BON 



661 



BOO 



Bonzes. 



chine, surrounded by a small balustrade, above which 

 a young man put forth his head, rolling his eyes in a 

 very wild and fri/htful manner. The rest of his bo- 

 dy was entirely concealed. In the mean time, an old 

 bonze harangued the people from the theatre, extol- 

 ling the piety and fortitude of the youth, who had 

 resolved to sacrifice his life to Fo, by throwing him- 

 self into a deep rivulet which flowed along the side of 

 the highway. The mandarin expressed his surprise 

 that this heroic young man did not himself explain 

 the motives which induced him to undergo this mar- 

 tyrdom, and requested that he might be permitted to 

 come down in order to converse with him. The bonze, 

 terrified by this proposal, protested, that irreparable 

 evil might fall upon the whole province if the victim 

 opened his mouth. But the mandarin, firm to his 

 purpose, promised to take all the risk of that evil 

 upon himself, and, at the same time, ordered the 

 young man to come down. To this command he 

 replied by a wild irregular movement of his eyes, 

 which seemed ready to burst from his head. " Ob- 

 serve his agitation," cried the bonze, " and judge 

 from that of the injury you do him ; already he is 

 sinking under despair, and if you persist he will cer- 

 tainly expire through grief." In spite of these re- 

 monstrances, the mandarincommanded-4i* attendants 

 to"wiount the theatre, aud-to bring down -the-young 

 man by force. They found him closely bound and 

 gagged ; and no sooner had he recovered his speech, 

 than he demanded immediate vengeance upon the 

 execrable bonzes, who had seized him before break 

 of day ; bound him to the machine in such a manner 

 that he could neither move nor speak ; and determined 

 to throw him into the river, and to perform their de- 

 testable mysteries at the expence of his life. The man- 

 darin ordered the old bonze himself to be thrown into 

 the stream ; and the rest of them were carried to prison, 

 and afterwards punished as their atrocities deserved. 



With all their pretended sanctity and austerity, 

 too, these infamous wretches are no less voluptuous 

 and profligate, than they are selfish and cruel. In- 

 stances of their lewdness are mentioned by creditable 

 writers, the recital of which would disgust the least 

 delicate of our readers. In short, in the black cata- 

 logue of human crimes, there can scarcely be found 

 one which does not disgrace the character of the 

 bonzes. Hence the Chinese, though one of the most 

 superstitious nations in the world, generally hold the 

 bonzes in contempt and abhorrence. It is partly the 

 cause, and partly the effect of this contempt, that the 

 numbers of the bonzes are recruited from the dregs 

 of the people. They purchase young children, whom 

 they early initiate in their mysteries, and in all the 

 arts of deception. These in time succeed them, and 

 in like manner transmit their knowledge and depra- 

 vity to another generation. In general they are so 

 ignorant, as to be unable to explain the true doc- 

 trines of their sect. Though subject to no regular 

 hierarchy, they acknowledge superiors, whom they 

 call ta-ho-chang, or grand bonzes. This rank enti- 

 tles those who have obtained it to particular distinc- 

 tions, and to the first place in all religious assemblies. 

 There are bonzes of all conditions. Some are em- 

 ployed only in collecting alms ; others, more elo- 

 quent and better informed, are commissioned to visit 



the literati, and to insinuate themselves into the 

 houses of the great ; and others, venerable for their 

 age and grave deportment, endeavour to ingratiate 

 themselves \vith the fair sex, and preside in the female 

 assemblies, which are held in several of the provinces. 

 These religious assemblies are the source of consider- 

 able gain to the bonzes. They are composed of fif- 

 teen, twenty, or thirty ladies, most of whom are of 

 some rank, and advanced in life, or rich widows. One 

 of these ladies is elected superior for the space of a 

 year, and at her house all the assemblies are held. 

 Each of the members contributes towards the expence 

 occasioned by ornamenting their oratory ; by the ce- 

 lebration of certain festivals ; and the assistance of 

 the bonzes. 



For the religious tenets and ceremonies of the 

 bonzes, see China. See also Grozier's General De- 

 scription of China, vol. ii. ; Du Halde's China, vol. i. ; 

 Le Compte's State of China; and Barrow's Account 

 of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, (k) 



BOODH. See Buddha. 



BOOK may be defined, a work composed for the 

 purpose of communicating the knowledge or ideas of 

 its author, on any subject, and with any design. 

 The immense variety of topics which human know- 

 ledge embraces, and which reason or fancy may sug- 

 -ge*t,-renders it necessary, for the sake of precision, 

 to distinguish books by different names, according to 

 the objects proposed by them, or the matters which 

 they discuss. Some of these names are specific and 

 appropriate substantives, as romance, poem, novel, 

 history, journal, &c. ; while others are merely gene- 

 ral appellatives, applicable not to books alone, but to 

 every thing connected with the subject or science 

 from which these appellatives are derived, as philo- 

 sophical, theological, metaphysical, mathematical, or 

 chemical. It is necessary likewise to express, by 

 particular names, the various sizes and forms in which 

 books appear ; and hence arise the distinctions of 

 folio, quarto, octavo, &c. Short and fugitive pieces 

 are denominated pamphlets, in contradistinction to 

 books, which are of greater length, and embrace more 

 general or more permanent topics. 



The origin of books may be traced to as remote 

 antiquity as the manner of expressing thought by al- 

 phabetical or hieroglyphic characters. Their form, 

 and the materials of which they were made, varied 

 with the local circumstances of different nations, and 

 their progress in the arts. The etymology of the 

 word book, and its equivalent in many languages, in- 

 dicates that they were originally written on vegetable 

 substances ; such as the rind or bark of trees, the 

 leaves of plants, or on tablets of wood. Thus, from 

 the Latin words liber and codex, we learn, that books 

 were sometimes inscribed on the inner bark, and 

 sometimes on boards cut out off the main body of 

 the tree ; and the English word book, derived from 

 the Saxon boc, the root of which is the northern 

 buech, a beech or service tree, evidently shews that 

 the books of our ancestors were of a similar fabric. 

 The custom of making books of bark still continues) 

 in several nations which have made but little progress 

 in refinement. A very curious library of this de- 

 scription was discovered some time ago by the Rus- 

 sians among the Calrauc Tartars. The books were. 



Boodft, 

 Book. 



Book de- 

 fined. 



Different 

 kinds of 

 books dis- 

 tinguished 

 by diffe- 

 rent names- 



Materials 

 of which 

 books have 

 been made. 



