Chap* III. from Muscovy to China. 941 
‘‘ that poffibly I may excice fome Mailer of a better 
“ Pen to do that Juftice which it defer ves to fo enter- 
taining and fo uleful a Subject. 
“ In the firft Place, we will coniider the Excellency 
“ of China Ware, a Thing that has ftruck fome of the 
“ learned fo much, that according to their ufual Cuftom, 
“ they would needs entitle the Ancients to it, juft as they 
have beftowed upon them, the Ufe of the Compafs and 
“ of Telefcopes, without confidering that there leaving 
“ no clearer Teftiraonies of their Titles to fuch admi- 
rable Inventions, does them infinitely more Difcredit 
“ than the Notion of their Want of them.. According 
“ to the Sentiments, or rather to the Whim of thofe who 
“ doat upon Antiquity, the Vafa Myrrhina ought to be 
“ tranftated Veffels of fine Porcelain, Thefe were firft 
“ feen at Rome in the Triumph of Pompey,, and v/ere 
“ afterwards efteemed valuable, I might fay invaluable 
“ Curiofities. 
“ This gives us indeed a very high Notion of the 
“ Excellency of China Ware, but I am very much afraid 
“ no very juft one ; for if Pliny,, who with Refpebl to 
“ Things he had feen, was certainlya very juft and a very 
“ exadl Author, has given us a right Defcription of thefe 
“ Veffels, they were of a Kind of precious Stone, which 
“ had a white Ground, interfeded with Veins of different 
Colours, which Stone was found, as the fame Author 
“ tells us, in fome Parts of Perfia% fo that, except their 
“ being very fine, of a vaft Price, and coming from 
“ the Eaft, there are no Arguments to prove that they 
“ were Porcelain, But however that Matter may be, 
moft certainly if the Ancients had any Knowledge 
“ of this kind of Ware, they thought it inimitable, 
“ for as yet I have not met with any Antiquary that 
has ventured to affcrt the Romans themfclves made 
any Thing of this Kind, and yet they were not No- 
“ vices either in the Art of Earthen Ware. 
“ It is true, that in Perfia they carried fuch a Manu- 
“ fadure to a great Height, neither is it yet loft among 
the Inhabitants of that Country, who make a very 
“ fine Sort of Earthen or Stone Veffels, which would 
“ be imported, and highly valued in Europe,, if, notwith- 
“ Handing their Beauty, they did not fall very fatifhort 
“ of China. In America alfo, and efpecially in the 
“ very Heart of Mexico,, they make extraordinary hand- 
“ fome Veffels, of a kind of red Earth, little if at all 
inferior to that of the fame Kind, which we receive 
“ from the Indies ; but ftill this is nothing to the Pur- 
pofe, for with Refped to the Finenefs of the Grain, 
“ the perfed Tranfparency, the fnowy Colour of the 
“ White, the wonderful Beauty of the other Colours, 
“ Blue efpecially, the Dexterity with which they are 
“ laid on, or rather wrought in, and the Strength and 
“ Soundnefs even of the thinneft Pieces, no Manufac- 
ture that has been hitherto feen, can be truly faid to 
“ vie in Excellency, if I may be permitted that Ex- 
“ preffion, with the Ware of China. , 
“ The French indeed have boafted, for what is there 
which they will not boaft that they have come up to 
“ it, but it is in their Eyes only. At prefent great Part 
“ of the World is perfuaded to prefer the Brefden Ma- 
“ nufadure, for which, the beft Reafon that can be 
‘‘ given is, that it is more coftly. But with regard to 
“ the Properties before- mentioned, for as to other 
“ Properties I conteft nor, Chantilli and Drefden muft 
both yield. Yet if we confider what a Spirit of Imi- 
“ ration the bringing over this Ware has excited, what 
“ wonderful Advances our Potters have made, and 
“ what a new Field of Induftry this has opened in Eu- 
“ rope, I prefume there are few Politicians who will not 
“ agree with me, that we have no great Reafon to re- 
“ gret the Silver it has coft us. In this Light, when 
we confider Luxury, we perceive that the Wifdom 
“ of Providence continually extrads Good from Evil, 
“ and that Nicety, Elegance, and even Profufion, are 
“ made the Parents of Labour, Diligence, and a com- 
“ fortable Subfiftence to the Poor, who at firft Sight 
“ feem to be injured by thofe Vices, which, in Reality, 
“ and without the Intention of the Vicious, turn to 
“ their Benefit and that of the Publick. 
