clinations under the idea of tenderness of age, or triviality of the subject: it is nature that speaks, whose declaration is then most sincere and undisguised, by being weak and young. The deformity of cozenage does not depend upon the difference betwixt crowns and pins. Children should be carefully inftructed to abhor even cunning tricks of their own contriving, and when they are convinced of the impropriety, they will in suture avoid them, not only in action, but from the heart, under whatever semblance they may appear. Being myself taught a plain and sincere manner of dealing, there is no game so trivial wherein I do not naturally feel an aversion to deceit; whether I win or lose against my wise or daughter for farthings, or playing in earnest for pistoles, although I am ever so narrowly watched by another, yet there is no one I so much fear to offend as myself.

The effects of Custom are wonderfully manifest in the strange impression she imprints on our minds, where he meets with little refistance. What has she not the power to impose upon our judgment and belief? Is there

ever fo fantastic an opinion, or any so senseless and extravagant, that he has not planted and established in some remote part of the earth? and therefore that ancient exclamation was exceedingly just, "Is it not a shame for a phi«losopher, who is an observer and examiner "of nature, to derive testimony from minds "prepossessed with Custom?"

We are as great a wonder to barbarians as they are to us, and with equal reason, as every man would confess, if after having travelled over remote regions he would allow himselfleisure rightly to reflect. There are people, none of whom speak to the king but through a pipe, his wise and children excepted. In one and the same nation, virgins think it no shame to go without covering, while married women studiously wear the closest attire. In another place, to which this Custom bears some affinity, chastity is only held in estimation by married women. In some places, wives go to war as well as their husbands, and not only share in the dangers of battle, but in the honours of command. Where nephews and brothers inherit to the detriment of sons; and elsewhere, nephews only, except in the

royal

royal family, and succession to the crown. Where, for the regulation of the community, magistrates have the universal charge of agriculture, and distribution of fruits, according to every one's necessity. Where they lament the birth of children, and feast at the decease of old men. Where women, whose husbands come to violent ends, may marry again, and others are not permitted. Where women are treated with so much contempt, that the men kill the native females, and buy wives of their neighbours. Where husbands may repudiate their wives without cause, but wives can obtain no separation from their husbands. Where hufbands may sell their wives in case of sterility. Where they boil the bodies of their dead, and afterwards pound them to pulp, which they mix and drink with wine. Where the most coveted sepulchre is to be eaten by dogs, or by birds. Where they believe, that the souls of the happy live in delightful fields, furnished with delicacies; and that those souls repeat the words we utter, which we denominate echo. Where they fight in the water, and shoot their arrows, while swimming, with mor

tal aim. Where, as a sign of subjection, they raise their shoulders, and hang down their heads, and put off their shoes when they enter the king's palace. Where fire is the new year's gift which kings send to the princes their subjects, when all the old fire is extinguished, and the neighbouring people are bound, upon pain of treason, to use the new fire. Where, when the king retires from administration, to spend the remainder of his life in devotion, his next heir is obliged to do the same, and the right of the kingdom devolves to the third heir. Where the soldier is made noble, who has been so fortunate as to present seven heads of the enemy to the king. Where women wear cop, per setters upon both legs. Where people maintain, that rare and singular opinion of the mortality of the soul. Where they send blood in token of friendship, and incense the men they would honour, like gods. Where not only the fourth, but remote degrees of kindred are not permitted to marry; and other nations, where connections of the nearest affinity take place, without scandal or offence. Where it is accounted mortal, to give the child the mother's

milk

milk the day after it is born. Where they punish children, by hanging them with their heads downwards in the smoke. Where they eat all sorts of herbs without any other precaution, than avoiding those of disagreeable smell. Where rich furniture, and costly jewels, are deposited without lock or key. Where, during their whole lives, they neither cut their hair, nor pare their nails: and in another place, pare those of the right hand only, letting the left grow for ornament, and as a test of bravery: and where they suffer the hair on the right side to grow to its utmost extent, and shave the other. In one place, men feed upon human flesh; in another, it is reputed a charitable. office for a son to kill his father in extreme old age. Elsewhere, fathers dispose of their children yet unborn, some to be preserved and carefully reared; and they proscribe others, either to be thrown away, or immediately killed.

Moreover, has not Custom made a republic of women separately by themselves? And does she not, by her own precepts, instruct the most ignorant, and render them perfect in things which all the philosophy in the world could not obtain

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