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wisdom and virtue, are difcourfed by him with great compafs of knowledge, with an apparent fuperiority of fenfe, and with aptness of fimilitudes and examples; fo that this philofopher feems to have had an extraordinary genius, great learning and virtue, and to have been a lover of his country, and of mankind.

Upon these foundations and inftitutions, and by ftrictly adhering to the precepts and orders of Confucius, the empire of China feems to be framed, and policed, with the utmost force of human wisdom, reason, and forefight; fo that, in practice, it is found to excel the very speculations of the greatest philofophers and lawgivers of all ages; which must be allowed by every perfon, who confiders the vaft extent, the opulence, and the populousness, of this country; the great improvements which they have made in all the useful arts and manufactures; the ease and facility with which it is governed; and the length of time this government has continued. No country in the world was ever known to be fo well cultivated as the whole empire of China; and there is no state where honour and respect are paid to nobility and riches fo much, as it is here to virtue and learning; which are equally regarded, both by the prince and by the people; particularly the learning which is founded upon Confucius's principles; and which is the high road to every degree of preferment in the state.

But, on the other hand, the high idea which

we may from hence be apt to conceive of the Chineses wisdom, knowledge, and civility, will be greatly leffened by the grofs and fottifh idola-try, which, as far as we can learn, has prevailed among them ever fince the refinement of their government, notwithstanding all the wife and learned precepts of Confucius. It appears that the Chineses originally adored one great Being, which they called the Spirit of the World, and which they held to be eternal; and this without temples, idols, or priests: and fome of their learned men are faid to continue in the fame fyftem to this day; although the emperor, and all his great officers, and houfhold, are allowed to offer facrifices at certain times, at two idolatrous temples in the two imperial cities of Peking and Nanking; and all the mafs of the people, and particularly the women, worship, after their manner, whatever idols belong to each city, village, or family; which have a multitude of priefts and temples belonging to them: fo that, in this refpect, there is no part of the known world where the common people, and the women, appear to be in a more depraved and debafed ftate, than ́in this otherwise civilized country. Indeed it has generally been obferved, that, while mankind were in a state of fimplicity, they adored only their primitive divinity, from whom they supposed they had received fome effential benefits; but afterwards, when they became more learned, the most civilized

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civilized states, as well as the moft barbarous, fell into the groffeft irreligion and idolatry.

THE great empire of India, or Indoftan, in former ages, produced a very wife and learned race of men, who were known by the name of Brachmans, and who were the priests and teachers of the system of theology which was then practifed in this country; as well as the advisers of all the wife laws and regulations, which were made by the kings and governors of this empire. Thofe Brachmans declared themselves to be the difciples of a very extraordinary man, or, according to their doctrines, rather more than a mortal man, whom they called Brachma, or Brumma, and who was the great author of their religion; the particulars of which he laid down for their instruction, in a book called the Vidam, the original of which, according to Mr. Hollwell's account, is buried in the ruins of time; but feveral learned commentaries thereon, containing the myfteries of their religion, are still extant in that country, and have lately been tranflated into English so that it will be needlefs for me to ftate them at large in this work, efpecially as they appear to be, in many refpects, fimilar to those which were held in the highest esteem by the ancient Greek and Chaldean philofophers.-Thofe Brachmans were regarded with the greatest veneration, even in the days of Pythagoras, who was honoured, by the

Greeks,

Greeks, as the father of philofophy and of the virtues; and who, after having spent many years in ftudy and converfation among the priests and wife men of Egypt, Memphis, Thebes, Heliopolis, Babylon, Crete, and Delphos, paffed into India, to be fully inftructed in the religion and wifdom of thofe oriental fages. What fort of mortals fome of those must have been, that this great philofopher went fo far to feek their instruction, I shall endeavour to point out by the few ancient accounts that are given of them ; as thofe of the philofophers and fages of other countries occur more frequently in history.

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Those men were all of one race, or tribe, which was kept chaste from any other mixture, and were dedicated wholly to the fervice of religion, to the study of wisdom, and to the council of their kings and governors. There was not only the greatest care taken of their birth and education, but even of their respective mothers, from the time of their conception; for when a woman among them was known to have conceived, the greatest attention was employed about her diet and entertainments, fo far as to furnish her with pleafant ideas, and to compofe her mind, in the most agreeable manner, during the time fhe was pregnant. The fame care was continued with the Brachmans, during their inftruction, in which, and their ftudies, and the discipline of their colleges, they spent above thirty years. The greatest part of their learning and institutions were unwritten, and only traditional

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tional among themselves-Their opinions in natural Philofophy, were, that the earth was round, that it had a beginning, and that it must have an end, but reckoned both by immenfe periods of time; that the Creator of it was a Spirit, which pervaded the whole univerfe, and was diffufed through every part of it. They supposed this world to be a ftate of purgation, wherein certain inferior spirits, who had rebelled against their great Creator, were doomed to pass a limited time, confined in different material bodies, and afterward, were pardoned, or condemned eternally to certain punishments; and, therefore, they held the tranfmigration of fouls, as one of the fundamental articles of their religion. They, endeavoured to prevent all the difeafes of the body, from which they imagined the perturbation of the mind, in a great measure, arofe; and to compofe the mind, by exempting it from all anxious cares; efteeming the troublefome and folicitous thoughts about paft and future events to be like fo many troublesome dreams, and no more to be regarded. They were perfectly indifferent about life and death, pleasure and pain. Their juftice was very exact and exemplary, and their temperance fo very great, that they lived upon nothing but vegetables; believing it to be a heinous fault to kill any thing that had animal life, to which they supposed some soul. was annexed, undergoing its state of purgation. If they fell fick, they regarded it as fuch a mark of intemperance, that they would frequently die from

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