“ But not to dwell too long upon moral RenedionSj 
“ which however have their Ufe, and ferve to convince 
“ very well-meaning People, that the Notions they re- 
“ receive, under an Appearance of Truth, are at the 
“ Bottom frequently groundlefs. I fay, to leave thefe 
“ Refledions, let us confider next the Antiquity of 
“ China. It was firft imported by the Portugueje, and 
“ came from Lijbon, in very fmall Quantities, to the 
“ feveral Courts of Europe. Cavendijh, the famous 
“ Traveller in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, is held 
“ to be the firft that prefented his Royal Miftrefs with 
“ Veffels of that Ware, which came difedly to England, 
“ Thus far our Journey is ealy, but at the fame Time 
“ it is very fiiort : We have traced its Naturalization, but 
“ the Difficulty is to fix its Origin in its native Coun- 
“ try, which is a Point of Difficulty indeed. Thofe 
“ who pretend to be beft acquainted with the Chinefe 
“ Story, cut the Knot, which they cannot untie, and 
“ tells us very bluntly, that there are no Records of this 
“ Invention extant. Men of more Modefty perhaps 
“ would have faid, that hitherto no fuch Record had 
“ reached their Hands, for fome other Accounts that 
“ they give us, leave us not altogether without Hopes, 
“ that this Tale may be one Day contradided. 
“ A Perfon, well verfed in Chinefe Learning affures 
“ us, that there is not a Province, a Diftrid, npr even 
“ a City of China, where they have not a natural, a 
“ civil, and a political Hiftory of the Place •, in the 
“ former they fet down all that Nature produces, arid 
“ all the Improvements made upon her Frodudions by 
“ Art. In the fecond, they give Place to all the re- 
“ markable Perfons, Male and Female, that,, in the 
“ Courfe of Ages, have dwelt therein, and the Ads for 
“ which they became famous. In the third, they 
“ preferve the Succefiion of their Governors, the moil 
“ remarkable Events that happen, the Privileges they 
“ obtain, and the Misfortunes they fuffer. Now and then 
“ it is faid, that a Purfe of Gold didates to fhe Scribe, 
“ but a fpecial Mandaryn, who is a Native of the Place, 
“ is fent once in forty Years by the Emperor, who, in 
“ Conjundion with the Perfon then intrufted with the 
“ Adminiftration, reviews thefe Memoirs, and ftrikes 
“ out all the Paffages that there is any Reafon to fuf- 
“ ped ought to have been writ in Gold Letters. 
“ In Records fo curious, and written with fo much Cir- 
“ cumfpedion, we might exped that a Line at ieaft fhould 
“ have been fpared to fo efteemed and fo important an 
“ Invention. It may be, there is fuch a Memorandum as 
“ this, though hitherto it has efcaped the Curiofity of 
“ the Jefuirs, yet one of thefe Fathers, more happy 
“ than his Fellows, has come pretty near it, and af- 
“ fures us, that fince Anno Domini the Chinefe- 
“ Emperors have taken this valuable Manufadure more 
“ immediately under their Care, and have appointed two 
“ Mandaryns, to infped all that is furnifhed for the 
“ Imperial Ufe. With this then we muft reft fatisfied, 
“ till we receive fome better Inforibation. 
“ But here I muft have Leave, to obferve that though 
“ Porcelain and China Ware ; are with us fynonim^s 
“ Terms, yet they are not fo in that Empire, in all the 
“ Provinces of which they make Earthen Ware, but not 
“ in above two or three they make Porcelain, or what 
“ we call China. The Place where it is made in the 
“ greateft Perfedion, in the Chinefe Manner of Wri- 
“ ting, is called Kim te tchim ; the laft of thefe marks 
“ only the Nature of the Place, and fignifies, that 
“ though it is much beyond a Village, yet it is not a 
“ City. It would lead us too much out of the Road to 
“ explain this largely, and therefore it may be fuffici- 
“ ent to fay, that it is a great Town, and, like Manchef- 
“ ter in our own Country, owes the Figure that it 
“ makes to the Ingenuity and Induftry of its Inhabi- 
“ tants. It feems there is fomething peculiar to this 
“ Place, which renders it fitter for the Marlufadure of 
“ the fineft China than any other ; for when many of 
“ the Inhabitants, for the Sake of Gain, removed to A- 
“ ^oy, then the only Port open to Strangers, in Hopes 
“ of carrying on their Trade to greater Advantage, 
“ they were able, to make nothing of it j and when 
. the 
