ion no tyranny; an answer to the resolutions and address of the
American congress. 1775.

LIVES OF EMINENT PERSONS.

Father Paul Sarpi.

Boerhaave.

Blake.

Sir Francis Drake.

Barretier.

Additional account of the life of Barretier in the Gentleman's Magazine,
1742.

Morin.

Burman.

Sydenham.

Cheynel.

Cave.

King of Prussia.

Browne.

Ascham.

REVIEWS.

LETTER ON DU HALDE'S HISTORY OF CHINA, 1738.

There are few nations in the world more talked of, or less known, than
the Chinese. The confused and imperfect account which travellers have
given of their grandeur, their sciences, and their policy, have,
hitherto, excited admiration, but have not been sufficient to satisfy
even a superficial curiosity. I, therefore, return you my thanks for
having undertaken, at so great an expense, to convey to English readers
the most copious and accurate account, yet published, of that remote and
celebrated people, whose antiquity, magnificence, power, wisdom,
peculiar customs, and excellent constitution, undoubtedly deserve the
attention of the publick.

As the satisfaction found in reading descriptions of distant countries
arises from a comparison which every reader naturally makes, between the
ideas which he receives from the relation, and those which were familiar
to him before; or, in other words, between the countries with which he
is acquainted, and that which the author displays to his imagination; so
it varies according to the likeness or dissimilitude of the manners of
the two nations. Any custom or law, unheard and unthought of before,
strikes us with that surprise which is the effect of novelty; but a
practice conformable to our own pleases us, because it flatters our
self-love, by showing us that our opinions are approved by the general
concurrence of mankind. Of these two pleasures, the first is more
violent, the other more lasting; the first seems to partake more of
instinct than reason, and is not easily to be explained, or defined; the
latter has its foundation in good sense and reflection, and evidently
depends on the same principles with most human passions.

An attentive reader will frequently feel each of these agreeable
emotions in the perusal of Du Halde. He will find a calm, peaceful
satisfaction, when he reads the moral precepts and wise instructions of
the Chinese sages; he will find that virtue is in every place the same;
and will look with new contempt on