﻿ON THE CHINESE. 377 



government can long subsist without equal justice, and 

 justice cannot be administered without the sanctions 

 of religion. Of the religious opinions entertaincv, by 

 Confucius and his followers, we may glean a general no- 

 tion from the fragments of their works translated by 

 Couplet. They professed a firm belief in the Supreme 

 God, and gave a demonstration of his being and of his 

 providence from the exquisite beauty and perfection of 

 the celestial bodies, and the wonderful order of nature 

 in the whole fabric of the visible world. From this 

 belief they deduced a system of ethics, which the phi- 

 losopher sums up in a few words at the close of the 

 Lun-yu: *< He," says Confucius, " who will be fully 

 " persuaded that the Lord of Heaven governs the 

 " universe, who shall in all things chuse moderation* 

 " who shall perfectly know his own species, and so act 

 fi among them that his life and manners may con- 

 " form to his knowledge of God and man, may be 

 " truly said to discharge all the duties of a sage, and 

 " to be far exalted above the common herd of the 

 " human race." But such a religion and such mora- 

 lity could never have been general -, and we find that 

 the people of China had an ancient system of ceremo- 

 nies and superstitions, which the government and the 

 philosophers appear to have encouraged, and which 

 has an apparent affinity with some parts of the oldest: 

 Indian worship. They believed in the agency of genii, 

 or tutelary spirits, presiding over the stars and the 

 clouds, over lakes and rivers, mountains, valleys, and 

 woods, over certain regions and towns, over all the ele- 

 ments (of which, like the Hindus, they reckoned five) 

 and particularly over fire, the most brilliant of them. 

 To those deities they offered victims on high places a 

 and the following passage from the Shi-cm, or Book of 

 Odes, is very much in the style of the Brahmans :— 

 *' Even they, who perform a sacrifice with due reve- 

 *' rence, cannot perfectly assure themselves that the di- 

 €t vine spirits accept their oblations; and far less can 

 " they, who adore the Gods with languor and oscitancy, 



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