RELIGION. 53 



trine had been corruj^ted by certain of his profligate difciples, 

 who might think it better to perifli than burn ; yet as they muft 

 necelTarily be perpetually difturbed with the thoughts of death, 

 they pretended to have invented a liquor of immortality, which, 

 with the credulity of fome of the emperors, gave a prodigious 

 increafe to their followers ; they w^ere greatly addidled to magic, 

 introduced worfliip of fpirits, facrificed to devils, and deluded 

 the vulgar by a thoufand juggling tricks. 



The laft was the fecSt of Fo or Fwe (not to be confounded Sect of Fo. 

 with the great Fo-hi.) Their dodlrine was tranfported out of 

 India about 65 years after the birth of Chrift. An emperor 

 dreamed of a faying of Co?ifucius^ that the Holy-one was to be 

 found in the Well:. He fent ambaffadors to India, who brought 

 back the monftrous image Fo, and all the extravagances of the 

 Hitidoo mythology. Temples or pagodas were eredted in all 

 places, and thofe filled with the moft monftrous idols. They 

 -were attended by Bonzees innumerable. This is the religion of 

 the vulgar, but not always confined to them; the emperors 

 have at times been infected with it, deceived by the feeming 

 auilerities pradtifed by the Bonzees, and their fenfelefs penances, 

 fimilar to thole of fome of the Indian Faquirs. 



The Chriftian religion was introduced here as early as the Christianity. 

 yedr 636, when, to the aftonifhment of the Chineje, there ap- 

 peared among them a fet of men with fair hair and blue eyes, 

 and of an air, form, and habit quite unknown. The fe proved 

 to be certain bifiiops, priefts, and deacons fent out oijudea to 

 propagate the gofpel in thefe diftant parts. They were i)'r/£7;;i' 



and 



