, "I should not have gone to 
 law but that I was assured of success before I began ; 
 things were presented to me in so alluring a light, that I 
 thought by barely declaring myself a candidate for the 
 prize, I had nothing more to do but to enjoy the fruits of 
 
394 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 the victory. Thus have I been upon the eve of an imagi- 
 nary triumph every term these ten years ; have traveled 
 forward with victory ever in my view, but ever out of 
 reach ; however, at present I fancy we have hampered our 
 antagonist in such a manner, that, without some unfore- 
 seen demur, we shall this very day lay him fairly on his 
 back." 
 
 "If things be so situated," said I, "I don't care if I at- 
 tend you to the courts, and partake in the pleasure of 
 your success. But prithee," continued I, as we set for- 
 ward, *' what reasons have you to think an afEair at last 
 concluded, which has given you so many former disappoint- 
 ments?" — "My lawyer tells me," returned he, "that I 
 have Salkeld and Ventris strong in my favor, and that 
 there are no less than fifteen cases in point." — "I under- 
 stand," said I; "those are two of your judges who have 
 already declared their opinions." — "Pardon me," replied 
 my friend, "Salkeld and Ventris are lawyers who some 
 hundred years ago gave their opinions on cases similar to 
 mine : these opinions which make for me, my lawyer is to 
 cite ; and those opinions which look another way are cited 
 by the lawyer employed by my antagonist : as I observed, 
 I have Salkeld and Ventris for me ; he has Coke and Hale 
 for him ; and he that has most opinions is most likely to 
 carry his cause." — "But where is the necessity," cried I, 
 "of prolonging a suit by citing the opinions and reports of 
 others, since the same good sense which determined lawyers 
 in former ages, may serve to guide your judges at this 
 day ? They at that time gave their opinions only from the 
 light of reason ; your judges have the same light at present 
 to direct them ; let me even add, a greater, as in former 
 ages there were many prejudices from which the present is 
 happily free. If arguing from authorities be exploded 
 from every other branch of learning, why should it be par- 
 ticularly adhered to in this? I plainly foresee how such a 
 method of investigation must embarrass every suit, and 
 even perplex the student ; ceremonies will be multiplied, 
 formalities must increase, and more time will thus be spent 
 in learning the arts of litigation, than in the discovery of 
 right." 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 395 
 
 "I see," cries my friend, "that you are for a speedy ad- 
 ministration of justice; but all the worid will grant, that 
 the more time that is taken up in considering any sub- 
 ject, the better it will be understood. Besides, it is the 
 boast of an Englishman, that his property is secure, and 
 all the world will grant, that a deliberate administration of 
 justice is the best way to secure his property. Why have 
 we so many lawyers, but to secure our property? Why so 
 many formalities, but to secure our property? Not less 
 than one hundred thousand families live in opulence, ele- 
 gance, and ease, merely by securing our property." 
 
 "To embarrass justice," returned I, « by a multiplicity 
 of laws, or to hazard it by a confidence in our judges, are, 
 I grant, the opposite rocks on which legislative wisdom 
 has ever split. In one case, the client resembles that em- 
 peror who is said to have been suffocated with the bed- 
 clothes which were only designed to keep him warm ; in 
 the other, to that town which let the enemy take posses- 
 sion of its walls, in order to show the world how little 
 they depended upon aught but courage for safety. But, 
 bless me ! what numbers do I see here — all in black ! — 
 how is it possible that half this multitude can find employ- 
 ment?" — "Nothing so easily conceived," returned my 
 companion ; " they live by watching each other. For in- 
 stance, the catchpole watches the man in debt, the attorney 
 watches the catchpole, the counselor watches the attorney, 
 the solicitor the counselor, and all find sufficient employ- 
 ment." — "I conceive you," interrupted I; "they watch 
 each other, but it is the client that pays them all for 
 watching : it puts me in mind of a Chinese fable, which is 
 entitled, "Five Animals at a Meal." 
 
 "A grasshopper, filled with dew, was merrily singing 
 under a shade ; a whangam, that eats grasshoppers, had 
 marked it for its prey, and was just stretching forth to 
 devour it; a serpent, that had for a long time fed only on 
 whangams, was coiled up to fasten on the whangam ; a yel- 
 low bird was just upon the wing to dart upon the serpent ; 
 a hawk had just stooped from above to seize the yellow 
 bird; all were intent on their prey, and unmindful of their 
 danger : so the whangam ate the grasshopper, the serpent 
 
396 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 ate the whangam, the yellow bird the serpent, and the 
 hawk the yellow bird ; when, sousing from on high, a 
 vulture gobbled up the hawk, grasshopper, whangam, and 
 all in a moment." 
 
 I had scarcely finished my fable, when the lawyer came 
 to inform my friend that his cause was put off till another 
 term, that money was wanting to retain, and that all the 
 world was of opinion that the very next hearing would 
 bring him off victorious. "If so, then," cries my friend, 
 " I believe it will be my wisest way to continue the cause 
 for another term ; and, in the meantime, my friend here 
 and I will go and see Bedlam." — Adieu. 
 
 IvETTER XXXII 
 To THE Same 
 
 1 LATELY received a visit from the little Beau, who I 
 found had assumed a new flow of spirits with a new 
 suit of clothes. Our discourse happened to turn upon 
 the different treatment of the fair sex here and in Asia, 
 with the influence of beauty in refining our manners, and 
 improving our conversation. 
 
 I soon perceived he was strongl}' prejudiced in favor of 
 the Asiatic method of treating the sex, and that it was 
 impossible to persuade him, but that a man was happier 
 who had four wives at his command, than he who had 
 only one. "It is true," cries he, "your men of fashion in 
 the East are slaves, and under some terrors of having their 
 throats squeezed by a bowstring; but what then? they can 
 find ample consolation in a seraglio ; they make, indeed, 
 an indifferent figure in conversation abroad, but then they 
 have a seraglio to console them at home. I am told they 
 have no balls, drums, nor operas, but then they have got 
 a seraglio ; they may be deprived of wine and French 
 cookery, but they have a seraglio : a seraglio — a seraglio, 
 my dear creature, wipes off every inconvenience in the world! 
 
 " Besides, I am told your Asiatic beauties are the most 
 convenient women alive ; for they have no souls : positively 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 397 
 
 there is nothing in nature I should hke so much as ladies 
 without souls ; soul here, is the utter ruin of half the sex. 
 A girl of eighteen shall have soul enough to spend a hun- 
 dred pounds in the turning of a trump ; her mother shall 
 have soul enough to ride a sweepstake match at a horse race ; 
 her maiden aunt shall have soul enough to purchase the 
 furniture of a whole toy-shop ; and others shall have soul 
 enough to behave as if they had no souls at all." 
 
 "With respect to the soul," interrupted I, "the Asiatics 
 are much kinder to the fair sex than you imagine : instead 
 of one soul, Fohi, the idol of China, gives every woman 
 three ; the Brahmins give them fifteen ; and even Mahomet 
 himself nowhere excludes the sex from Paradise. Abul- 
 feda reports, that an old woman one day importuning him 
 to know what she ought to do in order to gain Paradise 
 
 — 'My good lady,' answered the prophet, 'old women 
 never get there. — ' What ! never get to Paradise ? * re- 
 turned the matron, in a fury. * Never, ' says he ; * for 
 they always grow young by the way.* No, sir," continued 
 I ; " the men of Asia behave with more deference to the 
 sex than you seem to imagine. As you of Europe say 
 grace upon sitting down to dinner, so it is the custom in 
 China to say grace when a man goes to bed to his wife." 
 
 — "And may I die," returned my companion, "but it is a 
 very pretty ceremony; for, seriously, sir, I see no reason 
 why a man should not be as grateful in one situation as in 
 the other. Upon honor, I always find myself much more 
 disposed to gratitude on the couch of a fine woman, than 
 upon sitting down to a sirloin of beef." 
 
 "Another ceremony," said I, resuming the conversation, 
 "in favor of the sex, among us, is the bride's being al- 
 lowed after marriage HBR thrbjs days op frbbdom. Dur- 
 ing this interval a thousand extravagances are practiced by 
 either sex. The lady is placed upon the nuptial bed, and 
 numberless monkey tricks are played round to divert her. 
 One gentleman smells her perfumed handkerchief, another 
 attempts to untie her garters, a third pulls off her shoe to 
 play hunt the slipper, another pretends to be an idiot, and 
 endeavors to raise a laugh by grimacing ; in the meantime 
 the glass goes briskly about, till ladies, gentlemen, wife, 
 
398 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 husband, and all, are mixed together in one inundation of 
 arrack punch." 
 
