ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



977 



raution and piecisencss, as if they 

 Mere forming a treaty of peace, and 

 with more address than some trea- 

 ties of peace have been negociated. 



" As a dircft refusal to any re- 

 quest would betray a want of good 

 breeding, every proposal finds their 

 immediate acquiescence ; they pro- 

 mise without hesitation, but gene- 

 rally disappoint by the invention of 

 some sly pretence or plausible ob- 

 jedtion. They have no proper 

 sense of the obligations of truth. 

 So little scrupulous, indeed, are 

 they with regard to veracity, that 

 they will assert and contradict with- 

 out blushing, as it may best suit the 

 purpose of the moment. 



" The vanity of an usurped na- 

 tional superiority, and a high no- 

 tion of self-importance, never for- 

 sake them on any occasion. Those 

 advantages in others, which they 

 cannot avoid feeling, they will af- 

 fect not to sec; and, although they 

 are reduced to the necessity of em- 

 ploying foreigners to regulate their 

 calendar, and keep (heir clocks in 

 order, although they are in the ha- 

 bit of receiving yearly various spe- 

 rimens of art and ingenuity from 

 Kurope, yet they pertinaciously af- 

 fect to consider all the nations of 

 the earth as barbarians in compari- 

 son of themselves, A Chinese mer- 

 chant of Canton, who, from the fre- 

 quent opportunities of seeing ling- 

 lish ships, was not insensible of ilieir 

 advantages over those of his own na- 

 tion, which traded to Batavia and 

 other distant ports, resolved, and 

 actually began, to construct a vcl- 

 sel according to an English model ; 

 but the IIoopoo, or collector of the 

 customs, being a|)prised of it, not 

 only obliged him to relinquish his 

 project, but fined him in a heavy 

 penalty for presumij)g to adopt the 



Vol. XLVI. 



modes of a barbarous nafion. So 

 great is their national conceit, that 

 not a single article imported into 

 the country, as I have elsewhere ob- 

 served, retains its name. Not a 

 nation, nor person, nor obje6t, that 

 does not receive a Chinese appella- 

 tion ; so that their language, though 

 jioor, is pure. 



•' The expressions made use of in 

 salutation, by different nations, 

 may, perhaps, be cotisidered as de- 

 riving their origin from features of 

 national character. Lau-j/e, OM- 

 sir, is a title of respe6t, with which 

 the first officers of state may be ad- 

 dressed, because the maxims of go- 

 vernment have inculcated the doc- 

 trine of obedience, respect, and 

 protection to old age. The com- 

 mon salutation among the lower 

 orders of people, in some of the 

 southern provinces, is Yafan; Have 

 you eaten your ricel^ The greatest- 

 happiness that the common class of 

 people in China can hope to enjoy, 

 consists in their having a sufficiency 

 of rice. Tlius also the Dutch, who 

 arc considered as great eaters, have 

 a morning salutation, which is com- 

 mon among all ranks, Smauk-clyk 

 ccten ! Maji you eat a hearty dinner! 

 Another universal salutation among 

 this people is, Hoc vaari uice? How 

 do you sad. ^ adopted, no doubt, in 

 the early periods of the republic, 

 when they were all navigators or 

 fishermen. The usual salutation at 

 Cairo is, Hon: do you siceat? a dry 

 hot skin being a sure indication of 

 a destructive ephemeral fever. I 

 think some author has observed, in 

 contrasting the haughty Spaniard 

 with the frivolous Frenchman, that 

 the proud steady gait and inilexible 

 solemnity of the former, were ex- 

 pressed in his mode of salutation. — 

 Come csia ? Hoio do you stand 9 



3 R Whilst 



