That the empress Catherine II. should have been forced by the brutal insolence of a Turkish sultan to display all her genius; that from the far north she should have sent four squadrons which spread terror in the Dardanelles and in Asia Minor; and that, in 1770, she took four provinces from those Turks who made Europe tremble;-she will not be reproached with enjoying her glory, but will be admired for speaking. of her successes with that air of indifference and superiority, which shows that they were merited.

In short, glory befits geniuses of this sort, though belonging to the very mean race of mortals.

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But if, at the extremity of the west, a townsman of a place called Paris thinks he has glory in being harrangued by a teacher of the university, who says to him, Monseigneur, the glory you have acquired in the exercise of your office, your illustrious labours with which the universe resounds," &c. then I ask if there are mouths enow in that universe to celebrate, with their hisses, the glory of our citizen, and the eloquence of the pedant who attends to bray out this harangue at monseigneur's hotel?

We are such fools, that we have made God glorious like ourselves.

That worthy chief of the dervises, Ben-al-Betif, said to his brethren one day :

"My brethren, it is good that you should frequently use that sacred formula of our koran- In the name of the most merciful God;' because God uses mercy, and you learn to do so too, by often repeating the words that recommend virtue, without which there would be few men left upon the earth, But, my brethren, beware of imitating those rash ones who boast, on every occasion, of labouring for the glory of God.

"If a young simpleton maintains a thesis on the categories, an ignoramus in furs presiding, he is sure to write in large characters, at the head of his thesis, 'Ek alha abron doxa.' Ad majorem Dei gloriam.'-To the greater glory of God. If a good mussulman has had his house whitewashed, he cuts this foolish inscription in the door. A saka carries water for the greater glory 2 E 2

of God. It is an impious usage piously used. What would you say of a little chiaoux, who, while emptying our sultan's close-stool, should exclaim,-To the greater glory of our invincible monarch? There is certainly a greater distance between God and the sultan than between the sultan and the little chiaoux.

"Ye miserable earth-worms, called men, what have you resembling the glory of the Supreme Being? Can he love glory? Can he receive it from you? Can he enjoy it? How long, ye two-legged animals without feathers, will you make God after your own image?— What! because you are vain, because you love glory, you would have God love it also? If there were several Gods, perhaps each one would seek to gain the good opinion of his fellows. That might be glory to God. Such a God, if infinite greatness may be compared with extreme lowliness, would be like king Alexander or Iscander, who would enter the lists with none but kings. But you, poor creatures! what glory can you give to God? Cease to profane the sacred name. An emperor, named Octavius Augustus, forbade his being praised in the schools of Rome, lest his name should be brought into contempt. You can neither bring the name of the Supreme Being into contempt, nor into honour. Humble yourselves in the dust; adore, and be silent."

Thus spake Ben-al-betif; and the dervises cried out," Glory to God! Ben-al-betif has said well."

SECTION III.

Conversation with a Chinese.

In 1723, there was in Holland a Chinese: this Chinese was a man of letters and a merchant; which two professions ought not to be incompatible, but which have become so amongst us, thanks to the extreme regard which is paid to money, and the little consideration which mankind have ever shown, and will ever show, for merit.

This Chinese, who spoke a little Dutch, was once in a bookseller's shop with some men of learning. He asked for a book, and Bossuet's Universal History,

badly translated, was proposed to him. "Ah!" said he,how fortunate! I shall now see what is said of our great empire of our nation, which has existed as a national body for more than fifty thousand years-of that succession of emperors who have governed us for so many ages; I shall now see what is thought of the religion of the men of letters, of that simple worship which we render to the Supreme Being. How pleasing to see what is said in Europe of our arts, many of which are more ancient amongst us than any European kingdom. I guess the author will have made many mistakes in the history of the war which we had twentytwo thousand five hundred and fifty-two years ago, with the warlike nations of Tonquin and Japan; and of that solemn embassy which the mighty emperor of the Moguls sent to ask laws from us, in the year of the world 500,000,000,000,079,123,450,000."" Alas! said one of the learned men to him, " you are not even mentioned in that book: you are too inconsiderable; it is almost all about the first nation in the world-the only nation, the great Jewish people!"

