874 



ESSAYS. 



of Confucius, who knew the characters of 

 fourteen thousand words, and could read a 

 great part of every book that came in his way. 

 once took it into his head to travel into Eu- 

 rope, and observe the customs of a people 

 which he thought not very much interior, 

 even to his own countrymen. Upon his ar- 

 rival at Amsterdam, his passion for letters 

 naturally led him to a bookseller's shop; and, 

 as he could speak a little Dutch, he civilly 

 asked the bookseller for the works of the 

 immortal Xixofou. The bookseller assured 

 him he had never heard the book mentioned 

 before; 'Alas!' cries our traveller, ' to what 

 purpose, then, has he fasted to death, to gain 

 a renown which has never travelled beyond 

 the precincts of China!' 



There is scarce a village in Europe, and 

 not one university, that is not thus furnished 

 with its little great men. The head of a 

 petty corporation, who opposes the designs 

 of a prince, who would tyrannically force his 

 subjects to save their best clothes for sun- 

 days; the puny pedant, who finds one undis- 

 covered quality in the polype, or describes 

 an unheeded process in the skeleton of a 

 mole; and whose mind, like his microscope, 

 perceives nature only in detail ; the rhymer, 

 who makes smooth verses, and paints to our 

 imagination, when he should only speak to 



our hearts; all equally fancy themselves 

 walking forward to immortality, and desire 

 the crowd behind them to look on. The 

 crowd takes them at their word. Patriot, 

 philosopher, and poet, are shouted in their 

 train. ' Where was there ever so much merit 

 M'en; no times so important as our own; 

 ages, yet unborn, shall gaze with wonder and 

 applause!' To such music, the important 

 pigmy moves forward; bustling and swell- 

 ing, and aptly compared to a puddle in a 

 storm. 



I have lived to see generals who once had 

 crowds hallooing after them wherever they 

 went, who were bepraised by newspapers 

 and magazines, those echoes of the voice of 

 the vulgar, and yet they have long sunk into 

 merited obscurity, with scarce even au epitaph 

 left to flatter. A few years ago the herring- 

 fishery employed all Grub-street ; it was the 

 topic in every coffee-house, and the burden 

 of every ballad. We were to drag up oceans 

 of gold from the bottom of the sea; we were 

 to supply all Europe with herrings upon our 

 own terms. At present we hear no more of 

 this. We have "fished up very little gold that 

 I can learn ; nor do we furnish the world with 

 herrings, as was expected. Let us wait but 

 a few years longer, and we shall find all our 

 expectations an herring-fishery. 



e*~- 



ESSAY VIII. 



THOUGH naturally pensive, yet I am fond 

 of gay company, and take every opportunity 

 of thus dismissing the mind from duty. From 

 this motive I am often found in the centre of 

 a crowd ; and wherever pleasure is to be 

 sold, am always a purchaser. In those places, 

 without being remarked by any, I join in 

 whatever goes forward, work my passions into 

 a similitude of frivolous earnestness, shout as 

 they shout, and condemn as they happen to 

 disapprove. A mind thus sunk for a while 

 below its natural standard, is qualified for 

 stronger flights; as those first retire who 

 Would spring forward with greater vigour. 



Attracted by the serenity of the evening, a 



friend and I lately went to gaze upon the 

 company in one of the public walks near the 

 city. Here we sauntered together for some 

 time, either praising the beauty of such as 

 were handsome, or the dresses of such as had 

 nothing else to recommend them. We had 

 gone thus deliberately forward for some time, 

 when my friend stopping on a sudden, caught 

 me by the elbow, and led me out of the public 

 walk ; I could perceive by the quickness of 

 his pace, and by his frequently looking be- 

 hind, that he was attempting to avoid some- 

 body who followed ; we now turned to the 

 right, then to the left : as we went forward, 

 he still went faster, but in vain; the person 



