laws, which are looked upon as the most perfect rule of government. The number of these classical and canonical books, for so it seems they are called, is four. The first is entitled, "Ta Hio, the Grand Science, or the School of the Adults.” It is this that beginners ought to study first, because it is, as it were, the porch of the temple of wisdom and virtue.

It treats of the care we ought to take in governing ourselves, that we may be able afterwards to govern others and of : perseverance in the chief good, which, according to him, is nothing but a conformity of our actions to right reason. The author calls this book "Ta Hio, or the Grand Science," because it was chiefly designed for princes and grandees, who ought to govern their people wisely. "The whole science of princes," says Confucius, "consists in cultivating and perfecting the reasonable nature they have received from Tien, and in restoring that light and primitive clearness of judgment, which has been weakened and obscured by various passions, that it may be afterwards in a capacity to labour for the perfection of others. "To succeed then," says he, we should begin within ourselves and to this end it is necessary to have an insight into the nature of things, and to gain the knowledge of good and evil; to determine the will towards a love of this good, and hatred of this evil; to preserve integrity of heart, and to regulate the manners according to reason. When a man has thus renewed himself, there will be then less difficulty in renewing others: by this means concord and union reign in families, kingdoms are governed according to the laws, and the whole empire enjoys peace and tranquillity."

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The second classical or canonical book is called "Tchong Yong, or the Immutable Mean ;" and treats of the mean which ought to be observed in all things. Tchong signifies mean, and by Yong is understood that which is constant, eternal, immutable. He undertakes to prove, that every wise man, and chiefly those who have the care of governing the world, should follow this mean, which is the essence of virtue. He enters upon his subject by defining human nature, and its passions; then he brings several examples of virtue and piety, as fortitude, prudence, and filial duty, which are proposed as so many patterns to be imitated in keeping this mean. In the next place he shews, that this mean, and the practice of it, is the right and true path which a wise man should pursue, in order to attain the highest pitch of virtue. The third book "Yun Lu, or the Book of Maxims," is a collection of sententious and moral discourses, and is divided into 20 articles, containing only the questions, answers, and sayings of Con

fucius and his disciples, on virtue, good works, and the art of governing well; the tenth article excepted, in which the disciples of Confucius particularly describe the outward deportment of their master. There are some maxims and moral sentences in this collection, equal to those of the seven wise men of Greece, which have always been so much admired. The fourth book gives an idea of a perfect government; it is called "Meng Tsee or the Book of Montius;" because, though numbered among the classical and canonical books, it is more properly the work of his disciple Montius. To these four books they add two others, which have almost an equal reputation; the first is called " Hiao King," that is, "of Filial Reverence," and contains the answers which Confucius made to his disciple Tseng, concerning the respect which is due to parents. The second is called "Sias Hio," that is, "the Science, or the School of Children ;" which is a collection of sentences and examples taken from ancient and modern authors.

There is a tradition in China, that when Confucius was complimented upon the excellency of his philosophy, and his own conformity thereto, he modestly declined the honour that was done him, and said, that "he greatly fell short of the most perfect degree of virtue, but that in the west the most holy was to be found." Most of the missionaries who relate this are firmly persuaded that Confucius foresaw the coming of the Messiah, and meant to predict it in this short sentence; but whether he did or not, it is certain that it has always made a very strong impression upon the learned in China; and the emperor Mimti, who reigned 65 years after the birth of Christ, was so touched with this saying of Confucius, together with a dream, in which he saw the image of a holy person coming from the west, that he fitted out a fleet, with orders to sail till they had found him, and to bring back at least his image and his writings. The persons sent upon this expedition, not daring to venture farther, went ashore upon a little island not far from the Red Sea, where they found the statue of Fo, who had infected the Indies with his doctrines 300 years before the birth of Confucius. This they carried back to China, together with the metemsychosis, and the reveries of this Indian philosopher. The disciples of Confucius at first opposed these newly imported doctrines with all the vigour imaginable, inveighing vehemently against Mimti, who introduced them, and denouncing the judgment of heaven on such emperors as should support them. But all their endeavours were vain ; the torrent bore hard against them; and the pure religion and

sound morality of Confucius were soon corrupted, and in a manner overwhelmed, by the prevailing idolatries and superstitions which were introduced with the idol Fo.

From the pure system of morals laid down by Confucius, the common people of China, however, at length wholly departed. Yet we have the authority of Mr. Bell for the assertion that, in that fine country there is still a most respectable sect of Theists, who worship the one God, whom they call Zin, the Heaven, or Highest Lord, and pay no religious homage to the images of their countrymen. This sect has existed, says he, longer than Christianity, and is still most in vogue ; being embraced by the Emperor himself, and most of the grandees and men of learning. But the common people are generally idolators.

There is a very inconsiderable sect, called Cross-Worshippers, who pay divine adoration to the holy cross, though they have lost all other marks of Christianity. When Mr. Bell published his Travels in 1762, the Christians in China were supposed to amount to one hundred thousand of both sexes. He was told the Chinese had some atheists among them.

