Even the learned among the Chinese, who by the way have little right to that honourable appellation, cannot agree in one opinion respecting their chronology; some imagine Fo-hi to have been the founder of the monarchy, and that the anterior ages are involved in doubtful obscurity and many carry their origin no higher than the reign of Yao, the fifth emperor from Fo-hi. To express a doubt of its less ancient date, would be to incur death, without the consolation or hope of bettering their condition or dispelling their absurdities.* But the total privation of intellectual energy effectually hinders the creation of a doubt; and were the most salutary effects to flow from the sacrifice, there could be found none willing to suffer for, though capacitated to judge of the fallacy of their assumed age. It is not therefore surprising to find the jesuits and missionaries, so forcibly insisting on an event, which to have denied or contradicted would have subjected them to banishment, or exposed them to the indignation and insult of the populace. They joined in an imposition which they could not with safety oppose, and which they imagined would not be credited by any but barbarians, and would be rejected with derision by the scrutinizing reason of refined Europe. That in China, the most extravagant fables should be implicitly assented to, will excite admiration in the minds of none the least informed of the condition and state of the people: and when we perceive the terror of death added to the dread of an offended Deity, and evil fate, we should be surprized not to find all acquiescing in a dogmatical belief so early inculcated and so forcibly maintained: but we cannot repress our admiration at the infatuation of those, who not liable to the same evils for disbelief, should adopt opinions as much entitled to credit as the infallibility of the Romish Church, or the hypothesis of an EMINENT AMERICAN POLITICIAN respecting THE VARIETY OF

THE HUMAN SPECIES!

There is nothing which has a greater tendency to excite doubt, than the inhibition of inquiry, and investigation of facts; and this in minds before biassed to the reception of such senti† Ib.

* Du Halde. vol. ii. p. 3.

ments: and that opinion propagated, or confirmed by the denunciation of death, may with reason be affirmed to be false and unfounded; for why constrain the mind to believe prescribed sentiments, when they would be embraced with willingness and alacrity, if grounded on truth; though keen sagacity might engage in discussion, and prudent foresight require conviction to be. lieve, yet the most captious would be baffled in their objections, were they founded on the immutable basis of truth. But these sons of light prefer for very obvious reasons, rather to stifle the exertions of understanding and ensure the persuasion of their dogmas, than permit reason to discuss the propriety, of what it might, upon examination, eject as absurd, and condemn as fallacious.

To read the arguments alleged by father Du Halde to evince the antiquity of this people, and not to admire the force of his genius, and the logical nature of his deductions, would indeed betray greater ignorance, and more inhuman insensibility, than we are willing to have attributed to us: and we accordingly, do sincerely admire the magician-like ease with which he demonstrates their age. Quitting the different systems of their authors, for his infallible notions, he alleges it is certain CHINA was inhabited above 2155 years ante Christ, because it is demonstrable by an eclipse that happened that year, and which is recorded in their astronomical observations in the CHINESE history, and other books in the language. We have already stated the reasons which induced us to conclude their total ignorance of astronomy; to those we shall now add others, quite as convincing, and prove it highly improbable that they could ever have possessed a knowledge which in the thirteenth century they had wholly lost, and which they do not now hold in sufficient abundance to make the aid of foreigners dispensable.

The ceremonies observed on the occasion of an eclipse of cither the sun, or moon imply the grossest ignorance of these phenomena; they imagine the dragon to have seized upon the obscured luminary, and to frighten him from his hold, or to charm him from his prey, they alternately beat the brazen gong, and play their dissonant instruments. Nor is this conduct con

fined to the vulgar; for on an eclipse of the sun which happened in seventeen hundred and ninety-five, the emperor secluded himself from public view for three days, the court for that period went into mourning, and a universal suspension of festivity was strictly maintained through the empire!* And I have been apprised by a respectable gentleman, that when a tempest arises accompanied by thunder and lightning, they hide their heads in the darkest corner, to shelter them from the wrath of the offended gods, whose ire they imagine to be visibly expressed in the fire of the clouds, and the roaring of the thunder!

