LESSON XCVIII.

Modes of Salutation in Different Countries.

1. MODES of salutation have sometimes very different characters, and it is no uninteresting speculation to examine their shades. Many display a refinement of delicacy, while others are remarkable for their simplicity, or for their sensibility. In general, however, they are the same in the infancy of nations, and in more polished societies. Respect, humility, fear, and esteem, are expressed much in a similar manner, for these are the natural consequences of the organization of the body.

2. These demonstrations become in time only empty civilities which signify nothing; we shall notice what they were originally, without reflecting on what they are. The first nations have no peculiar modes of salutation; they know no reverences or other compliments, or they despise and disdain them. The Greenlanders laugh when they see an European uncover his head, and bend his body before him whom he calls his superior.

3. The Islanders, near the Philippines, take the hand or foot of him they salute, and with it they gently rub their face. The Laplanders apply their nose strongly against that of the person they salute. Dampier says, that at New Guinea they are satisfied to put on their heads the leaves of trees, which have ever passed for symbols of friendship and peace. This is at least a picturesque salute.

4. Other salgations are very incommodious and painful ; it requires great practice to enable a man to be polite in an island situated in the straits of the Sound. Houtman tells us they saluted him in this grotesque manner : They raised his left foot, which they passed gently over the right leg, and from thence over his face." The inhabitants of the Philippines use a most complex attitude; they bend their body very low, place their hands on their cheeks, and at the same time raise one foot in the air, with their knee bent.

5. In the progress of time, it appears servile to uncover one's self. The grandees of Spain claim the right of appearing covered before the king, to show that they are not so much subjected to him as the rest of the nation; and this writer truly observes, we may remark that the English do

not uncover their heads so much as the other nations of Europe. Mr. Hobhouse observes, that uncovering the head, with the Turks, is a mark of indecent familiarity in their mosques, the Franks must keep their hats on. The Jewish custom of wearing their hats in their synagogues is, doubtless, the same oriental custom.

6. In a word, there is not a nation, observes the humorous Montaigne, even to the people who, when they salute, turn their backs on their friends, but what can be justified in their customs.

7. The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions; and hence all their ceremonies seem farcical. The greater part pull the fingers till they crack. Snelgrave gives an odd representation of the embassy which the king of Dahomy sent to him. The ceremonies of salutation consisted in the most ridiculous contortions. When two negro monarchs visit, they embrace by snapping three times the middle finger.

8. Barbarous nations frequently imprint their dispositions on their salutations. When the inhabitants of Carmena, says Athenæus, would show a peculiar mark of esteem, they broached a vein, and presented, for the beverage of their friend, the blood, as it issued. The Franks tore the hair from their heads, and presented it to the person they saluted. The slave cut his hair, and offered it to his master.

9. The Chinese are singularly affected in their personal civilities. They even calculate the number of their reverences. These are the most remarkable postures. The men move their hands in an affectionate manner, while they are joined together on the breast, and bow their head a little. If they respect a person, they raise their hands, joined, and lower them to the earth in anding the body. If two persons meet after a long separation, they both fall on their knees, and bend the face to the earth; and this ceremony they repeat two or three times.

It

10. Surely we may differ here with the sentiment of Montaigne, and confess this ceremony to be ridiculous. arises from their national affectation. They substitute artificial ceremonies for natural actions.

11. Their expressions mean as little as their ceremonies. If a Chinese is asked how he finds himself in health, he answers, Very well; thanks to your abundant felicity. If they would tell a man that he looks well, they say, Prosperity is painted on your face; or, Your air announces your

happiness. If you render them any service, they say, My thanks shall be immortal.

LESSON XCIX.

The Monied Man.

1. OLD Jacob Stock! The chimes of the clock were not more punctual in proclaiming the progress of time, than in marking the regularity of his visits at the temples of Plutus, in Threadneedle-street and Bartholomew-lane. His devotion to them was exemplary. In vain the wind and the rain, the hail and the sleet, battled against his rugged front.

2. Not the slippery ice, nor the thick-falling snow, nor the whole artillery of elemental warfare, could check the plodding preseverance of the man of the world, or tempt him to lose the chance which the morning, however unpropitious it seemed in its external aspect, might yield him of profiting by the turn of a fraction.

