A CHINESE LETTER. (From 'The Citizen of the World, or Chinese Letters,' by Oliver Goldsmith.) [Oliver Goldsmith, an eminent miscellaneous writer, was born in Ireland in 1728; died in London, 1774. Chief works-Prose: State of Polite Learning in Europe,' Chinese Letters,' 'Vicar of Wakefield.' Poems: 'The Traveller,' and "The Deserted Village.' Comedies: The Good-natured Man,' and 'She Stoops to Conquer.'] FROM Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China: Though the frequent invitations I receive from men of distinction here might excite the vanity of some, I am quite mortified, however, when I consider the motives that inspire their civility. I am sent for not to be treated as a friend, but to satisfy curiosity; not to be entertained so much as wondered at; the same earnestness which excites them to see a Chinese, would have made them equally proud of a visit from the rhinoceros. From the highest to the lowest, this people seem fond of sights and monsters. I am told of a person here who gets a very comfortable livelihood by making wonders, and then selling or showing them to the people for money: no matter how insignificant they were in the beginning, by locking them up close, and showing them for money, they soon become prodigies! His first essay in this way was to exhibit himself as a waxwork figure behind a glass door at a puppet show. Thus, keeping the spectators at a proper distance, and having his head adorned with a copper crown, he looked extremely natural, and very like the life itself. He continued this exhibition with success, till an involuntary fit of sneezing brought him to life before all the spectators, and consequently rendered him for that time as entirely useless as the peaceable inhabitant of a catacomb. Determined to act the statue no more, he next levied contributions under the figure of an Indian king; and by painting his face, and counterfeiting the savage howl, he frighted several ladies and children with amazing success: in this manner therefore he might have lived very comfortably, had he not been arrested for a debt that was contracted when he was the figure in waxwork. Thus his face underwent an involuntary ablution, and he found himself reduced to his primitive complexion and indigence. After some time, being freed from jail, he was now grown wiser, and instead of making himself a wonder, was resolved only to make wonders. He learned the art of pasting up of mummies; was never at the loss for an artificial lusus naturæ ; nay, it has been reported, that he has sold seven petrified lobsters of his own manufacture to a noted collector of rarities; but this the learned Cracovius Putridus had undertaken to refute in a very elaborate dissertation. His last wonder was nothing more than a halter, yet by this halter he gained more than by all his former exhibitions. The people, it seems, had got in their heads, that a certain noble criminal was to be hanged with a silken rope.* Now, there was nothing they so much wished to see as this very rope; and he was resolved to gratify their curiosity: he therefore got one made, not only of silk, but, to render it more striking, several threads of gold were intermixed. The people paid their money only to see silk, but were highly satisfied when they found it was mixed with gold into the bargain. It is scarcely necessary to mention, that the projector sold his silken rope for almost what it had cost him, as soon as the criminal was known to be hanged in hempen materials. By their fondness of sights, one would be apt to imagine, that instead of desiring to see things as they should be, they are rather solicitous of seeing them as they ought not to be. A cat with four legs is disregarded, though never so useful; but if it has but two, and is consequently incapable of catching mice, it is reckoned inestimable, and every man of taste is ready to raise the auction. A man, though in his person faultless as an aërial genius, might starve; but if stuck over with hideous warts, like a porcupine, his fortune is made for A good woman in my neighbourhood, who was bred a habit maker, though she handled her needle tolerably well, could scarcely get employment. But being obliged by an accident, to have both her hands cut off from the elbows, what would in another country have been her ruin, made her fortune here she was now thought more fit for her trade than before; business flowed in apace, and all people paid for seeing the mantua maker who wrought without hands. ever. : A gentleman, showing me his collection of pictures, stopped at one with peculiar admiration :-There,' cries he, 'is an inestimable piece.' I gazed at the picture for some time, but could see none of those graces with which he seemed enrap * It is said that Lord Ferrers, the criminal here meant, actually petitioned that he might be hanged with a silken rope; but his request was not complied with. tured; it appeared to me the most paltry piece of the whole collection. I therefore demanded where those beauties lay, of which I was yet insensible. Sir,' cries he, ' the merit does not consist in the piece, but in the manner in which it was done. The painter drew the whole with his foot, and held the pencil between his toes. I bought it with a very great price; for peculiar merit should ever be rewarded.' But these people are not more fond of wonders than liberal in rewarding those who show them. From the wonderful dog of knowledge, at present under the patronage of the nobility, down to the man with the box, who professes to show 'the best imitation of Nature that was ever seen,' they all live in luxury. A singing woman shall collect subscriptions in her own coach and six; a fellow shall make a fortune by tossing a straw from his toe to his nose; one in particular has found that eating fire was the most ready way to live; and another, who jingles several bells fixed to his cap, is the only man that I know of, who has received emolument from the labours of his head. A young author, a man of good nature and learning, was complaining to me some nights ago of this misplaced generosity of the times. Here,' says he, 'have I spent part of my youth in attempting to instruct and amuse my fellowcreatures, and all my reward has been solitude, poverty, and reproach; while a fellow, possessed of even the smallest share of fiddling merit, or who has perhaps learned to whistle double, is rewarded, applauded, and caressed!' 