for the material interests of a comfortable, or even meagrely-sustained life; there are no religious traditions, no religious systems are maintained by the priests, and no place or time is left free to seclusion, and quiet, solitary, inward contemplation. Universal instruction consists in acquaintance with the five cardinal virtues and duties towards parents, towards ancestors, the king, elder brothers and sisters, as well as the five elements, fire, wood, water, earth, and metal, which provide food for man; for sustenance is the heaven of the Chinese people, and unity and mutual assistance give prosperity: on this account these rules were not only openly taught in the schools, but were impressed upon the people by inscriptions, songs, and admonitions; the officials, and even the king, taking the place of teachers.

We

As there is no especial priesthood in China, and religion merges itself in the powers of the state, a pantheistic worshipping of the elements, rivers and mountains, heavens, stars, and ancestors, is a natural result. find here universally a want of spiritual depth, although pantheism is not to be looked for in its rudest shape; for the heavens, the earth, and the ancestors, show glimpses of the monotheistic idea. The sky is represented as the father as the male; the earth as the quiescent impressible female. The sky, as the active, radiant existence, is so elevated, the earth so subject, that the offerings brought to it are imagined being destined to a celestial spirit watching above all. The souls of ancestors supposed originally to have come from heaven were esteemed most highly; but it has been unjustly said that the Chinese worshipped the material heaven; and that which I have before said of natural religions applies equally here. In their orthography the symbol for air, breath, spirit (according to Hang), is the fundamental portion of most ideas connected with religion. They have also especially distinguished the spirits (powers)-the Schin inhabiting natural objects. Schin means generally spirit, God, man. Thus the heavenspirit is distinguished for the heaven-the lord, or highest, Schang-ti-seeing without eyes, and earing without ears; always waking and guiding the dreams of the sleeping; always wandering over the earth. "However pure this idea, however proper and dignified it is," says Hang, "however

free from the sanguinary and repugnant cruelties which usually accompany the mythologies of civilized nations, yet, on the whole, it is a poor religion."

The want of a peculiar religious system, and even the unembodied worship of the gods; the distortions, where their barren imaginations endeavoured to create-in fact, the dry coldness with which they treated all things,-betrays the weakness of their religious capacities. To investigate more fully the nature of their gods, or even the present lot of their ancestors, never interested them; it was a practical, earthly object, the welfare of their crops, of the state, which gave the value to their religion; for this is their heaven, the end of all their strivings to obtain perfection. "The arrangement, however, of the seasons, of the weather, the crops, even the actions of men and animals, proceeds from heaven. This arrangement is heavenly reason itself, and to acknowledge it is wisdom; to confide in it, blindly to follow nature, is virtue; rebellion against heaven is, on the contrary, to hinder and confuse it. As the former never remains without reward, so does this never escape punishment, for above all is Schang-ti's severe justice." All ills of nature and the kingdom proceed from the transgressions of men-darkness, floods, malformation, droughts, war! On the contrary, rain and warmth at the proper time, ripening of fruits, peace and prosperity of the kingdom, come when man keeps the right course and remains true to nature and the divine germ (Lin) implanted in him; so that he draws everything upon himself: and especially is this the case with the King, whom Schang-ti has placed over the people. All are Schang-ti's children, but the King is his first-born; from this his sacred title, Tieu-tse-son of heaven. As, therefore, the first-born, the eldest in all, represents the father, so must his dominion not only be over the Chinese people, but also over all men (Schin-Man-Chinese); even over spirits, nature, and their ancestors, that is, as many of them as have not entered heaven at Schang-ti's side by their virtues, for all come from Schang-ti; and oven the earth, although venerated as a mother, is subject to the first-born. Therefore no difference is made between China and the world; it is the world in the narrowest sense, for all that is under the heaven belongs to it, and which, as a family, has but one father, the heaven but

one sun, the world but one heaven, so can it have but one monarch! It is the centre where heaven and earth join."

Although the Chinese mind possessed under such a constitution but few elements in which magic could strike root and throw out its ramifications and influence, yet we find many traces giving evidence of the instinctive movement of the mind, as well as of magical influence; though certainly not in the manner or abundance that we meet with it in India. The great variety of these appearances is, however, striking, as in no other country are they so seldom met with.

As the King, as it were, microcosmically represents the human races in fortune or misfortune before the divinity, so must his eye be constantly directed to those signs in which the will of the Most High is revealed; "he must observe dreams as much as the phenomena of nature, the eclipses and the positions of the stars; and, when all else is wanting, he must consult the oracle of the tortoise, or the Plant Tsche, and direct his actions accordingly." He is therefore, as it were, the universal oracle of the people, as the popular mind is relieved from every flight of imagination by a highly remarkable mental compulsion.

