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When he

and especially the prince, who told me with a figh, that the true greatnefs of life was to be mafter of ourselves; that he would not have changed fuch a state of life as mine, to have been czar of Muscovy; and that he found more felicity in the retirement he feemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his mafter the czar: that the heighth of human wifdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumftances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest ftorm without. came first hither, he faid, he ufed to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and confideration had made him look into himself, as well as round himself, to things without: that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of univerfal life, and how little this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicity for itself, fully fatisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best ends and defires, with but very little affistance from the world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for warmth, and liberty for exercise, in order to health, compleated, in his opinion, all that the world could do for us: and though the greatness, the authority, the riches, and the pleafures, which fome enjoyed in the world, and which he had enjoyed his fhare of, had much in them that was agreeable to us, yet he obferved, that all thofe things chiefly gratified the coarsest of our affections; such as our ambition, our particular pride, our avarice, cur vanity, and our fenfuality; all which were,

indeed,

of man,

indeed, the mere product of the worst part were in themselves crimes, and had in them the feeds of all manner of crimes; but neither were related to or concerned with, any of those virtues that conftituted us wife men, or of those graces which distinguifhed us as Chriftians: that being now deprived of all the fancied felicity, which he enjoyed in the ful} exercise of all thofe vices, he said, he was at leisure to look upon the dark fide of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced, that virtue only makes a man truly wife, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he faid, they were more happy in their banishment, than all their enemies were, who had the full poffeffion of all the wealth and power that they (the banished) had left behind them.

Nor, Sir, said he, do I bring my mind to this politically, by the neceffity of my circumftances, which fome call miserable; but, if I know any thing of myself, I would not go back, no not though my mafter, the czar, fhould call me, and offer to reinftate me in all my former grandeur; I fay, I would no more go back to it, than I believe my foul when it fhall be delivered from this prifon of the body and has had a taste of the glorious ftate beyond life, would come back to the goal of flesh and blood it is now inclosed in, and leave heaven to deal in the dirt and grime of human affairs.

He fpake this with fo much warmth in his temper, fo much earnestness and motion of his fpirits, which were apparent in his countenance, that it was evident it was the true fenfe of his foul; and, indeed, there was no room to doubt his fincerity.

I told him, I once thought myself a kind of a monarch in my old ftation, of which I had given him an account, but that I thought he was not a monarch only, but a great conqueror; for that he that has got a victory over his own exorbitant defires, and has the abfolute dominion over himself, and whofe reafon entirely governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city. But, my lord, said I, fhall I take the liberty to ask you a queftion? With all my heart, faid he. If the door of your liberty was opened, faid I, would not you take hold of it to deliver yourself from this exile?

Hold, faid he, your question is subtle, and requires fome ferious juft diftinctions to give it a fincere anfwer; and I'll give it you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing that I know of in this world would move me to deliver myself from the state of banishment, except these two: First, the enjoyment of my relations; and, fecondly, a little warmer climate: but I proteft to you, that to go back to the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the hurry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the pleafures, that is to fay, follies of a courtier; if my mafter fhould fend me word this moment, that he restores me to all he banished me from; I proteft, if I know myfelf at all, I would not leave this wilderness, these defarts, and thefe frozen lakes, for the palace of Mofcow.

But, my lord, faid I, perhaps you not only are banished from the pleafures of the court, and from the power, and authority, and wealth, you enjoyed before, but you may be abfent too from fome of the conveniencies of life; your eftate, perhaps, confifcated,

and

and

your effects plundered; and the fupplies left here may not be fuitable to the ordinary demands of life.

you

Ay, faid he, that is as you fuppofe me to be, a lord, or a prince, &c. So, indeed, I am; but you are now to confider me only as a man, an human creature, not at all distinguished from another; and fo I can fuffer no want, unless I fhould be vifited with fickness and diftempers. However, to put the queftion out of difpute; you fee our manner; we are in this place five persons of rank; we live perfectly retired, as fuited to a ftate of banishment; we have fomething refcued from the fhipwreck of our fortunes, which keeps us from the mere neceffity of hunting for our food; but the poor foldiers who are here, without that help, live in as much plenty as we. They go into the woods, and catch fables and foxes; the labour of a month will maintain them a year; and as the way of living is not expensive, so it is not hard to get fufficient to ourselves: So that objection is out of doors.

I have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable converfation I had with this truly great man; in all which he fhewed, that his mind was fo infpired with a fuperior knowledge of things, fo fupported by religion, as well as by a vaft fhare of wif dom, that his contempt of the world was really as much as he had expreffed, and that he was always the fame to the laft, as will appear in the ftory I am going to tell.

I had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter I thought it to be; the cold was fo intenfe,

tha

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that I could not fo much as look abroad without being wrapt in furs, and a mask of fur before my face, or rather a hood, with only an hole for breath, and two for fight. The little day-light we had, was, as we reckoned, for three months, not above five hours a day, and fix at moft; only that the fnow lying on the ground continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. Our horfes were kept (or rather starved) under-ground; and, as, for our fervants (for we hired fervants here to look after our horfes and ourselves), we had every now and then their fingers and toes to thaw, and take care of, left they should mortify and fall off.

It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all double. Our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the feafon; good bread enough, but baked as bifcuits; dried fifh of feveral forts, and fome flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good beef. All the ftore of provifion for the winter are laid up in the fummer, and well cured; our drink was water mixed with aqua vitæ instead of brandy; and, for a treat, mead instead of wine; which, however, they have excellent good. The hunters, who ventured abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fresh venifon, very fat and good; and fometimes bears flesh, but we did not much care for the laft. We had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends as above; and, in a word, we lived very chearfully and well, all things confidered.

It was now March, and the days grown confiderably longer, and the weather at leaft tolerable; fo

other

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