Paris, the i8th of the moon of Rhamazan, 1718.
‘LETTER CXXIII Usbek to the Same The propagation of the species is wonderfully aided by a mild government. All republics are a standing proof of this; especially Switzerland and Holland, which, with regard to the nature of the land, are the two worst countries in Europe, and which are yet the qfiost populous.
Nothing attracts strangers more than liberty, and its accompaniment, wealth: 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 diminisliing in the least the parents' provision.
LETTER CXXIII That very equality of the citizens which generally produces equality in their fortunes, brings plenty and vigour into all the parts of the body politic, and spreads these blessings throughout the whole state.
It is not so in countries subject to^rbitrary power: the prince, the courtiers, and a few private persons, posses 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 increase the race without any regard to his poverty or wealth; that consideration does not affect him: he has always a safe inheritance to leave his children, and that is his plough; so nothing with- holds 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 rapidly as they are bom: they never thrive: feeble and impotent, they die retail in a thousand ways, or are carried off wholesale by those frequent epidemics which poverty and bad diet always produce: those who escape attain the age of manhood without possessing its vigour, and waste away during the rest of their lives.
Men are like plants which never flourish it they are not well cultivated: among poor people, the race decUnes 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 enrolled in the militia forced them to marry, PERSIAN LETTERS 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, famine, 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 23rd of the moon of Rhamazan, 1718.
LETTER CXXIV Usbek to the Mollah Mehemet Alt, Guardian of the Three Tombs, at Koum To what end are the fasts of the imans, and the sack- cloth of the mollahs? The hand of God has twice lain heavy upon the children of the law: the sun has Qbscured 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 Christian 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 every- wLere the wrath of Heaven, enraged at their rebellion and their treachery.
Holy spirit of the imans, thou weepest night and day over the children of the Prophet, whom the de- testable Omar misled: thy bowels are moved at the 1 Prince Eugene, who defeated the Turks at Peterwardein, took Belgrade in 1717, and concluded the advantageous peace of Passarowitz in 1718.
LETTER CXXV sight of their misfortunes: thou desirest their con- version, and not their perdition: thou wouldst have them united under the standard of Hali through the tears of the saints; and not scattered among the mountains and the deserts through terror of the infidels.
Pafis, the ist of the moon of Clialval, 1718.
LETTER CXXV^ • Ushek to Rhedi, at lienice What can be the motive of those immense gratui- ties 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, impoverished by the very same means.
When I consider the situation of princes, alway: surrounded by greedy and insatiable men, I cannot but pity them; and I pity them still more, when they have not the strength to resist demands — alwa)^ a task to those who need to ask for nothing.
I never hear talk of their liberality, of the favours and pensions which they grant, but I give myself up to a thousand reflections: a throng of ideas preset themselves to my mind: it seems to me that I hear the following decree published: — “ The indefatigable courage of some of our subjects in suing for pensions, having taxed without inter- mission our royal m^ignificence, we have at length granted the multitude of requests presented to us, 1 The sixth of the letters added in 1754.
PERSIAN LETTERS 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 crown to attend our levees; that we have always seen them in our progresses as mo^onless 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 consider that they adorned the courts of the kings, our predecessors; 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 follows: — “ That every labourer, 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 propor- tion 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 mechanical 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.
LETTER CXXVI " And, inasmuch «s 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 unty, having attained the age prescribed 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 Chalval, 1718.
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 torments which await them; but who knows what to promise the virtuous. Joys seem by nature to be of short duration, 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 condemn them to the torture of^ 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 PERSIAN LETTERS the Mogul; it shows that the liidian priests are as fertile as others m their ideas of the pleasures of Paradise.
A woman who had just lost her husband, went in due form to thf governor of the city demanding permission to burn herself; but since, in the countries subject to the Mohammedans, they have abolishafi 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 ra^e. “ Look you,” said she, " how you torment me! A poor woman is not even allowed to bum herself when she has a mind to! Did one ever see the like! My mother, my aunt, my sisters, were all decently burned! And, when I come to ask permission of this confounded governor, he gets angry, and begins raging like a madman.”
A young bonze ^ happened to be present. " In- fidel,” said the governor to him, ” is it you who have set on this woman to commit this folly? ” " No,” said he, “ I never spoke to her; but if she believes as I do, she will complete 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 bth'n 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 I...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 ‘ Bonzes are the Buddhist priests of China, whom Montes- quieu seems to have confounded with the Brahmins of India.
LETTER CXXVII kind of life I led witU 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.”
P^is, the 2nd of the moon of Chalval, 1718.
LETTER CXXVII Rica to Usbek, at \ * * I EXPECT you here to-morrow: meantime I send you your letters from Ispahan. Mine bring word that the ambassador of the Great Mogul ^ has received orders to quit the kingdom. They add that the prince, the uncle of the king,* \tho has charge of his education, has been arrested, conducted to » castle, where he is closely guarded, and deprived of alhhis honours. The fate of this prince moves me, and I pity him. • I own, Usbek, that I have never beheld the tears fall frvJm the eyes of any one without deep sympathy: my humanity feels for the unhappy, as if they only were human; and great people even, towards 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, however, as they have fallen from 1 By the Great Mogul is here meant the King of Spain. His ambassador 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.
