LETTER III. 



■*' De rebus cunctis et quibusdam aliis." 



Befriend a man with kindly counsel in what 

 Englishmen, above all other men, by way of exalting 

 their Island and themselves, delight in calling a 

 barbarous and uncivilized country, and substantial 

 worth is often meted out in return. Attempt the 

 same beneficent action in your own refined community, 

 to your own enlightened brethren, and you may per- 

 chance come in contact with a civilized savage and 

 dire foe for your pains. The cause of this is not 

 very difficult of explanation. In the first place our 

 foggy Islanders dread a frank confession that those 

 they term barbarous are far superior to themselves 

 in many virtues ; and in the second they are fearfully 

 jealous of an unknown man presuming to give 

 information, where it is neither asked for nor wanted, 