3. He was a stout-built, round-shouldered, squab-looking man, of a bearish aspect. His features were hard, and his heart was harder. You could read the interest-table in the wrinkles of his brow, trace the rise and fall of the stocks by the look of his countenance; while avarice, selfishness, and money-getting, glared from his gray, glassy eye. 4. Nature had poured no balm into his breast; nor was his " gross and earthly mould" susceptible of pity. A single look of his would daunt the most importunate petitioner that ever attempted to exact hard coin by the soft rhetoric of a heart-moving tale.

5. The wife of one whom he had known in better days, pleaded before him for her sick husband and famishing infants. Jacob, on occasions like these, was a man of few words. He was as careful of them as of his money, and he let her come to the end of her tale without interruption. She paused for a reply; but he gave none. Indeed, he is very ill, sir."—"Can't help it."-"We are very much distressed.". "Can't help it.""Our poor children, too

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6. The petitioner's eye looked a mournful reproach, which would have interpreted itself to any other heart but his, "Indeed you can; but she was silent. more awkwardly than he had ever done in his life.

Jacob felt
His hand

involuntarily scrambled about his pockets. There was something like the weakness of human nature stirring within him. Some coin had unconsciously worked its way into his hand-his fingers insensibly closed; but the effort to draw them forth, and the impossibility of effecting it without unclosing them, roused the dormant selfishness of his nature, and restored his self-possession.

7. "He has been very extravagant.". "Ah, sir, he has been very unfortunate, not extravagant."- -"Unfortunate !Ah! it's the same thing. Little odds, I fancy. For my part, I wonder how folks can be unfortunate. I was never unfortunate. Nobody need be unfortunate, if they look after the main chance. I always looked after the main chance."

8. "He has had a large family to maintain."-“ Ah! married foolishly; no offence to you, ma'am. But when poor folks marry poor folks, what are they to look for? Besides, he was so foolishly fond of assisting others. If a friend was sick, or in gaol, out came his purse, and then his creditors might go whistle. Now, if he had married a woman with money, you know, why then . . .

9. The suppliant turned pale, and would have fainted. Jacob was alarmed; not that he sympathized; but a woman's fainting was a scene that he had not been used to; besides, there was an awkwardness about it; for Jacob was a bachelor.

10. Sixty summers had passed over his head without imparting a ray of warmth to his heart; without exciting one tender feeling for the sex, deprived of whose cheering presence, the paradise of the world were a wilderness of weeds. So he desperately extracted a crown piece from the depth profound, and thrust it hastily into her hand. The action recalled her wandering senses. She blushed :-it was the honest blush of pride at the meanness of the gift. She curt'sied; staggered towards the door; opened it; closed it; raised her hand to her forehead, and burst into

tears.

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LESSON C.

The Prisoner.

1. WE paused at the grating of a cell, and the gentleman who accompanied us spoke to the inmate. The voice was

that of kindness, and it was evident that the prisoner was used to that tone from the keeper. He stepped forward and placed himself against the grated door. Ten long years had been passed in durance by this offender against the laws; and a strong iron frame, that had stood up against war and the elements, was yielding, as a consequence of inaction. 2. Hope had almost ceased with the man. Sixteen years of his sentence were yet unexpired, and there was scarcely a ground to expect that he would survive that period in confinement. With this world thus receding, we questioned him of his hopes of that towards which he was hastening.

3. His mind was clouded; there was a lack of early favorable impressions, and he seemed to share in the common feelings of convicts, that his crime had not been more than that of men who had escaped with less punishment; and when we asked him of his sense of guilt towards HIM who was yet to be his judge, the poor man confessed his offences, but so mingled that confession with comparisons of crime, that we feared he saw darkly the path of duty.

4. Having answered the questions which he put to us on important subjects, with what little ability we had, and added the advice which mankind are more ready to give than to follow, we prepared to depart; a slight flush came to the cheek of the prisoner, as he pressed his forehead against the bars of his cell, and his hand was thrust through the aperture, not boldly to seize ours, nor meanly to solicit, but rather as if in the hope that accident might favor him with a contact.

5. Man, leprous with crime, is human-and a warm touch of pity passes with electric swiftness to the heart. Tears from that fountain that had long been deemed dried up, fell upon the dungeon floor.

6. The keeper had moved away from the grate, and we were about to follow, when the prisoner said, in a low voice, "One word more, if you please. You seem to understand these things. Do the spirits of the departed ever come back to witness the actions and situation of the living?"

7. "Many people believe it," we replied, "and the Scripture says that there is joy in heaven over a sinner that repenteth' on earth. It may therefore be true."

8. "It may be," said the man." My poor, poor mother!!"