 "Strike me dumb, deaf, and blind," cried my companion, 
 "but that's very pretty! there's some sense in your 
 Chinese ladies' condescensions ; but among us, you shall 
 scarce find one of the whole sex that shall hold her good 
 humor for three days together. No later than yesterday, 
 I happened to say some civil things to a citizen's wife of 
 my acquaintance, not because I loved her, but because I 
 had charity ; and what do you think was the tender crea- 
 ture's reply ? Only that she detested my pigtail wig, 
 high-heeled shoes, and sallow complexion ! That is all ! 
 Nothing more! — Yes, by the Heavens, though she was 
 more ugly, than an unpainted actress, I found her more 
 insolent than a thoroughbred woman of quality ! " 
 
 He was proceeding in this wild manner, when his invec- 
 tive was interrupted by the Man in Black, who entered the 
 apartment, introducing his niece, a young lady of exquisite 
 beauty. Her very appearance was sufficient to silence the 
 severest satirist of the sex; easy without pride, and free 
 without impudence, she seemed capable of supplying every 
 sense with pleasure. Her looks, her conversation, were 
 natural and unconstrained ; she had neither been taught to 
 languish nor ogle, to laugh without a jest, or sigh without 
 sorrow. I found that she had just returned from abroad, 
 and had been conversant in the manners of the world. 
 Curiosity prompted me to ask several questions, but she 
 declined them all. I own I never found myself so strongly 
 prejudiced in favor of apparent merit before, and could 
 willingly have prolonged our conversation; but the com- 
 pany after some time withdrew. Just, however, before the 
 little Beau took his leave, he called me aside, and re- 
 quested I would change him a twenty pound bill; which as 
 I was incapable of doing, he was contented with borrowing 
 half-a-crown. — Adieu. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 39^ 
 
 lyETTKR XXXIII 
 
 From I^ibn Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Presi- 
 dent OF THE Ceremonial Academy at Pekin in 
 China 
 
 OUR scholars in China have a most profound veneration 
 for forms. A first-rate beauty never studied the 
 decorums of dress with more assiduity ; they may 
 properly enough be said to be clothed with wisdom from 
 head to foot : they have their philosophical caps, and 
 philosophical whiskers ; their philosophical slippers, and 
 philosophical fans ; there is even a philosophical standard 
 for measuring the nails; and yet, with all this seeming 
 wisdom, they are often found to be mere empty pretenders. 
 
 A philosophical beau is not so frequent in Europe ; yet I 
 am told that such characters are found here. I mean 
 such as punctually support all the decorums of learning 
 without being really very profound, or naturally possessed 
 of a fine understanding ; who labor hard to obtain the titu- 
 lar honors attending literary merit, who flatter others in 
 order to be flattered in turn, and only study to be thought 
 students. 
 
 A character of this kind generally receives company in 
 his study, in all the pensive formality of slippers, night- 
 gown, and easy chair. The table is covered with a large 
 book, which is always kept open, and never read ; his soli- 
 tary hours being dedicated to dozing, mending pens, feeling 
 his pulse, peeping through the microscope, and sometimes 
 reading amusing books, which he condemns in company. 
 His library is preserved with the most religious neatness, 
 and is generally a repository of scarce books, which bear 
 a high price, because too dull or useless to become common 
 by the ordinary methods of publication. 
 
 Such men are generally candidates for admittance inta 
 literary clubs, academies, and institutions, where they reg- 
 ularly meet to give and receive a little instruction, and a 
 great deal of praise. In conversation they never betray 
 ignorance, because they never seem to receive information. 
 
400 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 Ofifer a new observation, they have heard it before ; pinch 
 them in argument, and they reply with a sneer. 
 
 Yet, how trifling soever these Uttle arts may appear, they 
 answer one valuable purpose, — of gaining the practisers the 
 esteem they wish for. The bounds of a man's knowledge 
 are easily concealed, if he has but prudence; but all can 
 readily see and admire a gilt library, a set of long nails, a 
 silver standish, or a well-combed whisker, who are incapable 
 of distinguishing a dunce. 
 
 When Father Matthew, the first European missionary, 
 entered China, the court was informed that he possessed 
 great skill in astronomy ; he was therefore sent for, and ex- 
 amined. The established astronomers of state undertook 
 this task, and made their report to the Emperor that his 
 skill was but very superficial, and no way comparable to 
 their own. The missionary, however, appealed from their 
 judgment to experience, and challenged them to calculate 
 an eclipse of the moon that was to happen a few nights 
 following. " What ! " said some, " shall a barbarian with- 
 out nails pretend to vie with men in astronomy who have 
 made it the study of their lives ; with men who know half 
 the knowable characters of words, who wear scientifical caps 
 and slippers, and who have gone through every literary de- 
 gree with applause?" They accepted the challenge, confi- 
 dent of success. The eclipse began : the Chinese produced 
 a most splendid apparatus, and were fifteen minutes wrong ; 
 the missionary, with a single instrument, was exact to a 
 second. This was convincing : but the court astronomers 
 were not to be convinced ; instead of acknowledging their 
 error, they assured the Emperor that their calculations were 
 certainly exact, but that the stranger without nails had 
 actually bewitched the moon. "Well, then," cries the good 
 Emperor, smiling at their ignorance, *^you shall still con- 
 tinue to be servants of the moon, but I constitute this man 
 her controller." 
 
 China is thus replete with men whose only pretensions to 
 knowledge arise from external circumstances ; and in Eu- 
 rope every country abounds with them in proportion to its 
 ignorance. Spain and Flanders, who are behind the rest of 
 Europe in learning at least three centuries, have twenty 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 401 
 
 literary titles and marks of distinction unknown in France 
 or England. They have their Clarissimi and Prc&darissimi, 
 their Accuratissimi and Minutissimi. A round cap entitles 
 one student to argue, and a square cap permits another to 
 teach, while a cap with a tassel almost sanctifies the head 
 it happens to cover. But where true knowledge is culti- 
 vated, these formalities begin to disappear. The ermine 
 cowl, the solemn beard, and sweeping train, are laid aside ; 
 philosophers dress, and talk, and think, like other men ; 
 and lamb-skin dressers, and cap-makers, and tail-carriers, 
 now deplore a literary age. 
 
 For my own part, my friend, I have seen enough of pre- 
 suming ignorance, never to venerate wisdom but where it 
 actually appears. I have received literary titles and dis- 
 tinctions myself ; and, by the quantity of my own wisdom, 
 know how very little wisdom they can confer. — Adieu. 
 
 I<ETTER XXXIV 
 To THB Samb 
 
 THE time for the young king's coronation approaches. 
 The great and the little world look forward with impa- 
 tience. A knight from the country, who has brought 
 up his family to see and be seen on this occasion, has taken 
 all the lower part of the house where I lodge. His wife is 
 laying in a large quantity of silks, which the mercer tells 
 her are to be fashionable next season ; and miss, her daugh- 
 ter, has actually had her ears bored previous to the cere- 
 mony. In all this bustle of preparation, I am considered 
 as mere lumber, and have been shoved up two stories 
 higher, to make room for others my landlady seems per- 
 fectly convinced are my betters ; but whom, before me, she 
 is contented with only calling very good company. 
 