The Chinese have, however, fallen in with many of the common errors and practices of idolatry. Captain Hamilton, in his quaint style and manner, thus describes the gods, clergy, and devotion of the Chinese :

Their temples are built all after one form but as in other countries, very different in beauty and magnitude. Their josses, or demi-gods, are some of human shape, some of monstrous figures; but in the province of Fokein they are more devoted to the worship of goddesses than gods. Quanheim has the most votaries. She is placed in state, sitting on a cushion with rich robes, and her little son standing before her, with a charged trident in his right hand, ready to throw at the offenders of the laws of humanity and nature, and also at those who make no free-will offerings to his mother. The Chinese who have seen the Roman Catholic churches and worship, say that she is the Chinese Virgin Mary.

There is another goddess, called Matson, who swam from a far country, through many seas, and came in one night to China, and took up her residence there. She sits on a platform, with a cushion laid on it, and her head is covered with blue wool instead of hair. She is the protectress of navigation; for which reason none go a voyage, but they first make a sacrifice of boiled hogs' heads, and bread baked in the steam of boiling water. It is set before the image when reeking hot,

and kept before her till it is cold. On their return from a voyage, they compliment her with a play, either acted on board of the ship, or before one of her temples.

They have another goddess, in the form of a virgin, called Quonin, who has many votaries, but is mostly worshipped in the province of Pekin and Manking, but being a virgin, she has many lovers all over China.

They have one temple, called the Temple of Apes, in which are numerous ill-shaped images of that animal.

The god Fo, has a human shape, except his head, which has the figure of an eagle. Gan has a broad face and a prodigious great belly. Fo is a very majestic god and is always placed with a great number of little gods to attend him. Minifo, in Fokin, Mr. Hamilton takes to be the god Miglect at Canton, being alike in shape and countenance: he is called the god of pleasure. Passa is set cross-legged on a cushion, bespangled with flowers and stars, and she has eight or nine arms and hands on each side, and two before, that she holds in a praying posture. In every one of her hands (except the two that are dedicated to prayer) she bears something emblematical, as an axe, a sword, a flower, &c. On the great God, that made heaven and earth, they bestow a human shape like a young man in strength and vigour, quite opposite to the church of Rome, who make his picture like Salvadore, withered, old, cold and heavy. Mr. Hamilton saw many more, whose names he forgot; some with human bodies, and dragons; lions, tigers, and dogs' heads; and one he saw, like Stour Yonker, in Finland, with a man's body and clothes, and with eagles' feet, and talons instead of hands.

The Priesthood are in no great esteem among the people, being generally of low extraction. They have many different orders among them, which are distinguished by badges, colour of habit, or the fashions of their capes. They are all obliged to celibacy while they continue in orders, and that is no longer than they please. But while they continue in orders, and should chance to be convicted of fornication, they must expiate their crimes with their lives; except their high priest, who is called Chiam, and he always keeps near the Emperor's person, and is in very great repute, and he has liberty to marry because the high priesthood must always continue in one family, as Aaron's did for a long while, but not half so long as it has in this family, who has kept up the custom above a thousand years successively, without the intrusion of interlopers.

There are no persons of figure that care to have their chil

dren consecrated to serve at the altar, so that the priests, who can have no issue of their own, are obliged to buy novices of such mean persons as necessity forces to sell their children; and their study being in the large legends of their divinity, and not having the benefit of conversation with men of letters or polity, they are generally ignorant of the affairs of the world, which makes them contemptible among so polite a people as the ingenious and conversible Chinese laity are.

Confucius, or as the Chinese call him, Confuce, was the prince of the philosophers. He was near contemporary with Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, and Malachi, about 450 years before our Saviour, Jesus Christ. He both taught and practised moral philosophy to perfection, and acquired so great a veneration among his countrymen, that his sentences are taken for postulata to this day, no one since having offered to contradict any thing that he has left behind in writing. They have another doctor of philosophy, called Tansine, who was almost as ancient as Confucius, and wrote many excellent tracts of a virtuous life; and the methods to attain it, but his character is inferior to Confucius.

Their preachers take some apophthegms out of those great men's writings for texts to comment and expatiate on. They live very abstemiously, and rise early before day to pray. Every temple has a cloister or convent annexed to it, and has a certain stipend allowed by the Emperor to support the priests and novices, but they get much more by letting lodgings to travellers, who generally lodge in their cells, than the Emperor's allowance; besides, they have a genteel way of begging from strangers, by bringing tea and sweatmeats to regale them.

The Chinese do not bury in or near their temples; but in the fields, and when a bouzi, or priest, tells a rich dying person, that such a piece of ground is holy, and that the infernal spirits have no power to haunt such ground, they will persuade the poor man, thus distempered both in body and mind, to buy it at any rate to be buried in, and sometimes they will pay a thousand tayels for ten yards square of such holy ground.

Such is the account which Captain Hamilton has given us of the Chinese religion. It is only from the meagre gleanings of travellers, who, in China, have such little access to the interior that scarcely any glimpse can be had of the opinions and habits of this singular people, that we can get any information on this subject.

The near relation, however, which the religion of China has to that of some parts of Hindoostan, and still more to the