years, a circumstance that argues very much in its favour, since they are
thought to be the wisest and best governed people in the world. The
Chinese, indeed, do not communicate this distemper by inoculation, but at
the nose, in the same manner as we take snuff. This is a more agreeable
way, but then it produces the like effects; and proves at the same time
that had inoculation been practised in France it would have saved the
lives of thousands.



LETTER XII.--ON THE LORD BACON


Not long since the trite and frivolous question following was debated in
a very polite and learned company, viz., Who was the greatest man, Caesar,
Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, &c.?

Somebody answered that Sir Isaac Newton excelled them all. The
gentleman's assertion was very just; for if true greatness consists in
having received from heaven a mighty genius, and in having employed it to
enlighten our own mind and that of others, a man like Sir Isaac Newton,
whose equal is hardly found in a thousand years, is the truly great man.
And those politicians and conquerors (and all ages produce some) were
generally so many illustrious wicked men. That man claims our respect
who commands over the minds of the rest of the world by the force of
truth, not those who enslave their fellow-creatures: he who is acquainted
with the universe, not they who deface it.

Since, therefore, you desire me to give you an account of the famous
personages whom England has given birth to, I shall begin with Lord