 The little Beau, who has now forced himself into my in- 
 timacy, was yesterday giving me a most minute detail of 
 the intended procession. All men are eloquent upon their 
 favorite topic ; and this seemed peculiarly adapted to the 
 size and turn of his understanding. His whole mind was 
 26 
 
402 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 blazoned over with a variety of glittering images, — coronets, 
 escutcheons, lace, fringe, tassels, stones, bugles, and spun 
 glass. "Here," cried he, "Garter is to walk; and there 
 Rouge Dragon marches with the escutcheons on his back. 
 Here Clarencieux moves forward ; and there Blue Mantle 
 disdains to be left behind. Here the Aldermen march two 
 and two ; and there the undaunted Champion of England, 
 no way terrified at the very numerous appearance of gen- 
 tlemen and ladies, rides forward in complete armor, and 
 with an intrepid air throws down his glove. Ah ! " con- 
 tinued he, "should any be so hardy as to take up that 
 fatal glove, and so accept the challenge, we should see 
 fine sport ; the champion would show him no mercy ; he 
 would soon teach him all his passes, with a witness. 
 However, I am afraid we shall have none willing to try it 
 with him upon the approaching occasion, for two reasons, 
 — first, because his antagonist would stand a chance of be- 
 ing killed in the single combat; and, secondly, because if 
 he escapes the champion's arm, he would certainly be 
 hanged for treason. No, no ; I fancy none will be so hardy 
 as to dispute it with a champion like him, inured to arms ; 
 and we shall probably see him prancing unmolested away, 
 holding his bridle thus in one hand, and brandishing his 
 dram-cup in the other.'* 
 
 Some men have a manner of describing which only wraps 
 the subject in more than former obscurity ; thus I was un- 
 able, with all my companion's volubility, to form a dis- 
 tinct idea of the intended procession. I was certain that 
 the inauguration of a king should be conducted with 
 solemnity and religious awe ; and I could not be persuaded 
 that there was much solemnity in this description. "If 
 this be true,* cried I to myself, **the people of Europe 
 surely have a strange manner of mixing solemn and fan- 
 tastic images together; pictures at once replete with bur- 
 lesque and the sublime. At a time when the king enters 
 into the most solemn compact with his people, nothing 
 surely should be admitted to diminish from the real majesty 
 of the ceremony. A ludicrous image brought in at such a 
 time throws an air of ridicule upon the whole. It some- 
 way resembles a picture I have seen, designed by Albert 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 403 
 
 Durer, where, amid all the solemnity of that awful scene, 
 a deity judging, and a trembling world awaiting the decree, 
 he has introduced a merry mortal trundling a scolding wife 
 to hell in a wheelbarrow." 
 
 My companion, who mistook my silence, during this in- 
 terval of reflection, for the rapture of astonishment, pro- 
 ceeded to describe those frivolous parts of the show that 
 most struck his imagination ; and to assure me, that if I 
 stayed in this country some months longer, I should see 
 fine things. "For my own part," continued he, «I know 
 already of fifteen suits of clothes that would stand on one 
 end with gold lace, all designed to be first shown there ; 
 and as for diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and pearls, we shall 
 see them as thick as brass nails in a sedan chair. And 
 then we are all to walk so majestically, thus ; this foot 
 always behind the foot before. The ladies are to fling 
 nosegays ; the court poets to scatter verses ; the spectators 
 are to be all in full dress ; Mrs. Tibbs in a new sack, 
 ruffles, and Frenched hair : look where you will, one thing 
 finer than another ; Mrs. Tibbs courtesies to the Duchess ; 
 her Grace returns the compliment with a bow. * I^argess ! * 
 cries the herald. * Make room ! ' cries the gentleman usher. 
 * Knock him down ! ' cries the guard. Ah ! * continued he, 
 amazed at his own description, * what an astonishing scene 
 of grandeur can art produce from the smallest circumstance, 
 when it thus actually turns to wonder one man putting on 
 another man's hat ! " 
 
 I now found his mind was entirely set upon the fopperies 
 of the pageant, and quite regardless of the real meaning of 
 such costly preparations. "Pageants," says Bacon, "are 
 pretty things ; but we should rather study to make them 
 elegant than expensive." Processions, cavalcades, and all 
 that fund of gay frippery furnished out by tailors, barbers, 
 and tirewomen, mechanically influence the mind into ven- 
 eration. An emperor in his nightcap would not meet with 
 half the respect of an emperor with a glittering crown. 
 Politics resemble religion ; attempting to divest either of 
 ceremony is the most certain method of bringing either into 
 contempt. The weak must have their inducements to ad- 
 miration as well as the wise ; and it is the business of a 
 
404 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 sensible government to impress all ranks with a sense of 
 subordination, whether this be effected by a diamond buckle 
 or a virtuous edict, a sumptuary law or a glass necklace. 
 
 This interval of reflection only gave my companion spirits 
 to begin his description afresh ; and, as a greater induce- 
 ment to raise my curiosity, he informed me of the vast 
 sums that were given by the spectators for places. "That 
 the ceremony must be fine," cries he, "is very evident 
 from the fine price that is paid for seeing it. Several 
 ladies have assured me, they would willingly part with one 
 eye rather than be prevented from looking on with the 
 other. Come, come," continues he, " I have a friend, who, 
 for my sake, will supply us with places at the most reason- 
 able rates ; I'll take care you shall not be imposed upon ; 
 and he will inform you of the use, finery, rapture, splen- 
 dor, and enchantment of the whole ceremony, better than I." 
 
 Follies often repeated lose their absurdity, and assume the 
 appearance of reason. His arguments were so often and so 
 strongly enforced, that I had actually some thoughts of 
 becoming a spectator. We accordingly went together to 
 bespeak a place ; but guess my surprise when the man de- 
 manded a purse of gold for a single seat ! I could hardly 
 believe him serious upon making the demand. " Prithee, 
 friend," cried I, "after I have paid twenty pounds for sit- 
 ting here an hour or two, can I bring a part of the coro- 
 nation back?" — "No, sir." — "How long can I live upon 
 it, after I have come away ? " — " Not long, sir. " — " Can a 
 coronation clothe, feed, or fatten me?" — "Sir," replied the 
 man, " you seem to be under a mistake ; all that you can 
 bring away is the pleasure of having it to say, that you 
 saw the coronation. " — " Blast me ! " cries Tibbs, " if that 
 be all, there is no need of paying for that ; since I am re- 
 solved to have that pleasure, whether I am there or no ! " 
 
 I am conscious, my friend, that this is but a very con- 
 fused description of the intended ceremony. You may 
 object, that I neither settle rank, precedency, nor place ; 
 that I seem ignorant whether Gules walks before or behind 
 Garter; that I have neither mentioned the dimensions of a 
 lord's cap, nor measured the length of a lady's tail. I 
 know your delight is in minute description : and this I am 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 405 
 
 ttnhappily disqualified from furnishing ; yet, upon the whole, 
 I fancy it will be no way comparable to the magnificence 
 of our late Emperor Whangti's procession, when he was 
 married to the moon, at which Fum Hoam himself pre- 
 sided in person. — Adieu. 
 
 I/ETTER XXXV 
 To THB Samb; 
 
 THERS are numberless employments in the courts of the 
 Eastern monarchs utterly unpractised and unknown 
 in Europe. They have no such ofi&cers, for instance, 
 as the emperor's ear- tickler or tooth-picker; they have 
 never introduced at the courts the mandarin appointed to 
 bear the royal tobacco-box, or the grave director of the im- 
 perial exercitations in the seraglio. Yet I am surprised 
 that the English have imitated us in none of these particu- 
 lars, as they are generally pleased with everything that 
 comes from China, and excessively fond of creating new 
 and useless employments. They have filled their houses 
 with our furniture, their public gardens with our fireworks, 
 and their very ponds with our fish. Our courtiers, my 
 friend, are the fish and the furniture they should have im- 
 ported ; our courtiers would fill up the necessary ceremonies 
 of a court better than those of Europe ; would be con- 
 tented with receiving large salaries for doing little ; whereas^ 
 some of this country are at present discontented, though 
 they receive large salaries for doing nothing. 
 
 I lately, therefore, had thoughts of publishing a proposal 
 here, for the admission of some new Eastern offices and 
 titles into their Court Register. As I consider myself in 
 the light of a cosmopolite, I find as much satisfaction in 
 scheming for the countries in which I happen to reside, as 
 for that in which I was born. 
 
 The finest apartments in the palace of Pegu are fre- 
 quently infested with rats. These the religion of the coun- 
 try strictly forbids the people to kill. In such circumstances, 
 therefore, they are obliged to have recourse to some great 
 
4o6 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 man of the court, who is willing to free the royal apart- 
 ment even at the hazard of his salvation. After a weak 
 monarch's reign, the quantity of court vermin in every 
 part of the palace is surprising ; but a prudent king, and a 
 vigilant officer, soon drive them from their sanctuaries be- 
 hind the mats and tapestry, and effectually free the court. 
 Such an officer in England would, in my opinion, be serv- 
 iceable at this juncture ; for if, as I am told, the palace 
 be old, much vermin must undoubtedly have taken refuge 
 behind the wainscot and hangings. A minister should 
 therefore be invested with the title and dignities of court 
 vermin-killer ; he should have full power either to banish, 
 take, poison, or destroy them, with enchantments, traps, 
 ferrets, or ratsbane. He might be permitted to brandish 
 his besom without rfemorse, and brush down every part of 
 the furniture, without sparing a single cobweb, however 
 sacred by long prescription. I communicated this proposal 
 some days ago in a company of the first distinction, and 
 enjoying the most honorable offices of the state. Among 
 the number were the inspector of Great Britain, Mr. Hen- 
 riquez the director of the ministry, Ben. Victor the treas- 
 urer, John Lockman the secretary, and the conductor of the 
 * Imperial Magazine. " They all acquiesced in the utility of 
 my proposal, but were apprehensive it might meet with 
 some obstruction from court upholsterers and chamber- 
 maids, who would object to it from the demolition of the 
 furniture, and the dangerous use of ferrets and ratsbane. 
 
