fhould diffufe poifon in a brook, would scarce be acquitted of a malicious defign, tho' he should allege, that he received it of another who is doing the fame elfew here. Whatever is incompatible with the highest dignity of our nature, thould indeed be excluded from our converfation; as companions, not only that which we owe to ourselves but to others, is required of us; and they who can indulge any vice in the prefence of each other, are become obdurate in guilt and infenfible to infamy. IBRAHIM and ALMIRA. I S it in man to ftill the roarings of the fea, or in nature to check the fury of the wind? Who can dictate to the will of heaven, or cry unto the fates, "Thus fhall it be?" Son of man, canft thou give motion to the stars, or limit the progrefs of the fun? canf thou ftop the moments in their courfe, and fteal the fands from never standing time? In the city of Bagdad, fo celebrated by the eastern writers, lived Ibrahim, the fon of Emir Haffan, who had formerly been principal favourite to the Caliph, and entrusted by the commander of the faithful with the most important defigns. Ibrahim was esteemed an honour to his country, and looked upon as the glory of his race. He was now in all the comeliness of manhood, and his reputation was uncommon for his years. His name went forth like the gales of the morning, and his prefence was as chearful as the beams of the fun. Sorrow never faw a cloud upon his brow; nor did grief ever take poffeffion of his heart. Envy was a ftranger to his thoughts, and rancour an alien to his breaft. His affection was cordial to his friends, and his charity conftant to the poor. Refolute in good, he was a stranger to fear; and promoting the fatisfaction of every body, grew tenderly refpected by all. An EASTERN TAL E. Such was Ibrahim, when the angel of love touched his bofom, and kindled a flame for Almira, the filter of Helim, who was vizier to the Caliph, and the next in power and greatness to his lord. Almira was the most beautiful virgin of Bagdad, and the fame of her charms had reached the remotest borders of the Eaft. Her cheek was as fresh as the roles of the morning, and her bofom was more white than the lily of the dale. The diamond of Golconda was lefs piercing than her eye, and her air was more comely than the prefence of the fwan. Her voice was like the mufic of paradife, and her breath was as pure as the breezes of the weft. Her fong would fubdue the tiger of the foreft, and her looks would detain the roe upon the hills. Ye daughters of Bagdad, ye beheld her with envy; and ye maids of Balfora, ye knew her with regret. At her fight the winter of age would glow with admiration, and the fummer of youth with tendernefs and love. She alone was worthy the hand of Ibrahim, and Ibrahim at length was happily bleft with her's. The thirtieth moon had now gone down upon their felicity, and increafed the tranfport of the lovers with a daughter, beautiful as her mother, and a fon, the ftrongest picture picture of his fire. Their hours were measured only by their happiness, and the minutes alone were numbered out by joy. But O how unftable are the pleasures of this life! and how off are the plans which we lay for delight defeated in their end! A fatal distemper preyed upon the two fmiling infants, and nature at laft configned them over to the angel of death. Ibrahim was ftruck with a grief inexpreffive, and Almira with an anguish too mighty to fupport. He, was, however, enabled, by the force of reafon and philofophy, to combat with his affliction; but the, from the tendernefs of conftitution, and the extra. vagance of maternal love, was incapable of receiving the smalleit relief. How oft did fhe complain to heaven in the bitterness of her forrows! how oft call upon death in the anguish of her heart! Ye matrons of Bagdad, ye bore witness to her tears; ye mothers of Balfora, ye have heard of her diftrefs. Ye beams of the morning, ye rofe upon her fighs; and ye fhades of the evening, ye brought no comfort to her breaft. Defpair was at last succeeded by distraction; and the fates, offended at her complaints, cut the thread of life, as fhe was tear. ing her hair, and pouring forth her lamentations upon the new made grave of her little Ibrahim and Almira. Almira's death deprived the wretched Ibrahim of all his fortitude: he feized a dagger, and prepared to put an end to an existence which he was no longer able to enjoy but firft turning his eyes up to heaven, and falling on his knees, he breathed out the following prayer; "God of my forefathers, who fittest enthroned above the feven heavens, and thou great prophet, Yet Mahomet, exalted minifter of truth, behold the tortures of my heart, and forgive the rafhness they preduce! It is not for me to afk why Eternal Providence should fhower fuch namelefs woes upon me. let me ask if I deferve them all? The laws of truth and righteousness I have hitherto inviolably preferved; and whether it is from phrenzy, or the weakness of human nature, I cannot determine; but I am no longer able to fuftain a weight of afflictions