'Prithee, young man,' says I to him, ' are you ignorant that, in so large a city as this, it is better to be an amusing than a useful member of society? Can you leap up, and touch your feet four times before you come to the ground?'-'No, sir.' 'Can you stand on two horses at full speed? 'No, sir.' 'Can you swallow a penknife?'-'No, sir, I can do none of these tricks.' 'Why then, cried I,' there is no other prudent means of subsistence left, but to apprise the town that you speedily intend to eat up your own nose, by subscription.' I have frequently regretted that none of our Eastern posture masters, or showmen, have ever ventured to England; I should be pleased to see that money circulate in Asia, which is now sent to Italy and France, in order to bring their vagabonds hither. Several of our tricks would undoubtedly give the English high satisfaction. Men of fashion would be greatly pleased with the postures as well as the condescension of our dancing girls; and the ladies would equally admire the conductors of our fireworks. What an agreeable surprise would it be to see a huge fellow with whiskers flash a charged blunderbuss full in a lady's face without singeing her hair, or melting her pomatum. Perhaps, when the first surprise was over, she might then grow familiar with danger; and the ladies might vie with each other in standing fire with intrepidity. DECIMAL FRACTIONS-MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION. (1) 47 x 3.8; 86 x 79; 64·301 × 22.001; 367 x 486: 17 x 16. (2) 71-5642 × 0046; 0083406 × 8·066; 684·406 × ·806; 01 × '01. (3) 1·3214÷4-56; 0304÷64; 1942÷·14; 2÷256; 26·88÷75. (4) 2508÷01824; 1148·112÷2·04; ·1984÷62; 10.966÷200. COLOUR AND LUMINOSITY OF THE OCEAN. (From the World of Waters, by Madame Zornlin.) ex-tra'-ne-ous, proceeding from without o-pa'-ci-ty, the property which bodies that mol-lus-ca, boneless fishes lu-min-os -i-ty, a shining appearance nature spon-ta -ne-ous, voluntary scin-til-la'-tion, the act of sparkling lat'-i-tude, distance north or south of the gen-er-a (Lat.), plural of genus; a subdivision of a class in natural history spher'-i-cal, round an-i-mal'-cules, very minute insects SEA-WATER appears to be very transparent when undisturbed by extraneous causes. In general, it is more transparent as we recede from the shore, and also in cold climates than in hot. To this there are, however, some exceptions; for the water immediately off the Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean sea, is so remarkably clear, that at the depth of eight or nine fathoms, the floor of the ocean is quite discernible, and the sea-sponge may be distinctly seen in its natural bed. The changing colours of the sea are familiar to all who have visited the shores of the mighty deep: In colour changing, when from clouds or sun These almost perpetually varying hues displayed at the surface of the ocean, owe their existence in great measure to the mere reflection of the changing skies in the water. Thus, for instance, an apparently dark inky-coloured sea is usually indicative of an approaching storm; not, however, because the water is really blacker than usual, but because it reflects the general hue of the atmosphere near the horizon. In some cases, however, these hues are attributable to local causes; for the greenish tint which usually occurs in shallow water, appears to be owing to the yellowish sand in the bed of the ocean, which, mingling its hues with the blue tints of the latter, imparts this hue to the whole mass. But what, then, it may be asked, is the real colour of the ocean? The various particulars connected with this subject, which have been collated by M. Arago, will form the best reply to this inquiry. 'Mr. Scoresby,' he observes, 'compares the general tint of the Polar seas to the blue of ultramarine. M. Cortez considers the waters of the Mediterranean to resemble a perfectly clear solution of the finest indigo; he also describes them as of a bright sky-blue. Captain Tuckey characterises the waters of the Atlantic Ocean by the term bright azure. It would, therefore, appear that the colour of the ocean when its waters are unmixed with foreign matter may be considered as sky-blue, of greater or less intensity, according to the proportions of reflected light.' The ocean, however, does not present this sky-blue colour in all localities, this tint being sometimes modified, or even totally changed, in situations where the water has little depth; this variation being dependent on the nature of the bed of the sea. Thus, as has just been observed, a bed of yellow-coloured sand imparts to the sea a greenish tint, because the combination of yellow and blue forms that colour; and the brilliancy of the green will of course depend on the brightness of the sand. If the bed of the sea be red, the tint of the waters may be either purplish or red. Thus, the waters of the Mediterranean sea in some parts occasionally appear of a purple hue; possibly owing to the red coral which occurs in its bed, combined with the bright skyblue water. In the Bay of Loango, off the western coast of Africa, the waters always present the appearance of being so strongly tinged with red, that they might be supposed to be mixed with blood. Captain Tuckey, however, satisfied himself that the appearance arose from the intensely red colour of the bed of the ocean in that bay. The reflection of different hues from the bottom of the sea, is not, however, the sole cause of the various colours observed in some parts of the ocean; for it appears that, in many instances, this arises from the presence of innumerable living creatures of minute size. Thus, in the Polar seas, strongly marked bands, or stripes, of green coloured water occur, the tint of which is due to the presence of myriads of semi-transparent medusæ of a yellowish colour, and which, when blended with the blue colour of the ocean, produce this green tint. The colour of the sea, where these medusæ do not occur, is, as has just been mentioned, of an ultramarine blue, and beautifully transparent; the green water, on the contrary, has a great degree of opacity. When the |