* The Duke of Maine.
PERSIAN LETTERS 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 td his courtiers, who stood weeping round him, “ I see by your tears that I am still your king.”
Paris, the 3rd 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 companion, '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* was immediately 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 offence which, in my judgment, deserves a thousand deaths.
For, in short, if it is a villainous action to blacken th^ character of the meanest of his subjects in the eyes of a prince, what must it be to traduce an entire nation, and to withdraw from it the goodwill 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 1 Charles XII. of Sweden. • Baron Gortz.
LETTER CXXIX king of kings descen(^ 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 Ufe 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 jj,ow it happens, but the wickedest king is hardly ever so bad as his minister; if he commits a vile action, it has nearly always been suggested to him: thus the ambition ofT>rinces is never so danger- ous as the baseness of their advis'lrs. 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 tho^ he is about to oppress?
A prince has passions; the ifiinister 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, 1719.
LETTER CXXIX Rica to Usbek, at * * * As I was passing the other day over the Pont-Neuf with one of my friends, he met a man of his acquaint- ance, who, he said, was a geometer; and he looked it, PERSIAN LETTERS for he was in a deep meditatiop: my friend had to tug at his sleeve for a long time and to shake him to bring him 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 inter- change of comiJiiments, and they imparted to each other some items of literary news. Their talk con- tinued till we came to the door of a coffee-house, which I entered with them.
I noticed that our geometer was received by every- body with marked cordiality, and that the coffee- house waiters made mucii 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-smiling, 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 garden, wh6 with a sword cuts off the head of tvery 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 conversation was very remark- able. He had come that day from the country with a man who had been to see a fine chS^teau 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 observed that the walks of the avenues might have appeared through- out of the same width; and for that purpose he would have supplied an infaUible method. He appeared to be much pleased with a dial which he had discovered LETTER CXXIX LETTER CXXIX there of a very pecuUar 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 newsmonger spoke of the bombardment of the castle of Fontarabia; and he at once told us the properties of the line^hich 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 ybu say is very agree- able to me,” said the geonfeter. “ I find that I am not mistaken in the observation v^ich 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 againstVnother man: they struck each other violently; and each rebounded from the colli- sion in proportion to his speed and weight. When they had recovered somewhat 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 pub- lished.” “ You do not understand me,” replied the other. “ It is a translation of that ancient aut^ior which I have given to the world: I have been engaged as a translator for twenty years.”
" What, sir! ” rejoined the geometer; “ have you been twenty years without thinking? You are only the mouthpiece of others.” “ Sir,” replied the savant, “ do you not think that I have done the public a great service in making them familiar with good PERSIAN LETTERS authors? ” “I am not so sur^ 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 for ever, 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 c^mong us those illustrious 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.
" Why do you riot engage rather in seeking for some of those glorious truths which a simple calculation discovers for us every day? ” After this piece of advice they parted, I imagine not in the best of humour with each other.
4 Paris, the last day of the second moon of Rebi&b, 1719.
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 utt'^rly 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 them- selves of consequence, because they converse about magnificent projects and discuss great interests.
The basis of their conversation is a frivolous and ridiculous curiosity: there is no cabinet, however 1 The Tuileries.
LETTER CXXX mysterious, whose secrets they do not pretend to fathom; they will not admit that they are ignorant of anjdhing; 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, aifd after having praised him for a thousand follies wlfich 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, 1 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 conceived that I would be derided, if I explawd my meaning too clearly; which caused me to employ terms somewhat enigmatic; but rational people imder- stood me well enough. On the 17th of April, in the same year, he died of the small-pox.
“ As soon as war was declared between the Emperor and the Turks, I went through every comer of the Tuileries in search of our gentlemen: and having PERSIAN LETTERS gathered them together near tlv^ basin, I prophesied to them that Belgrade would be besieged and taken. I was fortunate enough to have my prophecy fulfilled. It is true that towards the middle of the siege, I wagered a hundred pistoles that it would be taken on the i8th of Au^st; ^ it was not taken till the day after: how tantalising 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 victdrious 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 unknown, and!the late Count L.* would hardly permit it; but, since a crowd of petiti-maUres 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 youngsters offers to bet against it.
^jThe 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 pistoles that it's not.’ I behaved as if I had not heard this piece of extravagance; and, resuming in a louder voice, I said, ‘ the Marshal of LETTER CXXX.
* * *, having learned,.. ‘ That is false,’ cried he.
‘ Your news is always extravagant; there is an absence of common sense in all that.’
“ I beg you, sir, to favour me with the loan of thirty pistoles; for I confess that these bets have almost ruined me. Herewith I senci you copies of two letters which I have written to the minister. I am,'’ etc.