The Jewish people!" exclaimed the Chinese. "Are they, then, masters of at least three quarters of the earth?" They flatter themselves that they shall one day be so," was the answer; " until which time they have the honour of being our old-clothes-men, and, now and then, clippers of our coin."-" You jest," said the Chinese; "had these people ever a vast empire?"They had as their own for some years, said I," a small country; but it is not by the extent of their states that a people are to be judged; as it is not by his riches that we are to estimate a

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man.

But is no other people spoken of in this book?" asked the man of letters. "Undoubtedly," returned a learned man who stood next me, and who constantly replied," there is a deal said in it of a small country sixty leagues broad, called Egypt, where it is asserted that there was a lake a hundred and fifty leagues round, cut by the hands of men."____“ Zounds!" said the Chinese;" a lake a hundred and fifty leagues round in a country only sixty broad! That is fine,

indeed!""Everybody was wise in that country, added the doctor. "Oh! what fine times they must have been," said the Chinese. "But is that all?" "No," replied the European; "he also treats of that celebrated people, the Greeks."- "Who are these Greeks?" asked the man of letters. "Ah!" continued the other," they inhabited a province about a twohundredth part as large as China, but which has been famous throughout the world."- "I have never heard speak of these people neither in Mogul, nor in Japan, nor in Great Tartary," said the Chinese, with an ingenuous look.

"Oh ignorant, barbarous man!" politely exclaimed our scholar. "Know you not, then, the Theban Epaminondas; nor the harbour of Piræus; nor the name of the two horses of Achilles; nor that of Silenus's ass? Have you not heard of Jupiter, nor of Diogenes, nor of Lais, nor of Cybele, nor"...

"I am much afraid," replied the man of letters, "that you know nothing at all of the ever memorable adventure of the celebrated Xixofou Concochigramki, nor of the mysteries of the great Fi Psi Hi Hi. But pray what are the other unknown things of which this universal history treats?" The scholar then spoke for a quarter of an hour on the Roman commonwealth: but when he came to Julius Cæsar, the Chinese interrupted him, saying, "As for him, I think I know him: was he

not a Turk?"*

« do

"What!" said the scholar, somewhat warm, you not at least know the difference between Pagans, Christians, and Mussulmen? Do you not know Constantine, and the history of the popes?" "We have indistinctly heard," answered the Asiatic, "of one Mahomet."

"It is impossible," returned the other," that you should not, at least, be acquainted with Luther, Zuinglius, Bellarmin, Ecolampades." "I shall never remember those names," said the Chinese. He then

It is not long since the Chinese took all Europeans for Mahometans.

+

went away to sell a considerable parcel of tea and fine grogram, with which he bought two fine girls and a ship-boy, whom he took back to his own country, adoring Tien, and commending himself to Confucius.

For myself, who was present at this conversation, I clearly saw what glory is; and I said,-Since Cæsar and Jupiter are unknown in the finest, the most ancient, the most extensive, the most populous, and well regulated kingdom upon earth; it beseems you, ye governors of some little country, ye preachers in some little parish, or some little town,-ye doctors of Salamanca and of Bourges, ye flimsy authors, and ye ponderous commentators-it beseems you to make pretensions to renown!

GOAT SORCERY.

THE honours of every kind, which antiquity paid to goats, would be very astonishing, if anything could astonish those who have grown a little familiar with the world, ancient and modern. The Egyptians and the Jews, often designated the kings and the chiefs of the people by the word goat. We find in Zachariah,

"Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats; for the Lord of Hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle."*

"Remove out of the midst of Babylon," says Jeremiah to the chiefs of the people; "Go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks."+

Isaiah, in chapters x. and xiv. uses the term goat, which has been translated prince.

The Egyptians went much further than calling their kings goats; they consecrated a goat in Mendes, and it is even said that they adored him. The truth very