_ of the Chinese Empire. 357 
rich, voluptuous for both sexes; every thing in China is sub- 
ject to a law of nature, because nature herself is there uniforin, 
constant and absolute in her wishes, and leaves nothing to man 
but the wish to preserve his life ahd to enjoy it. But what 
has preserved China, and will always, from every innovation 
contrary to the spirit ‘of the governi ment, its usages and laws, is 
the place which it occupies at “the further extr emity of the globe. 
Thus for along series of ages has moral and physical order 
been reciprocally reflected and protected in this vast empire. 
Thus has the social accordance of human institutions from gene- 
ration to generation, made the necessity of a paternal govern- 
ment more apparent; and all the parts of the empire are so 
happily combined, that they present to the eye and to the mind 
nothing but unity ‘of movement, thought and desires. 
The Chinese fully enjoyed all the benefits of their government 
until the time when the Tartars made themselves known to 
them by their sudden inroads. They then experienced the 
scourge of war; and all the evils which it brings in its train; but 
they were still for a long time ignorant of the military art. 
Enervated by a long enjoyment of peace, past events left but 
few traces on the memory, and they occupied themselves but 
little with the future. As invasions however became more fre- 
quent, they quitted for a moment this state of listlessness ; but 
they proved by their defensive means, how easy it was to subju- 
gate them, and when vanquished, how impossible it was for their 
conquerors to avoid submitting themselves to the laws of the 
empire. 
The climate therefore has prescribed to China its govern- 
ment, usages and manners. But institutions dictated by nature 
ought to be consolidated from the instaut of their birth, and to 
be perpetuated without contradiction. Rarely have wicked 
princes disgraced the throne of China. , The Chinese, like other 
nations, may groan under the abuses of power, but they never 
"hate power itself. The strength of the state consists in the in- 
variable accordance between ‘the wants of man and the action 
of the government—it is to be found in the harmony which 
‘reigns among all the parts of this vast edifice. And what 
ought not to be the authority of a system of legislation, which 
without tyranny is nevertheless despotic, and has regulated for 
five thousand years the destinies of an immense population * ? 
If the lust of conquest had not united under one chief the 
*Tartars adjoining this vast and pacific empire, no revolution 
* Tifty millions according to Voltaire, but one hundred and fi fifty millions 
according to the calculations of M, de Guignes, who in this point is entitled 
to most credit, 
Z3 would 