which the utmost profigacy of the abandoned has never yet experienced. Pardon me then, oh Omnipotent! that thus, uncalled, I rush before thy thone, to seek that repofe in another world, which fate deftroyed in this." Here ended Ibrahim; and he was juft about giving the fatal firoke, when one of thofe celestial beings, that attend the prefence of the_living God, appeared, and inftantly with-held his hand. Ibrahim fell proftrate, and thus the inhabitant of heaven went on : "Cease, mis taken Ibrahim, to complain of the difpenfations of Providence; nor think that the decrees of the Most High are not actuated by unerring juftice. In this world, which thou muft lock upon as a ftate of proba! tion, and not confider as a place of reward, thou art wrong to feek for perfect happiness, or to think of meeting with undisturbed repofe. To thefe delightful ends if thou art folicitous to foar, pay an implicit obedience to the divine will, nor ever tax that Being with feverity, who in the midst of his difpleasure only chaftens to reform. Both thou and Almira were too dotingly fond of those two babes, which heaven had bleft you with, and paid a lefs attention to the giver, than either did did to the gift. In goodness, therefore, heaven remanded what it thought proper to bestow; and art thou fo unjust as to be offended, when the divine being is pleafed to recal his own? or canft thou be faid in reality to love thefe little infants, if thou wouldst a moment with them back from thofe eternal manfions of felicity which are proved for the bleffed? They are happy; wouldt thou disturb their happiness? they they are angels; wouldst thou reduce them to common clay? What halt thou to complain of? Almira, that was thy wife, is in Paradife: wouldst thou bring her back to a miferable world? If they were dear to thee, thou haft caufe to rejoice at their felicity, not to lament for their lofs. Thou beggeft of heaven, Ibrahim, to forgive thy intended fuicide. How canft thou be fo inconfiftent, as to pray to heaven, in the very moment thou art going to vi 621 olate the ftricteft of its laws? How cant thou prefume to addrefs thy God for mercy, yet in the midst of thy petition intend to offend the greatnefs of his power? O Ibrahim! heaven has dealt merciful with thee, and provided never-ending happinefs for the wife of thy bofom, and the children of thy heart. thou fhare their fate, and join them Wouldft in felicity? the way does not live in being difturbed at the almighty will, angel cealed and vanished. Then but in being refigned."-Here the Ibrahim arofe, quite comforted with the expoftulation, and laid by his days he devoted to the fervice of his rash design: the remainder of his maker; and, in the reign of the famous Haroun Alrafchid, he was gathered to his fathers, having firft directed the whole of this circumftance to be written in the extraor dinary memorials of Bagdad. I ANECDOTE of MATTHEW PRIOR. N the year 1712, Matthew Prior, who was then fellow of St. John's, and who not long before had been employed by the queen as her plenipotentiary at the court of France, came to Cambridge, and next morning paid a visit to the master of his own college. The master (whether Dr. Gower, or Dr. Jenkins, is uncertain) loved Mr. Prior's principles, had a great opinion of his abilities, and a respect for his character in the world; but then he had a much greater respect for himself. He knew his own dig. nity too well to fuffer a fellow of his college to fit down in his prefence. He kept his feat himself, December, 1764. and let the queen's ambaffador ftand. Piqued a little at that, Mat. compofed an extempore epigram on the reception he had met with. It was had a very happy turn for an epinot reckoned in thofe days, that he gram. But the occafion was tempt. ing; and he ftruck it off, as he was walking from St. John's college to the Rofe to dinner. It was addressed to the mafter, and was as follows I food, fir, patient at your feet, For your great foul too mean; То GENTLEMEN, To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE. The furprising reputation the L'Espion Chinois, or Chinese Spy (a work lately published in France, and reported to have been burnt there by the hands of the common hangman) has already acquired in this kingdom for the admirable vein of humour and refined fatire which run through these ingenious lucubrations, induced me, for the benefit of your English readers, to fend you the following translation of a very humorous letter on the debates of a club of Parisian footmen. The work has been generally well received through all Europe and I make no doubt but that the spirit of freedom which fo vifibly animates this ingenious writer's performance, and the humour he has difplayed in his description of French levities and follies, will render this extract agreeable to your readers. I am your's, &c. T. W. The Mandarin Cham-pi-pi, to the Mandarin Minifier at Pekin. HAT the Paris footmen have TH the impudence to affume the names and titles of their matters, I very well know, as having feen inftances of it; but