no art has been invented by us; all have been tranfplanted: but the earth which bears these foreign fruits, grows weary and exhausted; and our former barbarism aided by the frivolousness of the present age, would foon introduce itself, notwithstanding the improvements we have received; the difciples of Athens and of Rome would become goths and vandals, funk in the luxury of fibarites; without the encouragement and difcerning protection of perfons of your rank. When nature has granted them a genius, or a love for genius, they encourage our nation, which is better adapted for imitation than for invention, and which always looks for instructions and example, in the family of its fovereigns*. All I wish for, madam, is, that fome genius may arife, who may finish what I have begun; who may recover the theatre from its present affectation and effeminacy; who may render it refpectable to persons of the most strict austerity; and who may make

* The lady this letter was addreffed to, was of the royal family of France.

it

it worthy of the flourishing days of Athens, and of the finall number of master-pieces our nation poffeffes; and worthy, in fine, of the fuffrage of fuch a mind as yours, and minds happy enough to resemble yours.

DE

DEDICATION

Of the ORPHAN of CHINA.

To his grace the duke of RICHELIEU

Wish, my lord, I could erect to you a marble statue like the genoefe *, inftead of a chinese mandarin, which is all that I have to offer you. Indeed this performance does not seem at all calculated for you. It makes no mention of an hero, who has won univerfal approbation by the charms of his wit; who faved a republic that was on the brink of deftruction +; and who found out the means of conquering a formidable column of englishmen with four canons +. No body can be better perfuaded

The duke of Richelieu contributed confiderably towards faving the republic of Genoa, last war, from the attempt and design of the germans; in gratitude of which his ftatue has been erected by the genoese. It is fuppofed that the principal cause of the retreat of the glorious column of english infantry in the

battle

fuaded than I am, of the smallness of my prefent; but fome indulgence may be granted to an attachment of forty years continuance. It may poffibly be infinuated, that, retired as I am, at the foot of the Alps, and in view of eternal fnow, where I fhould lead the life of a philofopher, I cannot however refift the vanity of telling the world, that the moft valuable perfonages on the borders of the river Seine, have never forgot me; it is certain however, that I only confulted the fentiments of my heart; they alone are the guides of my conduct, and have always influenced my words and actions. The heart is fometimes mistaken; but not after so long a trial. Permit me, therefore, if this tragedy fhould happen to remain fometime after its author, to acquaint pofterity, that as your uncle, cardinal Richelieu, introduced the fine arts into France, and encouraged them in their infancy, so you have fupported them in their decline.

battle of Fontenoy, was owing to the havock caufed among them by a few canon placed directly oppofite to the column, by the direction of this nobleman. N The

The first time I thought of writing this play, was on reading the Orphan of Tchao, a chinese tragedy, tranflated by father Bremare, and inferted in the collection published by father Du Halde. This chinefe drama was compofed in the fourteenth century, under the very dynasty of Gengis-Kan. This is an additional proof that the tartar conquerors caufed no change in the manners of the nation they fubdued. They protected all the arts that were establifhed in China, and adopted all its laws.

This is a ftriking example of the natural fuperiority of reafon and genius, over blind and barbarous force; and the Tartars have twice furnished this example. For when they over-ran this great empire a a fecond time, in the beginning of the laft century, they fubmitted a fecond time to to the wisdom of the vanquifhed; and both became one people, governed by the most ancient laws in the universe an event worthy of admiration; and to mark this event was the chief aim I proposed in writing the following tragedy. The chinefe tragedy, which bears the name of the Orphan, is chofen from an immense collection of theatrical pieces of that

nation.