the rifible mufcles, and who was unfkilled in the ufe of wit and irony.

As to what he fays in his 14th book," that the climate of England is fo diftempered as to give the natives a difrelish to every thing, nay even of life; and that the Englih deftroy themselves moft unac countably often in the very bofom of happiness," &c. it is an obfervation every way unworthy fuch a writer as Montefquieu. At least in this particular he might have informed himself better, as the know. ledge of it did not depend upon any nice difcernment of our language, as in the former inftance. But fometimes thefe eagles of philofophy will foar fo high, that they fee nothing but clouds. A more ordinary man would have found out, nay had it been in the islands of Borneo, or Madagascar, Montefquieu would have found, that this hateful practice of fuicide was brought about by a combination of moral caufes; that it was of very recent introduction, and that the natives formerly were not particularly remarkable for this morofenefs of difpofition, and this tedium vitæ.

When we confider the compound nature of man, neither a merely fenfitive being, nor yet a merely intellectual, or moral one, it will afford no fmall entertainment to let our thoughts wander over the various ways that the different religions of the Greeks, Romans, and the Italians, were calculated to act upon, and to occupy all the fenfes and the imagination, as well as the understanding of the people: even the ancient Jewish religion was not ill conftructed for this, by its pom

pous and magnificent feafts, its mufic, its facrifices, its numerous ceremonies, and their conftant frequency. The ancients feem to have grounded themfelves upon a perfuafion that all this external of things, this allegria, feafting, and occupation of the fenfes, was indifpenfibly neceflary for the bulk of mankind, whofe fituations in life utterly difqualified them for philofophy, fubtle calculations, and deductions from the fitnefs of things; and who could be but little affected, and that but for a very fhort time, by any fet of abftract, naked, fpeculative opinions, rigidly divefted of all outfide pomps and vanities of this world; and which, by defpifing the toys and puppet-fhew work of fuperftition and weaknefs, would leave nothing to amufe the weak and ignorant, who are very numerous, and are not always confined to the lower clafs. Their religions were accordingly conftructed in fuch a manner, as to afford a fort of general purfuit and fource of occupation and entertainment, which grew up with every man at the fame time that he was purfuing his particular avocation in life; and thofe who were baffled and disappointed in these particular purfuits, found an afylum and refource in recurring to the matter with which religion was amply ftored, and with which he could fill up the gulph and vacuity of his mind thus fickened and forfaken by its other prospects.

Some countries, from commerce and the form of government, are remarkably diftinguished for great private wealth, and its concomitants cafe and luxury. In fuch countries Socrates, Lycurgus, and

St.

St. Paul, may agree to decry fuch a fummum bonum, and to figmatize it as the fource of the deepest evil, but they will have little weight (even where their opinions might reach) with the inveterate habits of men, every part of whofe education has tended to amplify and to overrate thofe objects; and who, like foolish fportfmen, build their happinefs upon the capture, which is uncertain and liable to disappointment, and not in the chace, of which they could not be deprived. I have neither inclination nor ability to declaim upon the threadbare topics of the world, or the flefh, of Mammon, or Belial; and if I had, it were better spared, as thefe points have been long fince excellently laboured, both by philofophy and religion: but I will fay, that in a great kingdom, where the human paffions are all afloat, and where property is from the conftitution of that kingdom remarkably fluctuating, and almoft like a game of chance; and where the conflict of many different modes of religion had mutually ruined the credit of each other, and, generally fpeaking, left nothing remaining but a great chafm of doubt and disbelief; it will be hard to find in fuch a kingdom a remedy and a balfam for the difgufts of an impotent fated voluptuary, for the difappointment of baffled ambition, pride, avarice, and of all the other purfuits, where the hopes of multitudes of men finish in difappointment, ruin, and chagrin. There is then no general ftay left, no haven where this wreck can fhelter itself; the very nature and activity of his purfuits, and the paffions employed in them, has kept him a ftranger to real fociability, to af

fectionate hearty friendships, and to every thing that could now be of ufe; he can difburthen himself no where; he feeks folitude, and he has no fears before him to hinder his taking a leap in the dark./ Thefe things, as Dr. Young obferves, might have happened in any climate, even in Eden:

A fenfual, unreflecting life, is big
With monftrous births, and Suicide, to

crown

The black infernal brood.

Complaint, Night V.