Letters of a Quidnunc to the Minister " My Lord, — I am the mdst loyal subject the king ever had. It was I who constrained’one of my friends to undertake a scheme I had formed of a book, proving that Louis 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 further, if your highness will grant me a privilege: ^ my desigh is to prove that, since the beginning of the monarchy, ‘the French have never been beaten, and that what historians havd hitherto written of our defeats is the merest invention. I am obliged to correct them on many occasions; and I flatter myself that I shine above all as a critic. I am, my lord,” etc.
“ My Lord, — As we have lost the Count of L.,* we beg you to have the goodness to allow us to electa 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 * That is, to publish. * The Count of Lionne.
PERSIAN LETTERS 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 nave to hold our meetings in the king’s garden or in some more out-of-the-way place. I Paris, the 7th of the second moon ’ of Gemmadi, 1719.
i.
♦I LETTER CXXXI" Rhedi to Rica, at Paris Nothing has interested me more since my arrival in Europe than the history and origin of republics. You know that most Asiatics have not only no notion of this form of gove'tnment, but that their imagination is unable to conceive the possibility of there being {£ay other in the world than despotism.
The first governments of which we know anything were monarchical; it was only by chance,* and in the course of 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 Egypt and the neighbouring countries ob»Asia; and as these countries were governed by kings, the races which came from them were governed in the same way. But the t3U'anny 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.
1 This letter contains the gist of the “ Esprit des Lois."
LETTER CXXXI Love of liberty, aad hatred of kings, preserved the independence 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 Eersia. 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 neighbours 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 colonies brought with them a spirit of liberty derived from that delight- ful 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 peoples 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 mistaken 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 men- tioned, and the Carthagenian 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.
PERSIAN LETTERS The wonderful rise of the Roman 'Republic 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 f eceived less power; if the righteous laws enacted to prevent their tyranny had been observed, and if, to render these laws of no efiect, the governors had not employed the very wealth amassed by their injustice. ' Liberty would se'em to have been intended for the genius of the European razees, and slavery for that of the Asiatics. In vain the Romans offered that price- less treasure to the Cappadocians. That mean- spirited nation refused it, and rushed into slavery with the same eagerness with which other races fly to liberty.
Caesar destroyed the Roman republic, and subjected it to arbitrary power., For a long time Europe groaned under the violence of a military government, and the gentle Roman sway v^as changed into cruel oppression.
Meantime am 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 peoples were free, and they put such restrictions on the authority of their kings, that they were properly only chiefs or generals. Thus thfee kingdoms, although founded by force, never endured the yoke of the conqueror. 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 LETTER CXXXII LETTER CXXXII not give their chiefs much power. Some of these races, indeed, like the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths in Spain, deposed their kings when they ceased to please them; and, amongst others, the power of the prince was limited in a thousand different ways; a great number of lords partook it with him; a war was^. never undertaken without their consent; the spoils were divided between the chief and the soldiers; and the laws vfere made in national assemblies. Here you have the fundamental priijciple of all those states which were formed from^the ruins of the Roman Empire.
Venice, the 20th of the moon of i<hegeb, 1719.
LETTER CXXXII Rica Five or six months ago I happened to be in a coffeg- 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 him 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 solvent; I can never manage to see a 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 PERSIAN LETTERS this talk; but, finding myself “^yesterday in that quarter, I entered 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, gentlemen, I am ruined; I have nothing to live on, for I have at present at home two hundred thousand liv,res in bank-notes,^ and a hundred thousand crowns in ' money; my situation is frightful; I, thought myself rich, and here I am a beggar; if I had on,ly a small estate to which I could retire, I woui<i 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! Wliat abominable treachery! Whatever he may do now, in my opinion he will always be disgraced.” * Quite near him was a very ill-dressed man, who, raising his eyes to heaven, said, " God b^ess the schemes of our ministers! May stocks rise to two thousand livres, and may I see all the lacqueys of Paris richer than their masters! ” I had the curiosity to ask what he was. " He is a very poor man,” they sai^, “ with a very poor profession: he is a genealogist, and he hopes that his art will become profitable if for- tunes 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 1 The paper of the Bank having become worthless, the holders of bills had to pay their value in cash into the Treasury.
* The depreciated paper retained in law its nominal value, so that a debtor could ruin his creditor by paying him in bank-bills.
LETTER CXXXIII 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.”
Lastly, I saw a pale thin man come in, whom I recognised for a Quidnunc before he had got seated; he was not one of those who are sufe of victory in face of every reverse, and always predict triumphs and trof)hies; he was, on the contrary, a weak-kneed brother, who^e neVs was always doleful. “ Things have taken a very bad turn for us in Spain,” he said; " we have no cavalry on the frontier, and it is feared that Prince Pio, who has ^ 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 proportion 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 Languedoc; and I, who detected yesterday evening*a spot in the sun, which, if it increases, may throv? nature generally into a state of stagnation — I have not said a word about it.”
Paris, the 17th of the moon of Rhamazan, 1719.
LETTER CXXXIII Rica to * * * The other day I visited a great library in a convent of dervishes, to whose care it has been entrusted, and who are obliged to admit all comers at certain hours.