250 CHINESE LIBERALITY. [1697. 



pence, lie would never destroy the Fish that Nature had 

 plac'd there. . . . 



" Tir'd with the vanities of the World, which he had 

 sufticiently experienc'd, and pleas'd with this solitary Grot, 

 he might go and divert his fatigu'd Imaginations in the 

 different Paths in this little Enclosure, and there repair the 

 loss of his Spirits wasted by Study, and so make himself 

 amends for the Misfortunes of this Life. Full of Contempt 

 for the mad multitude which runs blindly after Chimera's, 

 he might happily enjoy there some new and profitable 

 Delights. But the Earth is all invaded ; all is seiz'd. The 

 Great are already in possession of it, and there remains no 

 corner for him. He must buy that dear which is shortly to 

 serve him for a Grave. ..." 



Thus the Author of the Golden Sentences, abandoning him- 

 self to the fury of his Thoughts, which are, he says, Oracles 

 of Confucius, who delivers himself oftentimes like an Orator 

 of that Country, rather than either a Lawyer or a Politician. 



Nay, these Maxims have seem'd to his Country-men so 

 just and well-grounded, that on one hand Terror and Custom, 

 two Terrible Tyrants, has made them Slaves and Idolizers 

 of their Kings ; on the other, the Lessons of their wise Men, 

 which they have well conceiv'd and digested, has inclin'd 

 them to relieve the distress'd, insomuch that there is not a 

 poor Man, as I have already observ'd, to be found amongst 

 them. 



To return to what I was saying of the poor G kineses, I 

 must likewise Eemark, that there are no Beggars neither at 

 Batavia among the Europeans. It may be, Emulation, in 

 Conjunction with natural Justice and Policy, has contributed 

 to the establishing of this good Order among the Portu- 

 gueses ; for, as for the Hollanders, everyone knows that even 

 in Holland itself, and all the Provinces belonging to that 

 wise and po^^•erful Picpublick, all such as are able to Work 

 are furnish'd with such proper Means that no one can say 

 with Justice that he has been forc'd to beg his Bread. 