But independent of their ignorance of astronomy, and the impossibility of their predicting eclipses at that remote period, the argument of Du Halde is extremely futile, as he grounds it on data which cannot be rationally admitted, that the Chinese history is true and legitimate;† nor can the eclipse recorded in their annals, be accepted as testimony, till the disputed veracity of their annals be confuted; and we might with greater discretion believe the whole tenor of their story, than the prediction of this phenomenon. Besides it is ascertained by the calculation of a learned astronomer, that such an eclipse could not have occured at that time, in the latitude of China; setting apart their incompetency to foretell it. The opinion of sir George Staunton, on this object, whose talents and veracity give conclusive authority to his sentiments, accords with that expressed above; he says: "to judge by the state of astronomical science at this time in China, it is most likely that if the Chinese had been ever able to predict eclipses, it must have been by the means of long and repeated observations, and not by calculation;" and we must either allow them, therefore, a thousand years more than they claim, by which they might have made "long and repeat

†That their history is composed chiefly of fables, for a politic purpose, is rendered more probable by their inveterate propensity to falsehood, and their total disregard of truth. Mr. Barrow, speaking on this subject says: “They have no proper sense of the obligations of truth. So little scrupulous, are they indeed, with regard to veracity, that they will assert and contradict without blushing, as it may best suit the purpose of the moment.' P. 127.

ed observations," and by practice and experience have attained some degree of accuracy; or imagine with more reason and probability, that they were destitute of science, and not in existence at that youth of nature.*-But granting that the accuracy of this is certain, and that the errors in their chronology prevent its agreement with our calculations, may it not reasonably be supposed that they would hold it of sufficient importance, to calculate these appearances retrograde, at a late period; to fabricate some decent evidence for their absurd systems? which by the way, they can scarcely maintain, by the multiplied means of deception, the force of education and habit, and the dread of death.

The development of history which had been lost in the tumults of war and discord, or buried beneath the rubbish of intervening barbarity and ignorance, has given more occupation to over-curious historians, and enthusiastic antiquaries, than it has yielded recompense for their labour: and in disentangling incidents and events, as uninteresting as uninstructive to mankind, have lost themselves in such an abyss of inquiry and conjecture, as to dispute the authenticity of historical facts which are detailed with minuteness and perspicuity; or do not require the aid of overburdened intellect, to render them intelligible to the most common understanding. And how pitiable do the faculties of that man appear, whom we perceive vehemently insisting on events, implied in the almost obliterated date and expression of a medal, or coin; while he reviles the most sacred and indubitable histories, because they accord not with his fantastic notions, and are too simple to be true. It is not therefore astonishing to find the cavilling spirit of Voltaire, who has entailed ignominy on the name of philosophy, as prostituted to his abominable purposes, acquiescing with readiness and approbation, in all the chimeras of Chinese imagination, without apparently adverting to his exposure thereby, or being conscious of his egregious inconsistency: it was sufficient for his conviction that their history was doubtful; and favourable to his doctrine, that they

* 2155 years A. C. † See Gibbon's Roman Empire, Voltaire, &c. &c.

had no other than natural religion, corrupted by the follies of the people, and innovated by the policy of the sovereign.

Such abuses, however, do not detract from the credit of any historic evidence, whether implied in the characters of a coin, or expressed in the page of story; if not perverted from truth, and rendered improbable and obscure by futile conjecture. It is esteemed ample testimony, by the enthusiastic admirers of China, in favour of their early existence, that they possess coins denoting to have been struck in the first dynasties, or rather supposed to have been, as this proof like every other, of the kind, is very defective, these ancient coins having been discovered in the banks of the Yellow River; and it is sagaciously fancied, that as the characters are obliterated, if any were ever imprinted on them, as none can now be discerned, that the earth must have a corrosive quality, so as to have destroyed the metal*; and but for this vile earth, they would probably be enabled to sustain their system by this evidence. Yet from the nature of the inscribed character were it even legible and entire it would be difficult, if not impossible to assign the particular dynasty to which it belonged, and to determine its exact age; for it is thought derogatory to the dignity and sublime nature of the prince, that his image, by being engraved on the coin, should be profaned by the touch of the vulgar and ignoble; and consequently they have inscribed only some pompous title on the coins made in the different years of their reign; and which from the vanity of the nation, may be applied with equal certainty and reason, to every sovereign in their history. Thus were there no other objection to these vague memorials of their age, they would only evince that they were made in some propitious year of one of the emperors, and would leave us ignorant of the time, or the dynasty, without recurring to their history for information, which history they are alleged to prove and to authenticate. Hence it is ob-. viously perceived that such coins or medals cannot demonstrate the supposed antiquity of this people, as their probable signification rests upon their fabulous records, which they are adduced to corroborate. That the emperor Cang-hi, whose cabinet

* Du Halde, History of China, vol. 2, p. 290.