176 STUDIES OF NATirRE*. 



the Phylician of the corps in which I fcrved, had 

 an annual income of a thoufand roubles, or five 

 thoufand livres (about two hundred guineas), and 

 little or nothing to do for it 5 for, as our maladies 

 brought him nothing, they were of very fliort du- 

 ration. As to the foldiers, if my recolleftion is 

 accurate, they are medically treated, without any 

 defalcation of their pay. The grand Difpenfary 

 belongs to the Emperor. It is in the city of Mof- 

 cow, and confifts of a magnificent pile of building. 

 The medicines are depofited in vafes of porcelaia, 

 and are always of the very beft quality. They are 

 thence diflributed over the reft of the Empire, at 

 a moderate price, and the profit goes to the Crown. 

 There is not the flighteft ground to apprehend im- 

 pofition in the .condud of this bufmefs. The per- 

 fons employed, in the preparation and dillribu- 

 tlon, are men of ability, who have no kind of in- 

 tereft in adulterating them, and who, as they rife 

 in a regular progreflion of rank and falary, are ac- 

 tuated with no emulation but that of difcharging 

 their duty with fidelity *. 



* The infatiable ihirfl of gold and luxury might be allayed in 

 the greatefl part of our citizens, by prefenting them with a great 

 number of thefe political perfpecVives, They conflitute the 

 charm of petty conditions, by difplaying to them the attraclions 

 of infinity, the fentiment of which, as we have feen, is fo natural 

 to the heart of Man. It is by means of thefe, that mechanics 

 and fmall fhopkeepers are much more powerfully attached, by 

 moderate profits, to their contracted fpheres, enlivened by hope, 



than 



