424 NOTES. 



invention, a very curious paflage in the Hiftory of China, which 

 proves that the Chinefe were in ancient times acquainted with 

 aëroftatinn, and that they knew the method of conduifting the 

 machine which way they pleafed, by night and by day. This 

 need not excite furprize, on the part of a Nation which has in- 

 vented, before us, the Art of Printing, the Mariner's Compafs, 

 and Gun-powder. 



I fhall give this faA complete, from the Chinefe annals, in the 

 view of rendering our incredulous Readers fomewhat more re- 

 ferved, when they treat as fabulous what they do not comprehend 

 in the Hiftory of Antiquity J and credulous Readers, not quite 

 fo eafy of belief, when they afcribe to miracles, or to magic, 

 cffeéls which modern phyiics imitate publicly in our own days. 



It is on the fubjeél of the Emperor Ki, according to Father 

 k Comte, or K/eu, conformable to the pronunciation of Father 

 Martini, who has given us a Hlftory of the earli'^rt Emperors of 

 China, after the annals of the Country. This Prince, who 

 reigned about three thoufand fix hundred years ago, gave himfelf 

 lip to the commiflion of cruelties fo barbarous, and to irregula- 

 rities fo abominable, that the name is, to this day, held in detef- 

 lation all over China, and that when they mean to defcribea man 

 difhonoured by every fpecies of criminality, they give him the 

 appellation of Kieu. In order to enjoy the delights of a volup- 

 tuous life without diftrac^ion, he retired, with his lady and fa- 

 vourites, into a magnificent palace, from which the light of the 

 Sun was excluded on every fide. He fupplied it's place by an 

 infinite number of fupcrb lamp?, the lufire of which feemed, tq 

 him, preferable to that Orb of Day, becaufe it was ever uniform, 

 and did not recal to his imagination, by the viciffitudes of day 

 and night, the rapid courfe of human life. Thus, in the midfl 

 ol fplendid apartments always illuminated, he renounced the go- 

 vernment of Erxipire, to put on the yoke of his own paffions. 

 But the Nations, whofe iaterefts he had abandoned, having re- 

 volted, chaced him from his infamous retreat, and fent him 

 out a «vagabond for his life, having, by his mifconduét, deprived 

 his pofterity of ths fucceffion to the Crown, .\yhich wa? tiansfer- 



red 