As to low fpirits, and what the French call ennui, as people educate themselves into it, fo, if they do not fuffer it to go too far, they may educate themfelves out of it again, of which I have known inftances. Some men, as was obferved before, are brought to this temperature of mind, by indulg ing themfelves in melancholy, upon their loffes and difappointments in matters of uncertain tenure, and which they have unwifely overrated. Others, ftrange as it may feem, only affect it in the begin ning; and, as is often the cafe in love and in other things, habit is fure to convert it afterwards into a reality. Now there are two infallible remedies that might be prefcribed in this diforder, one of them indeed is to be taken rather by way of preventive, and confifts in fetting about the acquiring of good humour and high fpirits; and the method to be purfued is laid down in Lord Bacon, page 74. "Practise them (good humour and high fpirits) chiefly at two several times: the one when the mind is beft difpofed; the other when it is worft difpofed: that by the one you may gain a great step, by the other

you

you may work out the knots and ftondes of the mind, and make the middle times the more eafy and pleasant." As for the other method of removing the spleen, when it has actually taken place, it has been practifed with falutary good effect upon the Yahoos, and is laid down in Gulliver, who, from certain parities, which he has well difcovered, recommends it trenuously to an English conflitution, and pledges himfelf for the fuccefs of its application..

I hope it is not neceffary to infift, that an over-attention to fenfual and worldly qualifications, and an unfeeling indifference to the objects of religion and morality, cannot be the natural confequence of living in any one climate more than in another; certainly not. The human paffions, which are the feeds of diversity, and the inftruments of good and evil, receive no character from nature but that of strength or weakness. A man with weak paf, fions will never be either very excellent, or very vicious; but when the paffions are ftrong and impetuous, then it is that they touch the extremes of heaven, or hell, with their virtues or their vices, according to whichever goal their habits and their education drive them. Thus it is that a man is accountable for his actions; a father for his children; and the ftate for its members. Timely habits and proper education might convert fenfibility into humanity, pride into greatnefs of foul, and curioLity into a knowledge of fublime truths.

The hiftories of England, Greece, Italy, and France, furnish many in

ftances of great changes and revolutions in politics, religion and morality. There can be no doubt but that Epicurifm, Stoicifm, Pyrrhonifm, or true or falfe Chriftianity, might be planted fuccefsfully in any of thefe foils; they are equally capable of the extremes of fuperftition and impiety, and confequently of filling up all the mediate fpaces between them; they are alike fufceptible of every mode of government, of aristocracy, democracy, or monarchy. There are periods in which each country has fhewn virtue to be admired and imitated; and there are others which fhock us with their vices and corruptions: they have had their ages of equal laws, of anarchy, tyranny, luxury, piety, and impiety. The Greeks and Afiatics were eager to make images in one age, and they were as zealous to break them in another; they had their ages of Iconoclaftes and Iconopoi, they had their times when, like the English, they thought it unlawful to paint any thing but birds, landscapes, and other ftill-life fubjects *; and there were other, happier times, when the fame people looked with a becoming contempt on fuch unworthy purfuits, and when all the dignity of genius was employed upon those nobler objects of the human character and the paffions; the very vestiges of which are at this day the admiration of all enlightened people. The people of England have been at one period ambitious of filling up a long calendar of faints, at another they were as bufily employed in blotting them out. At one time they are slavish enough

to

to hold their kingdom in vaffalage to the pope: at another they laugh at his authority, and spit back interdicts and excommunications in his face.

to the point-In your tenth dif course, page feventy-eight, in the fecond volume-is this very affecting paffage-" Confider how great a part of our fpecies in all ages down to this-have been trod under the feet of cruel and capricious tyrants, who would neither hear their cries, nor pity their diftreffes.

I

Reverend Sir,

--

T would be an infult on your humanity (or perhaps look like it) to apologize for the liberty I am taking-I am one of thofe people whom the vulgar and illiberal call negroes.-The first part of my life was rather unlucky, as I was placed in a family who judg. ed ignorance the best and only fe curity for obedience. A little reading and writing I got by unwearied application. The latter part of my life has been, thro' God's bleffing, truly fortunate-having Spent it in the fervice of one of the beft and greatest families in the kingdom-my chief pleasure has been books-Philanthropy I adore -How very much, good Sir, am I (amongst millions) indebted to you for the character of your amiable Uncle Toby!-I declare I would walk ten miles in the dog-days, to shake hands with the honeft corporal. Your fermons have touched me to the heart, and I hope have amended it, which brings me

befeeching you to give one half hour's attention to flavery, as it is at this day practifed in our WestIndies.-That fubject handled in your striking manner would eafe the yoke (perhaps) of many-but if only of one-Gracious God! what a feaft to a benevolent heart! and fure I am, you are an epicurean in acts of charity.-You who are univerfally read, and as univerfally admired-you could not fail.

Dear Sir, think in me you be hold the uplifted hands of thoufands of my brother Moors. Grief (you pathetically obferve) is eloquent: figure to yourself their at titudes; hear their fupplicating addreffes!-alas! you cannot refufe.-Humanity muft complyin which hope I beg permiffion to fubfcribe myself,

Reverend Sir, &c.

I. S.

From Mr. Sterne, to Ignatius Sancho. Coxwould, July 27, 1767. THERE is a strange coincidence, Sancho, in the little events (as