 My next proposal is rather more general than the former, 
 and might probably meet with less opposition. Though no 
 people in the world flatter each other more than the Eng- 
 lish, I know none who understand the art less, and flatter 
 with such little refinement. Their panegyric, like a Tartar 
 feast, is indeed served up with profusion, but their cookery is 
 insupportable. A client here shall dress up a fricassee for 
 his patron, that shall offend an ordinary nose before it 
 enters the room. A town shall send up their address to a 
 great minister, which shall prove at once a satire on the 
 minister and themselves. If the favorite of the day sits, or 
 stands, or sleeps, there are poets to put it into verse, and 
 priests to preach it in the pulpit. In order, therefore, to 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 407 
 
 free both those who praise and those who are praised from 
 a duty probably disagreeable to both, I would constitute 
 professed flatterers here, as in several courts of India. 
 These are appointed in the courts of their princes, to in- 
 struct the people where to exclaim admiration, and where 
 to lay an emphasis of praise. But an ofi&cer of this kind 
 is always in waiting when the emperor converses in a fa- 
 miliar manner among his rajahs and other nobility. At 
 every sentence, when the monarch pauses, and smiles at 
 what he has been saying, the Karamatman, as this officer 
 is called, is to take it for granted that his majesty has 
 said a good thing. Upon which he cries out — "Karamat! 
 Karamat ! — a miracle ! a miracle ! » and throws up his 
 hands and his eyes in ecstasy. This is echoed by the 
 courtiers around, while the emperor sits all this time in sul- 
 len satisfaction, enjoying the triumph of his joke, or study- 
 ing a new repartee. 
 
 I would have such an officer placed at every great man's 
 table in England. By frequent practice he might soon be- 
 come a perfect master of the art, and in time would turn 
 out pleasing to his patron, no way troublesome to himself, 
 and might prevent the nauseous attempts of many more 
 ignorant pretenders. The clergy here, I am convinced, 
 would relish this proposal. It would provide places for 
 several of them. And, indeed, by some of their late pro- 
 ductions many appear to have qualified themselves as can- 
 didates for this office already. 
 
 But my last proposal I take to be of the utmost impor- 
 tance. Our neighbor, the empress of Russia, has, you may 
 remember, instituted an order of female knighthood; the 
 empress of Germany has also instituted another ; the Chi- 
 nese have had such an order time immemorial. I am 
 amazed the English have never come into such an institu- 
 tion. When I consider what kind of men are made knights 
 here, it appears strange that they never conferred this 
 honor upon women. They make cheesemongers and pastry- 
 cooks knights ; then, why not their wives ? They have 
 called up tallow chandlers to maintain the hardy profession 
 of chivalry and arms ; then, why not their wives ? Haber- 
 dashers are sworn, as I suppose all knights must be sworn, 
 
4o8 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 NBVBR TO FLY IN TIMB OF MSI,I,AY OR BATTI,B, TO MAIN- 
 TAIN AND UPHOLD THE NOBLB ESTATE OF CHIVALRY, WITH 
 HORSE, HARNISHE, AND OTHER KNIGHTLYE HABILIMENTS. 
 
 Haberdashers, I say, are sworn to all this ; then, why not 
 their wives ? Certain I am, their wives understand fighting 
 and feats of mellay and battle better than they; and as 
 for knightlye horse and harnishe, it is probable both know 
 nothing more than the harness of a one-horse chaise. No, 
 no, my friend, instead of conferring any order upon the 
 husbands, I would knight their wives. However, the 
 state should not be troubled with a new institution upon 
 this occasion. Some ancient exploded order might be re- 
 vived, which would furnish both a motto and a name, — 
 the ladies might be permitted to choose for themselves. 
 There are, for instance, the obsolete orders of the Dragon 
 in Germany, of the Rue in Scotland, and the Porcupine in 
 France, — all well-sounding names, and very applicable to 
 my intended female institution. — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXXVI 
 To THE Same 
 
 THE English are at present employed in celebrating a 
 feast, which becomes general every seventh year ; the 
 parliament of the nation being then dissolved, and 
 another appointed to be chosen. This solemnity falls in- 
 finitely short of our Feast of the I,anterns in mag^nificence 
 and splendor; it is also surpassed by others of the East in 
 unanimity and pure devotion ; but no festival in the world 
 can compare with it for eating. Their eating, indeed, 
 amazes me ; had I five hundred heads, and were each head 
 furnished with brains, yet would they all be insufficient to 
 compute the number of cows, pigs, geese, and turkeys, 
 which, upon this occasion, die for the good of their 
 country. 
 
 To say the truth, eating seems to make a grand ingre- 
 dient in all English parties of zeal, business, or amuse- 
 ment. When a church is to be built, or an hospital 
 endowed, the directors assemble, and instead of consulting 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 409 
 
 upon it, they eat upon it, by which means the business 
 goes forward with success. When the poor are to be re- 
 lieved, the officers appointed to dole out public charity as- 
 semble and eat upon it. Nor has it ever been known that 
 they filled the bellies of the poor, till they had previously 
 satisfied their own. But in the election of magistrates the 
 people seem to exceed all bounds : the merits of a candi- 
 date are often measured by the number of his treats; his 
 constituents assemble, eat upon him, and lend their ap- 
 plause, not to his integrity or sense, but to the quantities 
 of his beef and brandy. 
 
 And yet I could forgive this people their plentiful meals 
 on this occasion, as it is extremely natural for every man 
 to eat a great deal when he gets it for nothing ; but what 
 amazes me is, that all this good living no way contributes 
 to improve their good humor. On the contrary, they seem 
 to lose their temper as they lose their appetites; every 
 morsel they swallow, and every glass they pour down, 
 serves to increase their animosity. Many an honest man, 
 before as harmless as a tame rabbit, when loaded with a 
 single election dinner, has become more dangerous than a 
 charged culverin. Upon one of these occasions I have 
 actually seen a bloody-minded man-milliner sally forth at 
 the head of a mob, determined to face a desperate pastry- 
 cook, who was general of the opposite party. 
 
 But you must not suppose they are without a pretext 
 for thus beating each other. On the contrary, no man 
 here is so uncivilized as to beat his neighbor without pro- 
 ducing very sufficient reasons. One candidate, for instance, 
 treats with gin, a spirit of their own manufacture; another 
 always drinks brandy, imported from abroad. Brandy is a 
 wholesome liquor ; gin, a liquor wholly their own. This, 
 then, furnishes an obvious cause of quarrel,— Whether it 
 be most reasonable to get drunk with gin, or get drunk 
 with brandy? The mob meet upon the debate, fight them- 
 selves sober, and then draw off to get drunk again, and 
 charge for another encounter. So that the Knglish may 
 now properly be said to be engaged in war; since, while 
 they are subduing their enemies abroad, they are breaking 
 each other's heads at home. 
 
4IO GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 I lately made an excursion to a neighboring village, in 
 order to be a spectator of the ceremonies practiced upon 
 this occasion. I left town in company with three fiddlers, 
 nine dozen of hams, and a corporation poet, which were 
 designed as reinforcements to the gin-drinking party. We 
 entered the town with a very good face ; the fiddlers, no 
 way intimidated by the enemy, kept handling their arms 
 up the principal street. By this prudent manoeuvre, they 
 took peaceable possession of their headquarters, amid the 
 shouts of multitudes, who seemed perfectly rejoiced at hear- 
 ing their music, but above all at seeing their bacon. 
 
 I must own, I could not avoid being pleased to see all 
 ranks of people, on this occasion, leveled into an equality, 
 and the poor, in some measure, enjoying the primitive 
 privileges of nature. If there was any distinction shown, 
 the lowest of the people seemed to receive it from the 
 rich. I could preceive a cobbler with a levee at his door, 
 and a haberdasher giving audience from behind his counter. 
 
