Sinking to earth, I figh the laft adieu, My Queen! my angel! my fond heart's defire! I have taken the liberty in the second verse, of following what I suppose the true sense of the author, though not literally expreffed. By his faying he went down to admire the beauty of the vines, and her charms ravished his foul; I understand a poetical fiction, of having first feen her in a garden, where he was admiring the beauty of the fpring. But I could not forbear retaining the comparison of her eyes with those of a stag, though perhaps the novelty of it may give it a burlesque found in our language. I cannot determine upon the whole, how well I have fucceeded in the translation, neither do I think our English proper to exprefs fuch violence of paffion, which is very feldom felt amongst us. We want, alfo, those compound words which are very frequent and ftrong in the Turkish language. You You fee I am pretty far gone in oriental learning, and to say truth, I ftudy very hard. I wish my studies may give me an occafion of entertaining your curiofity, which will be the utmost advantage hoped for from them, by, Your's, &c. LET, LETTER LET To Mrs. S. C. XXXI. Adrianople, April 1, O. S. IN my opinion, dear S. I ought rather to quarrel with you, for not answering my Nimuegen letter of Auguft, till December, than to excuse my not writing again till now. I am fure there is on my fide a very good excufe for filence, having gone fuch tiresome land-journies, though I don't find the conclufion of them fo bad as you seem to imagine. I am very eafy here, and not in the folitude you fancy me. The great number of Greeks, French, English, and Italians, that are under our protection, make their court to me from morning till night; and I'll affure you, are, many of them, very fine ladies; for there is no poffibility for a Christian to live easily under this government, but by the protection of an Ambaffador--and the richer they are, the greater is their danger. Thofe Those dreadful stories you have heard of the plague, have very little foundation in truth. I own, I have much ado to reconcile myself to the found of a word, which has always given me fuch terrible ideas; though I am convinced there is little more in it, than in a fever. As a proof of this, let me tell you, that we passed through two or three towns most violently in fected. In the very next houfe where we lay (in one of those places) two perfons died of it. Luckily for me, I was fo well deceived, that I knew nothing of the matter; and I was made believe, that our fecond cook had only a great cold. However, we left our doctor to take care of him, and yesterday they both arrived here in good health; and I am now let into the fecret, that he has had the plague. There are many that escape it, neither is the air ever infected. I am perfuaded that it would be as easy a matter to root it out here, as out of Italy and France; but it does fo little mischief, they are not very folicitous about it, and are content to fuffer fuffer this diftemper, inftead of our variety, which they are utterly unacquainted with. A propos of diftempers, I am going to tell you a thing, that will make you wish yourself here. The fmall pox, fo fatal, and fo general amongst us, is here intirely harmless, by the invention of engrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a fet of old women, who make it their business to perform the operation, every autumn, in the month of September, when the great heat is abated. People fend to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small-pox; they make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or fixteen together) the old woman comes with a nut-fhell full of the matter of the best fort of small-pox, and afks what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that, you offer to her, with a large needle, (which gives you no more pain than a common fcratch) and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle, and after that, binds up the little wound with a hollow |