the difference of the feafons: in the fummer, the Tartars advance towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or, at least, in the neighbourhood of a running ftream. But in the winter they return to the South, and shelter their camp, behind fome convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in their paffage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffufe, among the wandering tribes, the fpirit of emigration and conqueft. The connection between the people and their territory is of fo frail a texture, that it may be broken by the flightest accident. The camp, and not the foil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property are always included; and, in the moft diftant marches, he is ftill furrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the refentment of injury, the impatience of fervitude, have, in every age, been fufficient caufes to urge the tribes of S.ythia boldly to advance into fome unknown countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful fubfiftence, or a lefs formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hoftile nations the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove, and been driven, from the confines of China to thofe of Germany. Thefe great emigrations, which have been fome fimes executed with almoft incredible diligence, were rendered

more eafy by the peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known, that the cold of Tartary is much more fevere than in the midst of the temperate zone might reafon. ably be expected: this uncommon rigour is attributed to the height of the plains, which rife, elpecially towards the Eaft, more than half a mile above the level of the fea; and to the quantity of faltpetre, with which the foil is deeply impregnated. In the winter-fea fon, the broad and rapid rivers, that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Cafpian, or the icy Sea, are ftrongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of fnow; and the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may fecurely traverse, with their families, their waggons, and their cattle, the fimooth and hard furface of an immense plain.

III. The paftoral life, compared with the labours of agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the most honourable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domeftic management of the cattle; their own le fure is feldom disturbed by any fervile and allduous cares. But this leifu.e, inftead of being devored to the foft enjoy men's of love and har mony, is ufefully fpent in the vio lent and fanguinary exercife of the chace. The plains of Tartary are filed with a fong and ferviceable breed of hories, which are eauly trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and fkilful riders; and constant practice had feated them fo firmly on horfeback, that they were fuppofed by ftrangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to

eat,

doned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequen ly continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills, to fwim the rivers, and to wind through the vallies, without interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progrefs. They acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote object; of preferving their intervals; of fufpending, or accele rating their pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the fignals of their leaders. Their leaders ftudy, in this practical school, the most important leffon of the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the fame patience and valour, the fame fkill and difcipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and the amufements of the chace ferve as a prelude to the conqueft of an empire.

eat, to drink, and even to fleep, without difmounting from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim, and irrefiftible force. Thefe arrows are often pointed against the harmless animals of the defert, which increase and multiply in the abfence of their moft formidable enemy; the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the ftag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and patience both of the men and horfes are continually exercifed by the fatigues of the chace; and the plentiful fupply of game contributes to the fubfiftence, and even luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the destruction of timid or innoxious beafts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his purfuers, excite the fluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tyger, as he flumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger there may be glory and the mode of hunting, which opens the faireft field to the exertions of valour, may justly be confidered as the image, and as the school, of war. The general hunting-matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes, compofe an inftructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an extensive district; and the troops that form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, furrounded on every side, are aban

The political fociety of the ancient Germans has the appearance of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia, diftinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, affume the form of a numerous and increafing family; which, in the course of fuccefiive generations, has been propagated from the fame original stock. The meanest and most ignorant of the Tartars preferve, with confcious pride, the ineftima ble treasure of their genealogy; and whatever diftinctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequal distribution of paitoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as the B 4 defcendants

defcendants of the first founder of the tribe. The cuftom, which ftill prevails, of adopting the braveft, and most faithful of the captives, may countenance the very probable fufpicion, that this extenfive confanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious. But the ufeful prejudice, which has obtained the fanction of time and opinion, produces the effects of truth; the haughty Barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and their chief, or murfa, as the reprefentative of their great father, exercises the authority of a judge, in peace, and of a leader, in war. In the original state of the paftoral world, each of the murfas (if we may continue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a large and feparate family; and the limits of their peculiar territories were gradually fixed, by fuperior force, or mutual confent. But the conftant operation of various and permanent caufes contributed to unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command of a fupreme head. The weak were defirous of fupport, and the ftrong were ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the refult of union, oppreffed and collected the divided forces of the adjacent tribes; and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to fhare the advantages of victory, the moft valiant chiefs haftened to range themfelves, and their followers, under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The moft fuccessful of the Tartar princes affumed the military command, to which he was entitled by the fuperiority, either of merit, or of power. He was

