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 sig^it 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 singu- larity, 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. Travellers tare 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 i2th of the moon of Saphar, 1712.
LETTER XXIV Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna We have 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.
* The Persian women wear four. — (M.)
79 PERSIAN LETTERS Paris is quite as large as Ispahan. The houses are so high that you would swear they must h<? inhabited by astrologers. 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 roimd; 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 yet 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.
The King of France ^ is the most powerful of European potentates. He has no mines of gold like his neighbour, the King of Spain; but he is much wealthier than that prince, because his riches are drawn from a more inexhaustible source, the vanity of his subjects. He has undertaken and carried on great wars, without any other supplies than those 1 Louis XIV.
8o LETTER XXIV derived from the sjfle of titles of honour; and it is hy 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 believe it.^ If he has a costly war on hand, aftid is short of money, he simply suggests to his subjects that a piece of pa{^er is coin of the realm, and they are straightway convinced of it. He hcis 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 power- ful still, who is mastor of the king’s mind, as absolutely as the king is master of the minds 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 1 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 currency, and not according to their true worth.” — ^La Rocbbfoucauld.
8l F PERSIAN LETTERS which he called Gonstitution,^ a&d wished to enforce belief in all that it contained upon this prince and his subjects under heavy penalties. He succeeded in the case of the king,* who set the example of imme- diate 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 religion, 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 miraculoxis nature have been told me of the king, which I am certain will appear to you hardly credible.
It is said, that, while he was making war against such of his neighbours as had leagued against him, there were in his kingdom an infinite number of 1 An anachronism. The date of this letter is 1712, but the Bull UnigenituSt which, under the name of the " Constitution," troubled France during the greater part of the eighteenth century, was not issued till 1713.
2 Louis XIV. submitted the more readily because he required the Pope's aid to terminate the theological quarrels which had become insufferable to him.
82 LETTER XXV invisible foes surrounding him on all sides. ^ They ajdd, that, during a thirty years’ search, in spite of the indefatigable exertions of certain dervishes who are in his confidence,* 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 mortifica- tion of dying 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, jn afflicting him with invisible enemies of a spirit and a destiny superior to his own.
I will continue to write you, and acquaint you with matters differing widely from the Persian character and genius. We tread, indeed, the same earth; but it seems incredible, remembering in the presence of the meli of this country those of the country in which you are.
Paris, the 4th of the second moon of Rebiab,* 1712.
LETTER XXV Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna I HAVE 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 ^ The Jansenists. * The Jesuits.
* Rabi-ul-sani, the second month of spring, and fourth of the Persian year.
83 PERSIAN LETTERS 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 ever3rwhere as grateful and as faithful as we are!
I hope to sqp 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, 1713.
LETTER XXVI Usbek to Roxana, at the Seraglio at Ispahan How happy you are, Roxana, to be in the delightful country of Persia, and not in these poisoned region^, 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 sxiUied you with a lascivious look; your father-in- law himself, even during the licence 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 84 LETTER XXVI received 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 with- held yourself from my sight! How impatient 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 distinguish between me jnd all other men from whom you always conceal yourself. Do you remember that day when I Jost yQu 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 supplied? Seeing a dagger, you threatened to destroy a husband who loved you, if he continued to demand the sacrifice of what was dearer to you than your husband himself. Two months passed in this combat between love and modesty; and j«u carried your chaste scruples so far, that you did not submit even after you were conquered, but defended to 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 reproach 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 favours, I was ravished with the greatest.
If you had been brought up in this country, you 85 PERSIAN LETTERS 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 promen- ades, even to their rooms: the service of eunuchs is quite unknown to them. In place of that noble simplicity, that amiable modesty which reigns among you, a brute-like impudence prevails, to which one can never grow accustomed.
Yes, Roxana, were you here, you would feel your- self 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, with- out fear of ever losing that love which it is your duty to feel for me.
When you heighten the brilliance of your com- plexion with the loveliest colour, 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 viva- city, 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 your- self into my heart with soft and flattering words, I cannot, Roxana, suspect 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 bodies, the desire to please 86 LETTER XXVI which occupies them continually, are so many stains »n their virtue, and affronts to their husbands.
It is not, Roxana, that I believe they carry their encroachment on virtue as far as such conduct might be expected to lead them, or that their debauchery extends to such horrible excess as the absolute viola- tion of their conjugal 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 frorn 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,i 1712.
1 More correctly, Rejah^ the seventh month of the Persian year.
87 PERSIAN LETTERS LETTER XXVII ' Ushek to Nessir, at Ispahan We are now at Paris, that proud rival of the city of the sun.^ When I left Sm3niia, I commissioned my friend Ibben to forward to you a box, containing some presents for you, ^hich you will receive along with this letter. Although I am five or six hundred leagues distant from hin?, we exchange news as easily as if he were at Ispahan and I at Koum. I send my letters to Marseilles, whence vessels are constantly sailing for Smyrna: from Sm3Tna he despatches those destined for Persia by the Armenian caravans which start every day for Ispahan.
Rica enjoys the best of health: the strength of his constitution, his youth, and his natural gaiety 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 you, 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.
1 Ispahan. — (M.)
88 LETTER XXVIII Farewell, Nessir. It is a great happiness to me that r can confide in you.
Paris, the 5th of the moon of Chahban, 1712.
LETTER XXVIII Rica to * * * Yesterday I witnessed a most ‘remarkable thing, although it is of daily occurrence in Paris.