that they form a body politic in the ftate, is what I never should have imagined. They hold their meetings in little taverns round about the play houfes; where, while their mafters are fplitting their fides with laughing at the fooleries of the actors, they, with a ferio-comical air, fettle the affairs of the nation: thefe councils are very refpectable. The principal clergy appear there in livery; the chief officers of flate in motleycloaths; and the grandees in colours. Thefe political rendezvous's might be called the Party-coloured Congrefs. I did not know that I lodged near fo venerable a fociety, till latt night, being Friday, a great opera day, I happened to be standing at one of the back windows of my apartment, which opens into a very narrow court, with a tavern in it; and here I faw on the oppofite fide, through a balcony, a room full of liveryfervants. I perceived this company without much minding them, when the waiter coming up to a table near the window which faced mine, addreffed himself to the miftrefs of the house, who was turning over a large book, and faid to her with a loud voice, A pint of wine, madam, for the cardrnal de Bernis; a bottle of beer for the duke of Orleans; tavo penny-worth of cheese for the prince de Soubife; and a quartern of brandy for the archbishop of Paris. These words drew my attention, and I liftened to what paffed in that room, when foon after a footman, looking fteadily on another, held out his hand, and called to him, Ah! Is it thou, abbé! where, in God's name, haft thou been hiding thyfelf? 'Tis an age fince thou haft been amongst us.—I am just come from the country, answered he, with my mafter the grand vicar. Paris is a new place to me, and not a word do I know of what is paffing in the kingdom; for at Lyons, at Montpelier, or at Thoulouse, the part Mag. Humorous Letter from the L'Efpion Chinois. part of the world from whence I am come, they have no other newspaper than the wretched gazette of Avignon. Well; and what news, continued he, and how goes it with France? Faith, my poor abbé, never worse, answered the other: there is no government in the ftate; the monarchy is turned topfy-turvy; nothing but complaints, go where you will every one is ftriving to pay the taxes, and no body has any money indeed the calamity is general, fo that no one has a particular right to clamour, for, to avoid partiality, a tax has been laid even on tavern-figns. And what fayeft thou to this confufion, you duke de Choifeul? replied the abbé, fpeaking to another footman. I, anfwered the lat ter; it does not concern me; my department is foreign affairs: if things go well with France abroad, I about what is doing at little care. home. And thou, count de St. Florentine, continued he, addreffing himfelf to a pigmy of a man, with an ill-favoured countenance, what fayeft thou to the matter? Neither does that concern me, faid the latter; the government of the capital is my province; and my hands are fo full with it, that I have not time to think on the ftate: the kingdom of Paris will not allow me to mind that of France. The play houfes are under my care, and the actreffes alone plague me from morning till night; thofe huffies are baiting me perpetually. I proteft, fays one, I will not fing that part; there is nothing,engaging in it; the whole of it makes but two infignificant airs. Another storms, I will rife above mademoifelle Humiere, or never more fet 623 foot on the ftage. Befides, religion have now a heavy weight on my being alfo under my infpe&tion, I fhoulders. taken it into their heads to mutiny Since the priests have ged to be inceffantly making out against the parliament, I am oblilettres de cachet. I believe, added he, that the devil is in all our priefts, for to nobody will they administer feffional notes must be produced to the facrament. They infift that conthem fuch folly! a dying man has other things to do than to make formal confeflions. Now Ber-t-n, continued he, looking at a meagre monkey-faced footman, as thou art comptroller of the finances, let us hear thy atchievements. How go the finances? How go they? answered this Germany. If this holds, the companimated mummy; they go into trollership will be very easily dif charged; it will be the eafieft poft chin will be able to manage it.. in the kingdom, so easy, that a capuFor these three months paft not a though quite bare of money, I am crown has been paid in; and, dunned about it from all quarters. My lord, fays the furveyor of the diate fupply; money I must have, navy, I ftand in need of an immeis all over with the marine. My lord, otherwife I give you notice, that ic fays the fecretary at war, twenty regiments are to be cloathed; here's be pleased to give an order for the an account of the charge, and you'll money. My lord, continues a conwant three millions, I must have tractor of the victualling office, I them immediately; if I have not them within a week, the army in gentlemen, to be sure, must think me Germany may ftarve for me. These made of money,or that I make money. 4 L 2 Gentle.. |