raised to the throne by the accla mations of his equals; and the title of Khan expreffes, in the language of the North of Afia, the full extent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary fucceffion was long confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are the lineal defcendants of the renowned Zingis. But, as it is the indifpenfable duty of a Tartar fovereign to lead his warlike fubjects into the field, the claims of an infant are often difregarded; and fome royal kinfman, diftinguished by his age and valour, is entrusted with the fword and fceptre of his predeceffor. Two diftinct and regular taxes are levied on the tribes, to fupport the dignity of their national monarch, and of their peculiar chief; and

each of those contributions amounts to the tythe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartar fovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and as his own domeftic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the ruftic fplendour of his court, to reward the moft deferving, or the most favoured, of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the obedience which might be fometimes refused to the ftern mandates of authority. The manners of his fubjects, accuftomed, like himself, to blood and rapine, might excufe, in their eyes, fuch partial acts of tyranny, as would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power of a defpot has never been acknowledged in the deferts of Scythia.

The

Italy were efteemed and ftudied. The fonnets of Petrarch were the great models of compofition. They entered into the genius of the fafhionable manners: and in a court of fuch a complexion, Petrarch of courfe became the popular poet. Henry Howard earl Surrey, with a miftrefs perhaps as beautiful as Laura, and at leaft with Petrarch's paffion if not his tafte, led the way to great improvements in Englith poetry, by a happy imitation of Petrarch, and other Italian poets, who had been moft fuccessful in painting the anxieties of love with pathos and propriety.

Lord Surrey's life throws fo much light on the character and fubjects of his poetry, that it is almost impoffible to confider the one, without exhibiting a few anecdotes of the other. He was the fon and grandfon of two lords treasurers dukes of Norfolk; and in his early childhood difcovered the most promifing marks of lively parts and an active mind.

While a boy, he was habituated to the modes of a court at Windfor-caftle: where he refided, yet under the care of proper inftructors, in the quality of a companion to Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, a natural fon of king Henry the eighth, and of the highest expectations.

This young nobleman, who alfo bore other titles and honours, was the child of Henry's affection: not fo much on account of his hopeful abilities, as for a reafon infinuated by lord Herbert, and at which thofe who know Henry's history and character will not be furprized, because he equally and ftrongly refembled both his father

and mother.

A friendship of the closest kind commencing between these two illuftrious youths, about the year 1530, they were both removed to cardinal Wolfey's college at Oxford, then univerfally frequented, as well for the excellence as the novelty of its inftitution; for it was one of the first seminaries of an English univerfity, that profeffed to explode the pedantries of the old barbarous philofophy, and to cultivate the graces of polite literature. Two years afterwards, for the purpose of acquiring every accomplishment of an elegant education, the earl accompanied his noble friend and fellow-pupil into France, where they received king Henry, on his arrival at Calais to vifit Francis the first, with a most magnificent retinue. The friendfhip of these two young noblemen was foon ftrengthened by a new tie; for Richmond married the lady Ma ry Howard, Surrey's fifter. Richmond, however, appears to have died in the year 1536, about the age of feventeen, having never cohabited with his wife, It was long before Surrey forgot the untimely lofs of this amiable youth, the friend and affociate of his childhood, and who nearly refem. bled himself in genius, refinement of manners, and liberal acquifitions.

It is not precifely known at what period the earl of Surrey began his travels. They have the air of a romance. He made the tour of Europe in the true spirit of chivalry, and with the ideas of an Amadis; proclaiming the unpa ralleled charms of his mistress, and prepared to defend the cause of her beauty with the weapons of knighterrantry. Nor was this adventu

rous