890 



ASIA. 



Chinese Empire 350,000,000 



Japanese Empire 30,000,000 



Annara • 12,000,000 



Siam 3,500,000 



Birman Empire ..... 6,000,000 



Nepaul 2,500,000 



Sinde 1,000,000 



Sindia 4,000,000 



Seiklis or Lahore 8,000,000 



British Possessions 124,000,000 



Afghanistan 8,000,000 



Baluchistan 2,000,000 



Turkistan ...... 5,000,000 



Persia 10,000,000 



Ottoman Asia 10,000,000 



Arabia 12,000,000 



Russian Asia • - ... 5,000,000 



17. Religion. Asia is the land of fable and mystery, and exhibits a deplorable example of 

 the errors into which unassisted reason leads the religious feelings. The Mosaic and Chris- 

 tian religions, the most important truths, have, however, been revealed on its soil ; while there 

 are few extravagances and absiu-dities that have not sprung up and flourished in the same 

 region, as if to contrast in a more striking manner, human folly with divine wisdom. The ab- 

 surdities of the Sabeans, the worship of fire and other elements, Mahometanism, which has 

 mixed some great truths with its errors, the polytheism of the Buddhists, the Bramins, the Lama- 

 ists, the worship of heaven and of the dead, of spirits and demons, and cruel, degrading, and 

 loathsome rites, and doctrines of the most absurd nature, have found followers and respect in 

 this land of superstition. Buddhism is the religion of the greatest number of inhabitants, pre- 

 vailing over all of Asia beyond the Ganges, and over a great part of Central Asia. Mahome- 

 tanism is the most widely diffused, but its followers are not so numerous ; it is professed by the 

 great body of the people of Western Asia ; Bramanism is predominant in India. Buddhism 

 numbers about 170,000,000 followers ; Bramanism 60,000,000, and Mahometanism about the 

 same number. Any statements as to the numbers of the different religions must partake of the 

 uncertainty of the estimated population. If the larger estimates are assumed for the popula- 

 tion, then we should perhaps state the Buddhists at about 3,000,000, and the followers of Bra- 

 manism at nearly 1,000,000, the Mahometans at 70 or SO, and the Christians at 15. 



18. Government. Civilization. Social State. We must not attribute to the climate alone 

 .he immutability of national character and institutions, which we observe among the Asiatics, 

 whether wandering nomades or the docile subjects of great empires. Despotism, both in the 

 patriarchal and the monarchical form, has long been the reigning species of government through- 

 out Asia, and has exercised its full influence in taming the spirit and cramping the energies of 

 her children. Superstition has also long reigned with unmitigated sway over the Eastern and 

 Southern parts of Asia ; and polygamy deprived society of some of its most endearing ties 

 and humanizing influence. Make Brun, in endeavoring to explain why great empires are more 

 common in Asia than m Europe, remarks : " It is not enough to say, that the great plains with 

 which Asia abounds give the conquerors an easier access. This only holds good in the cen- 

 tral parts ; but how many inaccessible mountains, how many large rivers, and immense deserts, 

 form the natural bulwarks and eternal barriers of other Asiatic nations ' When once an Asiat- 

 ic nation profits by its local circumstances, it is as difficult to be conquered as any European 

 people. The Druses, the Koords, and the Mahrattas, are not the only examples ; we can 

 quote one still more illustrious. The chain of Mountains of Assyria to the northeast of Bab- 

 ylon, which Alexander had no difficulty in passing, became a bulwark for the empire of the 

 Parthians, before which the legions of Trajan himself were routed." 



The great conquests in Asia have arisen from another cause, and that is, the great extension 

 of the same nations. The capitals of Hindostan, of China, or of Persia, being given up to 

 one conqueror, the immense multitude of tribes, connected by speaking the same tongue, me- 

 chanically submit to the same yoke. These great empires having been once established, the 

 succession of one to another becomes almost perpetual, from reasons purely moral and religious. 

 The nations of Asia, too numerous and too disseminated, do not feel the ardor and energy of 

 true patriotism ; they furnish their chiefs with troops, but without zeal or energy, and they 

 change their masters without regret, or without much struggle. The Asiatic sovereigns, shul 

 up in their seraghos, oppose only a vain show of resistance to the audacity of the conquerors, 

 while the latter are scarcely seated on the throne, before they give way to the same effeminacy, 

 which procured the downfall of their predecessors. 



The organization of the armies, which are composed chiefly of cavalry, and the want of 

 strong places, open the road to sudden and rapid invasions. Everything combines to facilitate 

 the total and frequent subjugation of those vast empires of the East. But this state of things 

 is so little founded upon the physical geography of Asia, that we now see India divided into 

 more than 100 sovereignties, — Persia in part dismembered, — and Turkey in Asia readv to 