 But my reflections were soon interrupted by a mob, who 
 demanded whether I was for the distillery or the brewery? 
 As these were terms with which I was totally un- 
 acquainted, I chose at first to be silent ; however, I know 
 not what might have been the consequence of my reserve, 
 had not the attention of the mob been called off to a skir- 
 mish between a brandy-drinker's cow and a gin-drinker's 
 mastiff, which turned out, greatly to the satisfaction of the 
 mob, in favor of the mastiff. 
 
 This spectacle, which afforded high entertainment, was 
 at last ended by the appearance of one of the candidates, 
 who came to harangue the mob: he made a very pathetic 
 speech upon the late excessive importation of foreign 
 drams, and the downfall of the distillery ; I could see some 
 of the audience shed tears. He was accompanied in his 
 procession by Mrs. Deputy and Mrs. Mayoress. Mrs. 
 Deputy was not in the least in liquor ; and as for Mrs. 
 Mayoress, one of the spectators assured me in my ear, 
 that — she was a very fine woman before she had the 
 smallpox. 
 
 Mixing with the crowd, I was now conducted to the hall 
 where the magistrates are chosen: but what tongue can 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 411 
 
 describe this scene of confusion ! the whole crowd seemed 
 equally inspired with anger, jealousy, politics, patriotism, 
 and punch. I remarked one figure that was carried up by 
 two men upon this occasion. I at first began to pity his 
 infirmities as natural, but soon found the fellow so drunk 
 that he could not stand ; another made his appearance to 
 give his vote, but though he could stand, he actually lost 
 the use of his tongue, and remained silent ; a third, who, 
 though excessively drunk, could both stand and speak, 
 being asked the candidate's name for whom he voted, 
 could be prevailed upon to make no other answer but 
 ** Tobacco and brandy." In short, an election hall seems to 
 be a theatre, where every passion is seen without disguise; 
 a school where fools may readily become worse, and where 
 philosophers may gather wisdom. — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXXVII 
 From lyiiCN Chi Altangi to Fum Hoam, First Prssi- 
 
 DBNT of THB CBREMONIAIv ACADEMY AT PBKIN IN 
 
 China 
 
 THB misfortunes of the great, my friend, are held up to 
 engage our attention, are enlarged upon in tones of 
 declamation, and the world is called upon to gaze at 
 the noble sufferers : they have at once the comfort of ad- 
 miration and pity. 
 
 Yet, where is the magnanimity of bearing misfortunes 
 when the whole world is looking on? Men in such cir- 
 cumstances can act bravely even from motives of vanity. 
 He only who in the vale of obscurity can brave adversity 
 — who, without friends to encourage, acquaintances to pity, 
 or even without hope to alleviate his distresses, can behave 
 with tranquillity and indifEerence, is truly great: whether 
 peasant or courtier, he deserves admiration, and should be 
 held up for our imitation and respect. 
 
 The miseries of the poor are, however, entirely disre- 
 garded ; though some undergo more real hardships in one 
 day, than the great in their whole lives. It is indeed in- 
 conceivable what difficulties the meanest English sailor or 
 
4ia GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 soldier endures without murumriug or regret. Every day 
 to him is a day of misery, and yet he bears his hard fate 
 without repining. 
 
 With what indignation do I hear the heroes of tragedy 
 complain of misfortunes and hardships, whose greatest 
 calamity is founded in arrogance and pride ! Their sever- 
 est distresses are pleasures compared to what many of the 
 adventuring poor every day sustain, without murmuring. 
 These may eat, drink, and sleep ; have slaves to attend 
 them, and are sure of subsistence for life ; while many of 
 their fellow-creatures are obliged to wander, without a 
 friend to comfort or to assist them, find enmity in every 
 law, and are too poor to obtain even justice. 
 
 I have been led into these reflections from accidentally 
 meeting, some days ago, a poor fellow begging at one of 
 the outlets of this town, with a wooden leg. I was curi- 
 ous to learn what had reduced him to his present situa- 
 tion; and, after giving him what I thought proper, desired 
 to know the history of his life and misfortunes, and the 
 manner in which he was reduced to his present distress. 
 The disabled soldier, for such he was, with an intrepidity 
 truly British, leaning on his crutch, put himself into an 
 attitude to comply with my request, and gave me his his- 
 tory as follows : — 
 
 " As for misfortunes, sir, I cannot pretend to have gone 
 through more than others. Except the loss of my limb, 
 and my being obliged to beg, I don't know any reason, 
 thank Heaven, that I have to complain : there are some 
 who have lost both legs and an eye ; but, thank Heaven, 
 it is not quite so bad with me. 
 
 " My father was a laborer in the country, and died when 
 I was five years old ; so I was put upon the parish. As 
 he had been a wandering sort of man, the parishioners were 
 not able to tell to what parish I belonged, or where I was 
 bom ; so they sent me to another parish, and that parish sent 
 me to a third : till at last it was thought I belonged to no 
 parish at all. At length, however, they fixed me. I had 
 some disposition to be a scholar, and had actually learned 
 my letters ; but the master of the workhouse put me to 
 business as soon as I was able to handle a mallet. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 413 
 
 " Here I lived an easy kind of a life for five years. I only 
 wrought ten hours in the day, and had my meat and drink 
 provided for my labor. It is true, I was not suffered to 
 stir far from the house, for fear I should run away : but 
 what of that? I had the liberty of the whole house, and 
 the yard before the door, and that was enough for me. 
 
 " I was next bound out to a farmer, where I was up 
 both early and late ; but I ate and drank well, and liked 
 my business well enough, till he died. Being then obliged 
 to provide for myself, I was resolved to go and seek my 
 fortune. Thus I lived, and went from town to town, 
 working when I could get employment, and starving when 
 I could get none, and might have lived so still ; but hap- 
 pening one day to go through a field belonging to a mag- 
 istrate, I spied a hare crossing the path just before me. I 
 believe the devil put it in my head to fling my stick at it : 
 well, what will you have on't? I killed the hare, and was 
 bringing it away in triumph, when the Justice himself met 
 me : he called me a villain, and collaring me, desired I 
 would give an account of myself. I began immediately 
 to give a full account of all that I knew of my breed, 
 seed, and generation ; but though I gave a very long ac- 
 count, the Justice said I could give no account of my- 
 self ; so I was indicted, and found guilty of being poor, 
 and sent to Newgate, in order to be transported to the 
 plantations. 
 
 " People may say this and that of being in goal ; but, 
 for my part, I found Newgate as agreeable a place as ever 
 I was in in all my life. I had my bellyfuU to eat and 
 drink, and did no work ; but, alas ! this kind of life was 
 too good to last forever. I was taken out of prison, after 
 five months, put on board of a ship, and sent off with two 
 hundred more. Our passage was but indifferent, for we 
 were all confined in the hold, and died very fast, for want 
 of sweet air and provisions : but, for my part, I did not 
 want meat, because I had a fever all the way : Providence 
 was kind ; when provisions grew short, it took away my 
 desire of eating. When we came ashore, we were sold to 
 the planters. I was bound for seven years, and as I was 
 no scholar — for I had forgot my letters— I was obliged 
 
414 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 to work among the negroes; and served out my time, as 
 in duty bound to do. 
 
 " When my time was expired, I worked my passage 
 home, and glad I was to see old England again, because I 
 loved my country. O liberty ! liberty ! liberty ! that is the 
 property of every Englishman, and I will die in its de- 
 fense. I was afraid, however, that I should be indicted 
 for a vagabond once more ; so I did not much care to go 
 into the country, but kept about town ; and did little jobs 
 when I could get them. I was very happy in this manner 
 for some time ; till one evening, coming home from work, 
 two men knocked me down, and then desired me to stand 
 still. They belonged to a press-gang : I was carried before 
 the Justice, and as I could give no account of myself (that 
 was the thing that always hobbled me), I had my choice 
 left, whether to go on board a man-of-war, or list for a 
 soldier. I chose to be a soldier ; and in this post of a 
 gentleman I served two campaigns in Flanders, was at the 
 battles of Val and Fontenoy, and received but one wound 
 through the breast, which is troublesome to this day. 
 