In the great barrenness of the popular mind, the Chinese language is a means of repression, by which the understanding is compelled from childhood to think in a given manner, and to learn the meaning and nature of their written characters; so is also the outward direction given to the development of the mind, from which it is never able to depart, owing to the monotony of its daily occupations. The system of writing is so difficult, containing upwards of eighteen thousand of the most intricate characters, that all mental energy is directed to it, and withers superficially; so that it is extremely rare to find the comprehension and appreciation so vivid that they rise to symbolism. Development of the mind is therefore wanting, partly from the poorness of the original heritage, partly from the absence of outward opportunities, as we have just seen. Their whole life consists in the uniformity of a childish care for the outward and inferior interests of life.

It is easy to understand from these circumstances where

fore we find so few of these phenomena of magic and the visionary and ecstatic state, in other parts of the East so frequent, and therefore they are scattered and uncertain. Accounts are, however, not wanting to show that the phenomena as well as theories of prophecy were known in more remote times. Under the Emperor Hoei Ti, about A.D. 304, a mystical sect arose in China calling themselves the teachers of the emptiness and nothingness of all things. They also exhibited the art of binding the power of the senses, and producing a region which they believed the perfection. The mystics of Japan call their deep meditation upon the mysteries of the Godhead, in which man is dead to all outward influences of the senses, Safen. The priests of Xaka throw themselves into this state. Dorma, one of the followers of Xaka, cut off his eyelids, thinking that they hindered his ecstatic meditation. He is one of the great saints of Japan. In a peguanic temple in Siam a colossal statue of Xaka is worshipped, represented as sunk in contemplation. The priests daily sit for some time in the same posture, during which they believe themselves to have ceased being men. The Malabars therefore call one description of solitary seers "men without blood" (Zimmermann, Von der Einsamkeit, vol. ii. p. 110.)

men.

Lao-tse, (A.D. 604) one of the two greatest minds among the Chinese, their deepest speculative thinker, withdrew into solitude when he despaired of influencing his fellow "Men who no longer exist will be called upon in vain; the sage must only care for himself and his age, and if this cares not for him he must not trouble himself, but enjoy his treasure in secret, and seek within himself the highest good-repose of the soul. Reason (Tav) is the first, eternal, perfect, incomprehensible, without matter or shapea square without corners; it stands above heaven, and is its measure, as heaven is the measure of the earth and earth of It has produced the One, this the two, this the three, then the universe, which receives its light and life from the Three. From it the soul proceeded, which strives to return to its origin through everchanging shapes, to which selfgovernment, freedom from passions and want, seclusion from all the outward world, is the way." From this we see the germ of the system of emanation and the

man.

Chinese theory of the soul has great analogy with that of the Buddhists. Such a theory and a self-chosen seclusion is, however, so rare in China that Lao-tse may be regarded as almost the only instance.

Keng-fu-tse, Confucius,-his celebrated countryman and cotemporary, has nothing of his depth; he is in every respect a Chinese, who does not search for the secret of heaven and the earth, but regards nothing but self-knowledge and the advancement and happiness of his native country founded thereupon. He, however, also acknowledges with sorrow the degeneracy of the age, and strives with his whole energy to counteract the evil. He was of the royal house of Schang (A.D. 552), and born on the peninsula Schangting; studied the ancient history of his fatherland from infancy, and derived from it the conviction that it was only with the restoration of the ancient principles of simplicity and unity that the dignity and happiness of his native land could be restored: above all, the ancient family relationships were to produce this. That virtue consisted in childish obedience, and in willing subjection to the heavenly decrees, as had originally been the case. Travelling from one court to another, he found universal opposition, though swarms of disciples followed his footsteps. The Kings were his works, considered sacred by the Chinese, and consisting of speeches, proverbs, and songs, and a history which has since been continued. His writings appear to be the essence of the ancient traditions. He teaches that above all things the celestial nature implanted in the heart, the inner light, is to be followed; that man must maintain a just medium in all things, and must subject his inclinations and passions, a difficult task only to be performed by unremitting endeavours,—the fruit borne being peace and cheerfulness.

King-fu-tse's scholars formed, according to Hang, a sect which reminds us of the Hebrew prophets. They fought against the spirit of the times with fiery energy; but not against the sluggishness and the passive spirit of the Chinese. The high inspiration of the Hebrew prophets was wanting in them still more than in the Brahmins. Nothing is known of their revelations concerning the highest and the divine word. However, Kircher (China illus