In the evening, after dinnef, 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 sides may be seen in little nooks called boxes, men and women who perform in dumb show, something aftpr 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 lervid because it is mute. The actresses here display only half their bodies, and usually 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 1 “ 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 shall see nothing, and hear badly; but it is the most expensive, and consequently the most honourable place." — Dufresny's Amusements s&ieux ei comiques, chap. v.
89 PERSIAN LETTERS 89 PERSIAN LETTERS people whose youth enables them to support fatigue. They are obliged to appear everywhere; they mov3 through passages known only to them, mounting with surprising agility from storey to storey; 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 miracle one would hardly have expected from the fact that they carry crutches, perform prodigies similar to those I have described. Lastly, there are the rooms where a private comedy is playpd. Commencing with saluta- tions, 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 hard-heartedness being a species of frenzy, which goes as easily as it comes.
All this that I have described goes on in much th'’ 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 one of the principal actresses was undressing. We became so well acquainted, that next morning I received the following letter from her: “ Sir, — I, who have always been the most virtuous actress 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 yester- day, and in the act of dressing myself as priestess of 90 LETTER XXVIII V Diana, a young Abb4 broke in upon me. Undis- mayed 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 honour, 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 Abbe 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 formalities, and began where I should have ended. But, since I am dishonoured by his faithlessness, I do not wish to remain 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 stationary, 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 realise 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 behaviour renders her not altogether unworthy of your good offices. I am...”
Paris, the 2nd of the moon of Chalval,* 1712.
* More correctly, Shawal, the tenth month of the Persian year.
91 PERSIAN LETTERS LETTER XXIX Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna The 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 Georgia. He is, however, no longer dreaded. He declares himself to be the successor of one of the first Christians, calle4 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 functions. In their corporate capacity they have, like him, the right to make articles of faith. Individually, their sole duty is to’ dispense with the observance of these articles. For you must know that the Christian religion is burdened with an immense number of very tedious duties: and, as it is universally considered less easy to fulfil these tham to have bishops who can dispense with their fulfil- ment, 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 prescribed 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 dis- pensation.
The bishops do not make articles of faith for their own government. There are a very great number of 1 Lent.
92 LETTER XXIX learned men, for tlffe most part dervishes,^ who raise ^ew 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 kingdom of Christ.
Those who first propound some new doctrine, are immediately called heretics. Each heresy receives a name which fe the rall5dng cry of those who support it. But no one need be a heretic hgainst his will: he only requires to split the difference, and allege some scholastic subtlety to those wto accuse him of heresy; and, whether it be intelligible 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 Portugal 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 j)eople, 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,* and who has paid a visit to a province called Galicia.* Without that, a poor devil is in a wretched plight. Although he should swear like a Pagan that he is orthodox, they may very likely decline to admit his plea, and burn him for a heretic. Much good his scholastic subtlety will do him! They will none of 1 Applied by Montesquieu’s Persians to the friars, especially to the Jesuits.
* The pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella.
93 PERSIAN LETTERS 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 to lean to the side of severity, apparently because they think mankind desperately wicked. And yet, when it suits them, they have such a high opinion of mankind, that they think them incapable of lying; for they accept as witnesses, mortal enemies, loose women, and people whose trade 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, abhorring bloodshed, and are quite overcome at having to con- demn them. Then these heart-broken judges console themselves by confiscating to their own use all the goods of their miserable victims.
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.
LETTER XXX Rica to the Same, at Smyrna The curiosity of the people of Paris exceeds all bounds. When I arrived, they stared at me as if I ^ The Persians are the most tolerant of all the Moham- medans. — (M.)
94 LETTER XXX had dropped from *the sky: old and young, men, women, and children, were all agog to see me. If I vrent 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 colours. When I went sight- seeing, a hundred lorgnettes were speedily levelled at me: in fact, never was a man so stared at as I have been. I smiled frequently when I heard people who had never travelled beyond their own door, saying to each other, " He certainly looks ^ery like a Persian.” One thing struck me: I found my portraits every- where — 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 burden- some. 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 dreamt that I could have disturbed the peace of a great city, where I was quite unknown. I there- fore resolved to change my Persian dress for a Euro- pean 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 esti- mated 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 oppor- tunity 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 1 ah I a 95 PERSIAN LETTERS Persian, is he? Most amazing!• However can any- body be a Persian? ” Paris, the 6th of the moon of Chalval, 1712.
LETTER XXXI Rhedi to Usbek, 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 towbrs 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 accomplish 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 deUghted to live in a town where my mind is developed every day. I am gaining an imderstanding of the secrets of commerce, of the affairs of princes, and of their form of government. Nor do I neglect 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.
96 LETTER XXXII LETTER XXXII Rica to * * * I WENT the other day to look through a house where a meagre provision is made for some three himdred people.^ I was not long about it; for the church and the buildings do not deserve much attention. Those who live in tj^is establishment were quite cheerful; many of them played at cards, pr 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 curio- sity 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 i^ 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.
PERSIAN LETTERS LETTER XXXIII Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice 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 fulfil 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 excess which degrades them beneath the lowest of mankind. Here, however, the princes are allowed to use it, and no one hcis ever observed that it has caused them to do wrong. The human mind is inconsistency itself. In a drunken debauch, men break out madly against all precept; and the law, intended to make for our righteousness, often serves only to increase our guilt.
But, when I disapprove 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 98 LETTER XXXIV an infusion which cheers the heart and charms away the memory of its sufferings.
^here is no greater affliction than those consolations wMk:h are drawn from the necessity of evil, the inefficacy of remedies, the inevitableness of destiny, the dispensations of Providence, and the wretched state of mankind generally. It is mockery to think of lightening misfortune, by remembering that we are born to misery; it is much wiser to raise the mind above these reflections, to treat man as a 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.