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I
life were known in Eu r o pe t he ladies’ toilet had few eflences
to gratify the fenfe o f fmell, or to beautify, for a time, the
complexion; the fciifars, needles, pen-knives, and -other little
appendages, were then unknown; and rude and ill-poliihed
ikewers ufurped the place o f pins. In China, the ladies had
their needlework, their paint-boxes, their trinkets o f ivory, of
filver in fillagree, o f mother-pearl, and o f tortoife-ihell. Even
the calendar, at this time fo defeftive in Europe, that Pope
G regory was urged to -the bold undertaking o f leaping over, or
annihilating, ten days, was found to be, in China, a national
concern, and the -particular care o f government. Decimal
arithmetic, a new and ufeful difcovery -of the feventeenth century
in Europe, was the only fyftem o f arithmetic iri ufe in
China. In a word, when the nobility o f England were fleep-
ing on ftraw, a peafant o f China had his mat and his pillow.j
and the man in office enjoyed his iilken mattrels. One cannot,
therefore, be furprized i f the impreffions made upon thefe
holy men were powerfully felt, or i f their defcriptions ffiould
feem to incline a little towards the marvellous. Nor may perhaps
their relations be found to be much embelliffied, on a fair
companion -of the ftate o f China with that o f Europe in gerie-
ral, from the year 15()o to the clofe o f the fame century.
Thefe religious men, however, might have had their motives;
for fetting this wonderful people in the faireft point o f view. 1
T he more powerful and magnificent, the more learned andj
refined they reprefented this nation to be, the greater would
be their triumph in the event o f their effeaing a change o f the
national faith. It may alfo have occurred to them, that com-»
mon
mon prudence required they ihould fpeak favourably, at lead,
o f a nation under whofe power and proteaion they had voluntarily
placed themfelves for life. There is every reafon to fup-
pofe, that in general they mean to tell the truth, but b y fuppref-
fing fome part o f it, or by telling it in fuch a manner as i f they
expe&ed it would one day get back to China in the language o f
that country, their accounts often appear to be contradiaory in
themfelves. In the fame breath that they extol the wonderful,
ftrength o f filial piety, they fpeak o f the common praaices o f
expofing infants; the ftr ia morality and ceremonious condua
o f the people are followed by a lift o f the mod: grofs debauch,
eries; the virtues and the philofophy o f the learned are explained
by their ignorance and their vices j i f in one page they
fpeak o f the exceffive fertility o f the country, and the amazing
extenfion o f agriculture, in the next, thoufands are feen periih-
ing by w an t; and whilft they extol with admiration the pro-
grefs they have made in the arts and fciences, they plainly inform
us that without the aid o f foreigners they can neither caft
a cannon, nor calculate an eclipfe.
Upon the Whole, however, the Britiffi embafly left England-
under a favourable impreffion o f the, people it was about to vifit.
Whether the expectations o f all thofe who compofed it, independent
o f any political confideration, were realized, or ended
in difappointment, may partly be colie<fted from the following
pages. T he opinions they contain are drawn from fuch incidents
and anecdotes as occurred in the courfe o f an eight months’"
vifit and from fuch as feemed heft calculated to illuftrate the
condition, of the people, the national character, and the nature
o f