CON 



123 



CON 



onfticius. frequently cited by his admirers in China. An officer 

 """v"""" of the army, named Hoan-tee, enraged by the re- 

 straints, which the precepts and presence of Confucius 

 imposed upon him and his associates, made a daring 

 assault upon the philosopher in open day with a drawn 

 sabre, but happily failed in his attempt to inflict a mor- 

 tal blow. The intrepid sage, in the mean time, dis- 

 covered not the smallest emotion or symptom of dread; 

 and when his terrified followers besought him to has- 

 ten from the presence of the brutal mandarin, he is 

 said to have calmly replied in these words : " If the 

 Tien protects us, of which he has just given a sensible 

 proof, what harm can the rage of Hoan-tee do to us, 

 although he be the president of the tribunal of the ar- 

 my ?" This bold and undaunted spirit was united, we 

 are told, with the most gentle temper and humble dis- 

 position of mind, which frequently led him to disclaim 

 the high praises that were bestowed upon him, and to 

 lament, on the contrary, his numerous deficiencies. 

 His doctrine, he used to say, was not his own, but was 

 derived from the ancient sages, particularly from those 

 wise legislators, Yao and Shun. " There are four 

 things," he frequently said to his more favoured disci- 

 ples, " which give me continual uneasiness ; the first, 

 that I have made so little progress in virtue ; the se- 

 cond, that I am not sufficiently eager in the prosecu- 

 tion of my studies ; the third, that I am not more de- 

 voted to the duties of justice ; the fourth, that I am not 

 duly watchful over my own heart and actions." Being 

 informed one day, that he was generally denominated 

 king, which, in the Chinese tongue, signifies wisest, he 

 replied, " I deserve no such encomium, and I can by 

 no means suffer it. All the good that can be said of 

 me is, that I do my utmost to acquire wisdom and vir- 

 tue, and that I am not discouraged by the difficulties 

 which I encounter in teaching them to mankind." 

 The following epitome of his character is current among 

 his disciples in China, namely, that he united in him- 

 self three things, which appear most incompatible with 

 each other ; all the grace of a polite behaviour, with a 

 great deal of gravity ; a stern aspect, with a great deal 

 of good nature ; and an extraordinary elevation of soul, 

 with a great deal of modesty. 



These details of the life and character of Confucius 

 rest entirely upon the authority of the Chinese writers, 

 and may naturally be conceived to partake, in some re- 

 spects, of their characteristic exaggeration in whatever 

 relates to the honour of their nation. But of the na- 

 ture of his doctrines, a more impartial judgment may 

 be formed from his own writings, which have been 

 faithfully preserved, and which compose the greatest 

 portion of the classical or canonical books of the Chi- 

 nese. For a general view of his principal tenets, the 

 reader is referred to the article China in this work, p. 

 248; and to p. 276", for an account of those sacred 

 books, among which his writings are classed. The 

 productions of his pen, which rank in the first class of 

 the King, or canonical books, are, 1 . A commentary on 

 the lines of Fo-shee, in which he details a species of 

 divination or fortune-telling, and which forms the prin- 

 cipal part of the book Y-king : 2. The whole of the 

 second canonical book, called Shooking, a collection 

 of the earliest historical records of the Chinese nation, 

 of which Confucius professes only to be the editor, but 

 of which he is suspected to have been in reality the au- 

 thor : 3. A book of his maxims, collected by his disci- 

 ples, and forming part of the canonical book called 

 Lee-kee : 4. The whole of the fifth canonical book, 

 called Tchun-tsieoo, consisting of the annals of his na- 



Congo. 



tive country, the kingdom of Loo, commencing 722- Confucius 

 years before Christ. His other writings, which are ar- 

 ranged in the second class of King, or classics, are 

 known under the title of See-shoo, or " the four books" 

 of Confucius, viz. Ta-hio, or sublime science ; Tchong- 

 yong, or just medium ; Lun-yu, or words and discour- 

 ses ; and Meng-tse, or the book of Mencius, one of his 

 disciples. Of the contents of the three first of these 

 pieces, a slight sketch may be found in Du Halde's 

 History of China, vol. iii. p. 303. of the English trans- 

 lation, published in London in the year 1736; and an 

 English translation of the first, viz. Ta-hio, has been 

 very recently published by the Rev. R. Morrison, Pro- 

 testant missionary at Canton, in a work entitled Horoe 

 S intern. Two other books, considered as the produc- 

 tion of this philosopher, are held in great repute, and 

 are more generally perused among the great body of 

 his countrymen, than his writings of a higher class. 

 These are Hiao-king, which treats of filial reverence, 

 or the respect due to parents ; and Siao-hio, that is, 

 " the science or school of children," a collection of sen- 

 tences and examples from various authors. These two 

 pieces have been translated into Latin by Father Noel, 

 one of the earliest missionaries in China, and were print- 

 ed at Prague in 1711. See Du Halde's History of Chi- 

 na, vol. iii. p. 293 ; Modern Universal History, vol. viii. 

 p. 104 ; General Biographical Dictionary ; Enfield's 

 History of Philosophy, vol. ii. ; DAnquetil's Hist. Urti- 

 verselle ; Le Compte's Memoirs of China; Martinii 

 IJistoria Sinica, lib. iv. ; Barrow's Travels in China ; 

 and Morrison's Horoe Sinica. (q) 



CONGELATION. See Cold and Meteorology. 



CONGLETON, a small corporate town of England, 

 in the county of Chester, situated on the borders of 

 Staffordshire, on the upper part of the river Dane. The 

 houses are principally situated in one street, and, in ge- 

 neral, are remarkably neat and elegant. There are two 

 churches here which are subject to the church of Ast- 

 bury, a village about two miles distant, where there are 

 two ancient stone monuments, decorated with the in- 

 signia of knighthood. This town was formerly cele- 

 brated by its manufacture of tagged leather laces, called 

 Congleton points, but the poor are principally employ- 

 ed in a handsome silk mill built upon the Dane ; in a 

 manufacture of ribbands, which are sold to the mer- 

 chants in Coventry, and in a manufacture of gloves and 

 purses. In the neighbourhood of Astbury, there are 

 large lime quarries, and the lime is burnt by coals ob- 

 tained on purpose from Staffordshire. This limestone, 

 which is of an ash grey colour, is heavier than that of 

 Buxton, and is preferred as a manure by the farmers. 



According to the population returns for 1811, the 

 town of Congleton contains, 



Inhabited houses 944 



Families that occupy than 986 



Houses uninhabited 30 



Families employed in agriculture 158 



Families employed in trades and manufactures . 753 



Males 2023 



Females 2593 



Total population in 1811 4616 



Do. 1801 3S61 



Increase .... 755 

 CONGO, a kingdom of Africa, bounded on the north Bounda- 

 b'y the river Zair, or Congo, which divides it from Lo- ries. 

 ango ; on the south by the river Danda, which separates 

 it from Angola; on the east by the kingdoms of Fungo- 



