vanity. The latter pervert nature by an aukward imitation of the French, whom they cannot equal, and therefore become ridiculous. At a great distance from the Notre Dame de Rheims is the leffer, but richer church of St. Remi (Remigius). The shrine of this faint is very magnificent; it is adorned by a variety of precious ftones and intaglios, fome of them truly antique. The holy oil, with which the fovereigns of France are anointed at their coronation, is kept in this church. We were affured, that the celestial unction was brought from heaven by an angel, and that it never decreases. Let me not detain you by accounts of fuperftitious impofitions, in many of which, perhaps, the person who imposed, worked himself up to a degree, that made him at laft believe his own inventions. In many more, prieftcraft and worldly lucre have prevailed: and, in all, folly, ignorance, and narrowness of thought. thought. I faw the holy oil, bits of the Bethlehem cradle, and a piece of St. Somebody's thumb, with pity, scarce unattended by derifion. But when I viewed the immenfe edifices built in honour, and to the glory of Almighty God, I could not avoid reflecting, that they bore a testimony of devotion in our forefathers, which might tacitly ftrike their irreligious pofterity with fhame. It is impoffible to enter one of these immenfe edifices, without a kind of awe, which, when unattended by fuperftition, muft, we may humbly hope, be acceptable to a Creator, who, at the fame time that he appears incomprehensible, has still given his creatures fufficient knowledge of his will, to require from them adoration, and a dutiful fubmiffion to fuch of his laws, as are adequate to their comprehenfion. From Rheims we went to Dijon, a large well fortified town in Burgundy, lying in the direct way from Paris to Lyons. The roads through which we paffed afforded us the greateft variety of woods, rivers, and beautiful prospects, that imagination could have formed, fond as it is of raifing pleasurable ideas, which are seldom, very feldom, answered. In France, the poverty of the people and the fruitfulnefs of the foil are circumstances, that excite wonder and compaffion. They are obliged to plow their ground every year, nevertheless it produces corn. The women (I fpeak of the common. people) are more induftrious than the men: they labour, they carry burdens. The husband is Hercules with the distaff; the wife is Omphale with the lion's skin. All the great cities, and the diftricts belonging to them, at once proclaim the power and the fhame of this arbitrary government. The French nobles are clad in purple. The French peasants have fcarce fackcloth to cover them. There is no medium between laced cloaths and rags. The equipages and number of horses seem to answer the wealth of the Indies. Indies. The perfons who make those equipages, and who provide food for those horses, have not bread to eat; yet you have heard, and with great truth, that a ragged French beggar is merrier by nature, than a rich English nobleman can make himself by art. Education is faid to be a fecond nature: climate, I believe, is a fecond education. The people in the provinces, through which we have paffed, complain extremely of the rapine of the farmers-general. The peasants murmur, but maintain their loyalty; yet that virtue is much lefs than I found it twenty years ago. They then adored their King, they now think it fufficient to honour him. I have flown, like a bird of paffage, you find, through a large part of the French regions. We left Lincoln's-Inn-Fields the 20th of September: we have met with no untoward accident: we have been free from complaints of every kind, and we have enjoyed the finest and the warmest weather, that has been ever remembered at this season of the year. Our paffage from Dover to Calais was no longer than three hours and ten minutes. From Calais to this place we have paffed most of our time in poft-chaises, often wishing for the eyes of Argus and the wings of Dedalus, but finding no effect from our wishes. Let Scaliger describe to you the fpot on which we have at prefent fixed our tents. Flumineis Rhodanus, qua fe fugat, inci- Quaque pigro dubitat flumine mitis Lugdunum jacet, antiquo novus orbis in orbe; Where the Rhone rushes with impetuous tides, |