 " "When the peace came on, I was discharged ; and as I 
 could not work, because my wound was sometimes painful, 
 I listed for a landman in the East India Company's serv- 
 ice. I here fought the French in six pitched battles ; and 
 verily believe, that if I could read and write, our captain 
 would have given me promotion, and made me a corporal. 
 But that was not my good fortune ; I soon fell sick, and 
 when I became good for nothing, got leave to return home 
 again with forty pounds in my pocket, which I saved in 
 the service. This was at the beginning of the present war, 
 so I hoped to be set on shore, and to have the pleasure of 
 spending my money ; but the government wanted men, and 
 I was pressed again, before ever I could set foot on shore. 
 
 "The boatswain found me, as he said, an obstinate fel- 
 low : he swore that I understood my business perfectly 
 well, but that I shammed Abraham merely to be idle. 
 God knows, I knew nothing of sea business : he beat me 
 without considering what he was about. But still my forty 
 pounds was some comfort to me under every beating : the 
 money was my comfort, and the money I might have had 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 415 
 
 to this day, but that our ship was taken by the French, 
 and so I lost it all. 
 
 " Our crew was carried into a French prison, and many 
 of them died, because they were not used to live in a 
 gaol; but, for my part, it was nothing to me, for I was 
 seasoned. One night, however, as I was sleeping on a bed 
 of boards, with a warm blanket about me (for I always 
 loved to lie well), I was awakened by the boatswain, who 
 had a dark lantern in his hand. *Jack,* says he to me, 
 *will you knock out the French sentry's brains ?> — <I 
 don't care,' says I, striving to keep myself awake, *if I 
 lend a hand.' — 'Then follow me,' says he, < and I hope we 
 shall do business.' So up I got, and tied my blanket, 
 which was all the clothes I had, about my middle, and 
 went with him to fight the Frenchmen. We had no arms; 
 but one Englishman is able to beat five Frenchmen at any 
 time ; so we went down to the door, where both the sen- 
 tries were posted, and, rushing upon them, seized their 
 arms in a moment, and knocked them down. From thence 
 nine of us ran together to the quay, and seizing the first 
 boat we met, got out of the harbor, and put to sea. We 
 had not been here three days before we were taken up 
 by an English privateer, who was glad of so many good 
 hands ; and we consented to run our chance. However, 
 we had not so much luck as we expected. In three days 
 we fell in with a French man-of-war, of forty guns, while 
 we had but twenty-three ; so to it we went. The fight 
 lasted for three hours, and I verily believe we should have 
 taken the Frenchman, but unfortunately we lost almost all 
 our men, just as we were going to get the victory. I was 
 once more in the power of the French, and I believe it 
 would have gone hard with me, had I been brought back 
 to my old gaol in Brest ; but, by good fortune, we were 
 retaken, and carried to England once more. 
 
 * I had almost forgot to tell you, that in this last en- 
 gagement I was wounded in two places, — I lost four fin- 
 gers of the left hand, and my leg was shot off. Had I 
 had the good fortune to have lost my leg and use of my 
 hand on board a king's ship, and not a privateer, I should 
 have been entitled to clothing and maintenance during the 
 
4i6 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 rest of my life ; but that was not my chance : one man is 
 born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a 
 wooden ladle. However, blessed be God, I enjoy good 
 health, and have no enemy in this world that I know of, 
 but the French and the Justice of Peace." 
 
 Thus saying, he limped off, leaving my friend and me 
 in admiration of his intrepidity and content ; nor could we 
 avoid acknowledging, that an habitual acquaintance with 
 misery is the truest school of fortitude and philosophy. — 
 Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII 
 To THE Same 
 
 THB titles of European princes are rather more numer- 
 ous than ours of Asia, but by no means so sublime. 
 The king of Visapour or Pegu, not satisfied with 
 claiming the globe and all its appurtenances to him and 
 his heirs, asserts a property even in the firmament, and ex- 
 tends his orders to the milky way. The monarchs of 
 Europe, with more modesty, confine their titles to earth, 
 but make up by number what is wanting in their sublim- 
 ity. Such is their passion for a long list of these splendid 
 trifles, that I have known a German prince with more 
 titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more 
 names than shirts. 
 
 Contrary to this, "the English monarchs," says a writer 
 of the last century, "disdain to accept of such titles, which 
 tend only to increase their pride, without improving their 
 glory ; they are above depending on the feeble helps of 
 heraldry for respect, perfectly satisfied with the conscious- 
 ness of acknowledged power." At present, however, these 
 maxims are laid aside ; the English monarchs have of late 
 assumed new titles, and have impressed their coins with 
 the names and arms of obscure dukedoms, petty states, and 
 subordinate employments. Their design in this, I make no 
 doubt, was laudably to add new lustre to the British 
 throne ; but, in reality, paltry claims only serve to dimin- 
 ish that respect they are designed to secure. 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 417 
 
 There is in the honors assumed by kings, as in the 
 decorations of architecture, a majestic simpUcity, which 
 best conduces to inspire our reverence and respect ; numer- 
 ous and trifling ornaments in either are strong indications 
 of meanness in the designer, or of concealed deformity. 
 Should, for instance, the emperor of China, among other 
 titles, assume that of deputy mandarin of Maccau ; or the 
 monarch of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, desire to 
 be acknowledged as Duke of Brentford, Lunenburg, or 
 Lincoln ; the observer revolts at this mixture of important 
 and paltry claims, and forgets the emperor in his famil- 
 iarity with the duke or the deputy. 
 
 I remember a similar instance of this inverted ambition 
 in the illustrious king of Manacabo, upon his first treaty 
 with the Portuguese. Among the presents that were made 
 him by the ambassador of that nation was a sword, with a 
 brass hilt, which he seemed to set a peculiar value upon. 
 This he thought too great an acquisition to his glory to 
 be forgotten among the number of his titles. He therefore 
 gave orders, that his subjects should style him for the 
 future. Talipot, the immortal potentate of Manacabo, Mes- 
 senger of the Morning, Enlightener of the Sun, Possessor 
 of the whole Earth, and mighty Monarch of the Brass- 
 handled Sword. 
 
 This method of mixing majestic and paltry titles, of quar- 
 tering the arms of a great empire and an obscure province 
 upon the same medal here, had its rise in the virtuous 
 partiality of their late monarchs. Willing to testify an 
 affection to their native country, they gave its name and 
 ensigns a place upon their coins, and thus in some measure 
 ennobled its obscurity. It was, indeed, but just, that a 
 people which had given England up their king, should re- 
 ceive some honorary equivalent in return ; but at present 
 these motives are no more : England has now a monarch 
 wholly British ; and it has some reason to hope for British 
 titles upon British coins. 
 
 However, were the money of England designed to circu- 
 late in Germany, there would be no flagrant impropriety in 
 impressing it with German names and arms; but though 
 this might have been so upon former occasions, I am told 
 27 
 
4i8 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 there is no danger of it for the future. As England, there- 
 fore, designs to keep back its gold, I candidly think 
 lyUnenburg, Oldenburg, and the rest of them, may very 
 well keep back their titles. 
 
 It is a mistaken prejudice in princes to think that a 
 number of loud-sounding names can give new claims to 
 respect. The truly great have ever disdained them. When 
 Timur the I^ame had conquered Asia, an orator by profes; 
 sion came to compliment him upon the occasion. He began 
 his harangue by styling him the most omnipotent and the 
 most glorious object of the creation. The emperor seemed 
 displeased with his paltry adulation ; yet still he went on, 
 complimenting him as the most mighty, the most valiant, 
 and the most perfect of beings. "Hold there, my friend," 
 cries the lame emperor, ** hold there, till I have got another 
 leg." In fact, the feeble or the despotic alone find pleasure 
 in multiplj'ing these pageants of vanity ; but strength and 
 freedom have nobler aims, and often find the finest adula- 
 tion in majestic simplicity. 
 
 The young monarch of this country has already testified 
 a proper contempt for several unmeaning appendages on 
 royalty ; cooks and scullions have been obliged to quit their 
 fires ; gentlemen's gentlemen, and the whole tribe of neces- 
 sary people who did nothing, have been dismissed from 
 further services. A youth who can thus bring back sim- 
 plicity and frugality to a court, will soon probably have a 
 true respect for his own glory ; and while he has dismissed 
 all useless employments, may disdain to accept of empty or 
 degrading titles. — Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XXXIX 
 To THE Same 
 
 WHENEVER I attempt to characterize the English in 
 general, some unforeseen difficulties constantly oc- 
 cur to disconcert my design ; I hesitate between 
 censure and praise. When I consider them as a reasoning, 
 philosophical people, they have my applause ; but when I 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 419 
 
 reverse the medal, and observe their inconstancy and irres- 
 olution, I can scarcely persuade myself that I am observ- 
 ing the same people. 
 
