each of them their place. They feem to ftop the traveller, and say; "Admire a

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(1) grateful country, which honoured

"us when living, and which refpects our 66 memory when dead.” O talents! bleffed is your lot in every quarter of the globe; in England it is glorious as well as happy.

The Guards will pleafe you even after thofe of Potfdam. There are a great many handfome men amongst them; and they go through their exercife with as much regularity as the Pruffian troops, though not near with fo much quicknefs.

(1) How different is the language of Scipio's tomb at Torre di Patria;

6-6

Ingrata Patria, ne quidem offa habebis."

B 2

But

But of all the impreffions that will be made on you, I believe the strongest will be from a very common circumstance which you will meet frequently in our ftreets. We have here vocal performers, as you have, who fing verfes to the crowd. You will hear them, in thofe fongs, mention the names of the first perfons in the miniftry, and load them with the most opprobrious language you can imagine. I bought yesterday one of thefe compofitions; and if a man of rank at Paris had faid indirectly half as much against one of your minifters in any company, he would fleep that night in the Baftile. The indecency of this will fhock you; but I know no country where there are fo many fhameful viola

I

tions

tions of public (1) decency to be met

with as in this.

In my next, I fhall give you fome account of our first-rate Geniufes, Wits, and Beauties, and a short hiftory of the present state of arts, letters, and manners. amongst us. Vale, hoftium dilectiffime.

(1) To attempt to keep a large city free from vice, would be ridiculous; because it is ridiculous to attempt impoffibilities. But a tolerable decency of manners ought to be expected; becaufe we fee it is practicable, and to be met with to a certain degree every where else.

3

LETTER II.

HAT is Love?

WHA

"C'eft un Dieu, mon, maitre,

"Et qui l'eft, belle Iris, du berger & du roi,. Il est fait comme vous, il (1) penfe comme moi,

Mais il eft plus hardi peutêtre :'

was, the extempore answer given by that elegant poet, and worthy character, the Cardinal de Bernis, to a lady who asked him the question. I like your definition, faid the Marchionefs, it is gallant; but I

like

my own better, though it is only in

(1) He meant fent, but it would not have made out the line.

profe;

profe; C'est l'etoffe de la nature brodée par l'imagination.

As Love is the most amiable and the most interesting of the paffions, there is scarce a Wit or a Philofopher from Plato to Farquhar that has not written upon it. They feem to have thought it a fort of duty to write upon this fubject, and have all treated it differently, according to their different characters, experience, and feelings. Cherry's account of it is very je-ne-fais-quoiifh. "It is fhe knows "not what; it comes fhe knows not how; "and goes fhe knows not when." Petrarch and Plato confined it wholly to fpirit; and made the moft exquifite of human joys confift in the pure but voluptuous union of two fympathifing