THE

COFFEE-HOUSE OF SURAT.

AT Surat was a Coffee-house, the general rendezvous of strangers after dinner. One afternoon stepped in a Persian Seydre, or Doctor of the Law, who had been writing all his life on Theological subjects, and who no longer believed in a GOD. "What is that you call GOD," said he? "Whence "comes he? Who made him? Where is he? If he "were a body, he would be visible: were he a spi

rit, he would be intelligent and just; he would "not permit so many human beings to be miser"able. I myself, after having laboured so long "in his service, ought to have been High-priest of Ispahan, instead of being forced to flee from

66

Persia, after all my exertions to enlighten man"kind. There is no GOD." Thus the Doctor, misled by ambition, by dint of reasoning on the first reason of all things, had at length lost his own, and imagined, not that it was his own intelligence which no longer existed, but the intelligence which governs the Universe. He had for a slave a cafre almost naked, whom he left at the door of the Coffee-house. For himself, he went and stretched his limbs on a sofa, and took a cup of coquenar or opium. As soon as the fumes of this beverage began to mount to his brain, he addressed himself to his slave, who was sitting on a stone

in the Sun, driving away the flies which sucked his blood, in these terms: "Miserable black! Be"lievest thou there is a GOD?" "Who can doubt "it?" replied the Cafre, and as he spake pulled out from a shred of pagne which girded his loins, a little marmouset of wood, and said: "Behold the "GOD who has protected me ever since I came

into the world; he is made of a branch of the "Feticha-tree of my country." All the company in the coffee-room were no less surprized at the slave's answer than at his master's question.

On this a Bramin, shrugging up his shoulders, said to the Negro: "Poor ideot? What, carry thy "GOD in thy girdle! Know that there is no other "GOD but Brama, who created the Wörld, and "whose temples are on the banks of the Ganges. "The Bramins are his only priests, and it is under his "special protection that they subsist for a hundred "and twenty thousand years past, in defiance of all "the Revolutions which India has undergone." A Jew broker immediately took him up, saying: "How can the Bramins believe that GOD has tem"ples only in India, and that he exists for their "caste only? There is no GOD but the GOD of "Abraham, and He has no other People but that "of Israel. He preserves them, though dispersed "over the whole Earth, till he shall gather them "together again at Jerusalem, to give them the 'Empire of the Nations, when they shall have "there rebuilt his Temple, formerly the wonder of "the Universe." As he pronounced these words, tears started to the Israelites eyes. He was going to resume his speech, when an Italian in a blue robe interrupted

interrupted him in great heat: "You make GOD unjust," said he, "in pretending that he loves only the people of Israel. He had rejected them "for more than seventeen hundred years past, as " is evident from their very dispersion. He is now "calling all men into the Roman-catholic Church, "beyond the pale of which there can be no sal "vation." A Protestant Minister of the Danish Mission at Trinquebar, growing pale as ashes, re"plied to the Popish Missionary: "How dare you "limit the salvation of mankind to your idolatrous "communion: Learn that none can be saved but "those who, conformably to the Gospel, worship "GOD in spirit and in truth, under the Law of JE"SUS CHRIST." Upon this a Turk, an Officer of the Customs at Surat, who was smoking his pipe, said with a grave air to the two Christians: "Fa

thers, how can you confine the knowledge of "GOD to your Churches? The Law of JESUS has "been abolished ever since Mahomet appeared, the

paraclet predicted by JESUS CHRIST himself the “word of GOD. Your religion no longer sub"sists except in a few Kingdoms, and upon it's "ruins ours has extended itself over the finest "Provinces of Europe, of Africa, of Asia, and her "Islands. It is at this day seated on the Throne of "the Great Mogul, and is penetrating into China, "that enlightened country. You yourselves dis"cern the rejection of the Jews, in their present "state of humiliation; acknowledge then the mis"sion of the Prophet in his triumphs. The fol"lowers of Mahomet and of Omar alone can be saved; for the disciples of Ali are infidels."

.

At these words, the Seydre, who was of Persia, where the people are of the sect of Ali, began to smile; but a tumult arose in the Coffee-house, from the variety of strangers assembled, who were of as many different religions; and among the rest Abyssinian Christians, Cophts, Tartarian-Lamas, Arabian Ishmaelites, and Guebres, or worshippers of fire. All these disputed on the Nature of GOD, and on the worship he required, every one maintaining that the true religion existed no where but in his own country.

There was in the Coffee-house a man of letters from China, a disciple of Confucius, who was travelling for his improvement. He sat in a corner of the room, drinking tea, and listening to all that was said without speaking a word. The Turkish Custom-house Officer turning to him, cried aloud: 'My good Chinese, who remainest silent, you "know that many religions have made their way "into China. The merchants of your country who "had occasion here for my services have told me

so, and assured me that the Religion of Mahomet "is the best. Like them do justice to the truth: "what is your opinion of GOD, and of the Reli

gion of his Prophet?" This produced a profound silence in the Coffee-room. The disciple of Confucius, drawing back his hand into the large sleeve of his robe, and crossing them on his breast, retired into himself, and in a gentle and deliberate accent thus spake:

"Gentlemen, if I may be permitted to say so, it "is ambition which in every case hinders men to agree: if will give me a patient hearing, I

you

"shall

Λ

"shall produce an instance of which is still fresh "in my memory. When I left China, on my voyage to Surat, I embarked on board an English "ship which had sailed round the world. On our passage, we cast anchor on the eastern Coast of "Sumatra. Towards noon, having gone ashore in company with several persons belonging to the "vessel, we went and sat down on the shore of the sea, near a little village, under the shade of some cocoa-trees, where men of different countries were enjoying their repose. A blind man came and joined the company: he had lost his sight by too"close a contemplation of the Sun. He had been "actuated by the wild ambition of comprehending "the nature of that luminary, in order to appro"priate his light to himself. He had tried all the "methods which optics, chemistry, and even ne

cromancy can supply, to shut up one of his rays "in a bottle; not being able to succeed, he said: "The light of the Sun is not a fluid, for it cannot be agitated by the wind; it is not a solid, for the

parts of it cannot be separated; it is not fire, for "it is not extinguishable in water; it is not a

spirit, as it is visible: it is not a body, for we can"not handle it; it is not even a moving power, for "it agitates not the lightest bodies: it is therefore nothing at all. Finally, by persevering efforts, "in contemplating the Sun, and reasoning on his light, he at length lost his eye-sight, and what is worse, his reason. He believed that it was

"not his vision, but the Sun which had no exist"ence in the Universe. He had a negro to lead

"him about, who having seated his master under