 Yet, upon examination, this very inconstancy, so re- 
 markable here, flows from no other source than their love 
 of reasoning. The man who examines a complicated subject 
 on every side, and calls in reason to his assistance, will 
 frequently change; will find himself distracted by opposing 
 improbabilities and contending proofs ; every alteration of 
 place will diversify the prospect, will give some latent argu- 
 ment new force, and contribute to maintain an anarchy in 
 the mind. 
 
 On the contrary, they who never examine with their 
 own reason act with more simplicity. Ignorance is posi- 
 tive, instinct perseveres, and the human being moves in 
 safety within the narrow circle of brutal uniformity. What 
 is true with regard to individuals, is not less so when ap- 
 plied to states. A reasoning government like this is in 
 continual fluctuation, while those kingdoms where men are 
 taught not to controvert, but obey, continue always the 
 same. In Asia, for instance, where the monarch's authority 
 is supported by force, and acknowledged through fear, a 
 change of government is entirely unknown. All the inhab- 
 itants seem to wear the same mental complexion, and 
 remain contented with hereditary oppression. The sover- 
 eign's pleasure is the ultimate rule of duty ; every branch 
 of the administration is a perfect epitome of the whole ; and 
 if one tyrant is deposed, another starts up in his room to 
 govern as his predecessor. The English, on the contrary, 
 instead of being led by power, endeavor to guide them- 
 selves by reason : instead of appealing to the pleasure of the 
 prince, appeal to the original rights of mankind. What 
 one rank of men assert, is denied by others, as the reasons 
 on opposite sides happen to come home with greater or less 
 conviction. The people of Asia are directed by precedent, 
 which never alters ; the English by reason, which is ever 
 changing its appearance. 
 
 The disadvantages of an Asiatic government, acting in 
 this manner by precedent, are evident : original errors are 
 thus continued, without hopes of redress ; and all marks of 
 
420 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 genius are leveled down to one standard, since no superi- 
 ority of thinking can be allowed its exertion in mending 
 obvious defects. But to recompense those defects, their 
 governments undergo no new alterations ; they have no new 
 evils to fear, nor no fermentations in the constitution that 
 continue ; the struggle for power is soon over, and all be- 
 comes tranquil as before ; they are habituated to subordi- 
 nation, and men are taught to form no other desires than 
 those which they are allowed to satisfy. 
 
 The disadvantages of a government acting from the im- 
 mediate influence of reason, like that of England, are not 
 less than those of the former. It is extremely diflBcult to 
 induce a number of free beings to co-operate for their mu- 
 tual benefit ; every possible advantage will necessarily be 
 sought, and every attempt to procure it must be attended 
 with a new fermentation ; various reasons will lead different 
 ways, and equity and advantage will often be outbalanced 
 by a combination of clamor and prejudice. But though 
 such a people may be thus in the wrong, they have been 
 influenced by a happy delusion ; their errors are seldom 
 seen till they are felt ; each man is himself the tyrant he 
 has obeyed, and such a master he can easily forgive. The 
 disadvantages he feels may, in reality, be equal to what is 
 felt in the most despotic government ; but man will bear 
 every calamity with patience when he knows himself to be 
 the author of his own misfortunes. — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 To THE Same 
 
 MY LONG residence here begins to fatigue me. As 
 every object ceases to be new, it no longer continues 
 to be pleasing : some minds are so fond of variety, 
 that pleasure itself, if permanent, would be insupportable, 
 and we are thus obliged to solicit new happiness even by 
 courting distress. I only, therefore, wait the arrival of my 
 son to vary this trifling scene, and borrow new pleasure 
 from danger and fatigue. A life, I own, thus spent in 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 421 
 
 wandering from place to place is at best but empty dissipa- 
 tion. But to pursue trifles is the lot of humanity : and 
 whether we bustle in a pantomime, or strut at a coronation ; 
 whether we shout at a bonfire, or harangue in a senate- 
 house ; whatever object we follow, it will at last surely con- 
 duct us to futility and disappointment. The wise bustle 
 and laugh as they walk in the pageant, but fools bustle 
 and are important ; and this probably is all the difEereuce 
 between them. 
 
 This may be an apology for the levity of my former cor- 
 respondence ; I talked of trifles, and I knew that they were 
 trifles ; to make the things of this life ridiculous, it is only 
 sufl&cient to call them by their names. 
 
 In other respects, I have omitted several striking circum- 
 stances in the description of this country, as supposing 
 them either already known to you, or as not being thor- 
 oughly known to myself ; but there is one omission for 
 which I expect no forgiveness, namely, my being totally 
 silent upon their buildings, roads, rivers, and mountains. 
 This is a branch of science on which all other travelers are 
 so very prolix, that my deficiency will appear the more 
 glaring. With what pleasure, for instance, do some read 
 of a traveler in Egypt measuring a fallen column with his 
 cane, and finding it exactly five feet nine inches long ; of 
 his creeping through the mouth of a catacomb, and coming 
 out by a different hole from that he entered ; of his steal- 
 ing the finger of an antique statue, in spite of the janizary 
 that watched him ; or his adding a new conjecture to the 
 hundred and fourteen conjectures already published upon 
 the names of Osiris and Isis. 
 
 Methinks I hear some of my friends in China demanding 
 a similar account of I^ondon and the adjacent villages ; and 
 if I remain here much longer, it is probable I may gratify 
 their curiosity. I intend, when run dry on other topics, to 
 take a serious survey cf the city wall ; to describe that 
 beautiful building the mansion-house ; I will enumerate the 
 magnificent squares in which the nobility chiefly reside, 
 and the royal palaces appointed for the reception of the 
 English monarch ; nor willj I forget the beauties of Shoe 
 Lane, in which I myself have resided since my arrival. 
 
422 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 You shall find me no way inferior to many of my brother 
 travelers in the arts of description. At present, however, 
 as a specimen of this way of writing, I send you a few 
 hasty remarks, collected in a late journey I made to Kent- 
 ish Town, and this in the manner of modern voyagers. 
 
 " Having heard much of Kentish Town, I conceived a 
 strong desire to see that celebrated place. I could have 
 wished, indeed, to satisfy my curiosity without going 
 thither ; but that was impracticable, and therefore I re- 
 solved to go. Travelers have two methods of going to 
 Kentish Town, — they take coach, which costs ninepence, 
 or they may go afoot, which costs nothing : in my opinion, 
 a coach is by far the most eligible convenience, but I was 
 resolved to go on foot, having considered with myself, that 
 going in that manner would be the cheapest way. 
 
 " As you set out from Dog-house bar, you enter upon a 
 fine level road railed in on both sides, commanding on the 
 right a small prospect of groves and fields, enameled with 
 flowers, which would wonderfully charm the sense of smell- 
 ing, were it not for a dunghill on the left, which mixes 
 its effluvia with their odors. This dunghill is of much 
 greater antiquity than the road ; and I must not omit a 
 piece of injustice I was going to commit upon this occa- 
 sion. My indignation was leveled against the makers of 
 the dunghill, for having brought it so near the road ; 
 whereas, it should have fallen upon the makers of the 
 road, for having brought that so near the dunghill. 
 
 "After proceeding in this manner for some time, a build- 
 ing, resembling somewhat a triumphal arch, salutes the 
 traveler's view. This structure, however, is peculiar to 
 this country, and vulgarly called a turnpike-gate : I could 
 perceive a long inscription, in large characters, on the 
 front, probably upon the occasion of some triumph, but, 
 being in haste, I left it to be made out by some subse- 
 quent adventurer who may happen to travel this way ; so, 
 continuing my course to the west, I soon arrived at an 
 unwalled town, called Islington. 
 
 " Islington is a pretty neat town, mostly built of brick, 
 with a church and bells ; it has a small lake, or rather 
 pond, in the midst, though at present very much neg- 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 423 
 
 lected. I am told it is dry in summer : if this be the 
 case, it can be no very proper receptacle for fish ; of which 
 the inhabitants themselves seem sensible, by bringing all 
 that is eaten there from London. 
 
 "After having surveyed the curiosities of this fair and 
 beautiful town, I proceeded forward, leaving a fair stone 
 building, called the White Conduit House, on my right. 
 Here the inhabitants of I<ondon often assemble to celebrate 
 a feast of hot rolls and butter: seeing such numbers, each 
 with their little tables before them, employed on this occa- 
 sion, must, no doubt, be a very amusing sight to the 
 looker-on, but still more so to those who perform in the 
 solemnity. 
 
 " From hence I parted with reluctance to Pancras, as it 
 is written, or Pancridge, as it is pronounced ; but which 
 should be both pronounced and written Pangrace : this 
 emendation I will venture meo arbitrio : nav, in the Greek 
 language, signifies aIvL, which, added to the English word 
 GRACE, maketh all grace, or Pangracb; and, indeed, this 
 is a very proper appellation to a place of so much sanctity as 
 Pangrace is universally esteemed. However this be, if you 
 except the parish church and its fine bells, there is little 
 in Pangrace worth the attention of the curious observer. 
 
 " From Pangrace to Kentish Town is an easy journey of 
 one mile and a quarter : the road lies through a fine 
 champaign country, well watered with beautiful drains, and 
 enameled with flowers of all kinds, which might contribute 
 to charm every sense, were it not that the odoriferous 
 gales are often more impregnated with dust than perfume. 
 
 " As you enter Kentish Town, the eye is at once pre- 
 sented with the shops of artificers, such as venders of can- 
 dles, small coal, and hair brooms ; there are also several 
 august buildings of red brick, with numberless sign posts, 
 or rather pillars, in a peculiar order of architecture. I 
 send you a drawing of several — vide ABC. This pretty 
 town probably borrows its name from its vicinity to the 
 county of Kent ; and, indeed, it is not unnatural that it 
 should, as there are only I<ondon and the adjacent villages 
 that lie between them. Be this as it will, perceiving night 
 approach, I made a hasty repast on roasted mutton and a 
 
424 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 certain dried fruit called potatoes, resolving to protract my 
 remarks upon my return ; and this I would very willingly 
 have done, but was prevented by a circumstance which, 
 in truth, I had for some time foreseen, for night coming 
 on, it was impossible to take a proper survey of the coun- 
 try, as I was obliged to return home in the dark. " — 
 Adieu. 
 
 I^ETTER XLI 
 
 To THE Same 
 
 AFTER a variety of disappointments, my wishes are at 
 length fully satisfied. My son, so long expected, is 
 arrived ; at once, by his presence, banishing my anx- 
 iety, and opening a new scene of unexpected pleasure. His 
 improvements in mind and person have far surpassed even 
 the sanguine expectations of a father. I left him a boy, 
 but he is returned a man ; pleasing in his person, hardened 
 by travel, and polished by adversity. His disappointment 
 in love, however, had infused an air of melancholy into 
 his conversation, which seemed at intervals to interrupt our 
 mutual satisfaction. I expected that this could find a cure 
 only from time ; but fortune, as if willing to load us with 
 her favors, has, in a moment, repaid every uneasiness with 
 rapture. 
 
 Two days after his arrival the Man in Black, with his 
 beautiful niece, came to congratulate us upon this pleasing 
 occasion ; but guess our surprise, when my friend's lovely 
 kinswoman was found to be the very captive my son had 
 rescued from Persia, and who had been wrecked on the 
 Wolga, and was carried by the Russian peasants to the 
 port of Archangel. Were I to hold the pen of a novelist, I 
 might be prolix in describing their feelings at so unex- 
 pected an interview ; but you may conceive their joy with- 
 out my assistance : words were unable to express their 
 transports ; then how can words describe it ? 
 
 When two young persons are sincerely enamored of each 
 other, nothing can give me such pleasure as seeing them 
 married : whether I know the parties or not, I am happy 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 425 
 
 at thu.s binding one link more in the universal chain. 
 Nature has, in some measure, formed me for a match- 
 maker, and given me a soul to sympathize with every 
 mode of human felicity. I instantly, therefore, consulted 
 the Man in Black, whether we might not crown their mu- 
 tual wishes by marriage ; his soul seems formed of similar 
 materials with mine ; he instantly gave his consent, and 
 the next day was appointed for the solemnization of their 
 nuptials. 
 
 All the acquaintances which I had made since my arrival 
 were present at this gay solemnity. The little Beau was con- 
 stituted master of the ceremonies, and his wife, Mrs. Tibbs, 
 conducted the entertainment with proper decorum. The Man 
 in Black and the pawnbroker's widow were very sprightly 
 and tender upon this occasion. The widow was dressed up 
 under the direction of Mrs. Tibbs ; and as for her lover, 
 his face was set ojff by the assistance of a pigtail wig, 
 which was lent by the little Beau, to fit him for mak- 
 ing love with proper formality. The whole company easily 
 perceived that it would be a double wedding before all was 
 over, and, indeed, my friend and the widow seemed to 
 make no secret of their passion ; he even called me aside, 
 in order to know my candid opinion, whether I did not 
 think him a little too old to be married. " As for my own 
 part," continued he, "I know I am going to play the fool; 
 but all my friends will praise my wisdom, and produce me 
 as the very pattern of discretion to others." 
 
 At dinner everything seemed to run on with good humor, 
 harmony, and satisfaction. Every creature in company 
 thought themselves pretty, and every jest was laughed at. 
 The Man in Black sat next his mistress, helped her plate, 
 chimed her glass, and jogging her knees and her elbow, he 
 whispered something arch in her ear, on which she patted 
 his cheek : never was antiquated passion so playful, so 
 harmless, and amusing, as between this reverend couple. 
 
 The second course was now called for, and, among a va- 
 riety of other dishes, a fine turkey was placed before the 
 widow. The Europeans, you know, carve as they eat; my 
 friend, therefore, begged his mistress to help him to a part 
 of the turkey. The widow, pleased with an opportunity of 
 
426 GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 showing her skill in carving (an art upon which it seems she 
 piqued herself), began to cut it up. by first taking off the 
 leg. " Madam, " cries my friend, " if I might be permitted to 
 advise, I would begin by cutting off the wing, and then 
 the leg will come off more easily." — "Sir," replies the 
 widow, "give me leave to understand cutting up a fowl: I 
 always begin with the leg." — "Yes, madam," replies the 
 lover ; " but if the wing be the most convenient manner, I 
 would begin with the wing." — "Sir," interrupts the lady, 
 "when. you have fowls of your own, begin with the wing 
 if you please, but give me leave to take off the leg ; I 
 hope I am not to be taught at this time of day." — 
 " Madam, " interrupts he, " we are never too old to be in- 
 structed." — "Old, sir!" interrupts the other; "who is old, 
 sir? when I die of age, I know of some that will quake for 
 fear. If the leg does not come off, take the turkey to 
 yourself." — "Madam," replied the Man in Black, "I don't 
 care a farthing whether the leg or the wing comes off ; if 
 you are for the leg first, why, you shall have the argu- 
 ment, even though it be as I say." — "As for the matter of 
 that," cries the widow, " I don't care a fig whether you are 
 for the leg off or on : and, friend, for the future keep your 
 distance." — "Oh," replied the other, "that is easily done; 
 it is only removing to the other end of the table ; and so, 
 madam, your most obedient humble servant." 
 
 Thus was this courtship of an age destroyed in one mo- 
 ment ; for this dialogue effectually broke off the match 
 between this respectable couple, that had been but just 
 concluded. The smallest accidents disappoint the most im- 
 portant treaties. However, though it in some measure 
 interrupted the general satisfaction, it no ways lessened 
 the happiness of the youthful couple; and, by the young 
 lady's looks, I could perceive she was not entirely displeased 
 with this interruption. 
 
 In a few hours the whole transaction seemed entirely for- 
 gotten, and we have all since enjoyed those satisfactions 
 which result from a consciousness of making each other 
 happy. My son and his fair partner are fixed here for life : 
 the Man in Black has given them up a small estate in the 
 country, which, added to what I was able to bestow, will be 
 
CITIZEN OF THE WORLD 427 
 
 capable of supplying all the real, but not the fictitious, de- 
 mands of happiness. As for myself, the woild being but 
 one city to me, I do not much care in which of the streets 
 I happen to reside : I shall, therefore, spend the remain- 
 der of my days in examining the manners of different 
 countries, and have prevailed upon the Man in Black to be 
 my companion. "They must often change," says Confu- 
 cius, "who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." — 
 Adieu. 
 
 BND OF THB CITIZBN OF THB WORI,D.