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Chap. IIL the Kmpire of C HINA.- 99 1 
having fent, in the moft early Times, vaft Armies into 
the higher Afia^ who left behind them confiderable Co- 
lonies, of which, however, the Greeks tell us rather 
Fables than any Thing that can be called Hiftory^ as to 
the Remnants they met with in India, So that fuppofing 
the Travels of the Egyptian Bacchus to have fome 
Thing of Truth, though buried under a Load of Fidlion, 
we may likewife fuppofe that he penetrated into China^ 
and in that Country, rather than in India>f left his Co- 
lonies. The fecond Argument is deduced from the 
great. Conformity between the two Countries, for if 
Egypt has its Nile, China has its great River of Nanking ; 
if the former abounds with Canals and Cutts of Water, 
from Town to Town, for the Sake of an eafy and com- 
modious Communication, fo does thelatter ; and if in 
Egypt there are many Monuments of great Antiquity, 
the like are alfo to be found in China. The third Ar- 
gument is taken from the Refemblance of their Govern- 
ments, and the Maxims upon which they are founded j 
the Likenefs between the ancient Hieroglyphicks, or ra- 
ther facred Character of the Egyptians, and that of the 
Chinefe \ the Averfion and Contempt which both Na- 
tions have for Foreigners, flowing from an arrogant 
Opinion of their own Superiority in Science, and in 
every Thing elfe j the Notions the Egyptians had of 
the Excellence of their Country, which is exacflly copied 
by the Chinefe, and in fine, the pacific Difpofitions of 
both Nations, fpringing from the Principles of their 
Policy, immutable through the Courfe of many Ages. 
How far thefe Arguments reach towards eftablifliing 
the Probability of this Sentiment being true, we pre- 
tend not to determine, it being our Aim only to give 
the Reader as fhort and clear Account of the Senti- 
ment itfelf that was in our Power ; and having done 
this, we leave it entirely to his Decifion. 
But it may not be amifs to add, that the Japonefe, 
the Simoefe, and other Nations, mentioned by our Au- 
thor, have aftualiy fuch a Tradition amongft them as 
he contends for, and are fo far from denying that they 
were formerly under the fame Dominion with the Chi- 
nefe, that on the contrary, they boaft of being defcend- 
ed from them as a very high Honour, and appeal 
to their Cuftoms and Manners for the Proof of it, 
fuppofing that their Learning and Knowledge of what 
Nature foever it may be, could be derived to them 
only, from that People, who they efleem the wifefl; and 
moft polite Nation in the Eaft. We are not therefore 
to regard what our Author fays, as the pure Efiefls 
of Vanity, but as an Opinion that is current amongft 
the feveral Nations of which he fpeaks. 
It’ muft look very ftrange after what has been faid, 
that thefe Countries are no longer under the Dominion 
of the Chinefe Emptrox ; for it ihould appear extremely 
cafy to preferve Territories, the Inhabitants of which 
have a Pride in being Subjects ; but the Riddle is not 
hard to be difclofed, and as the Solution is neither un- 
profitable nor unpleafant, it may not be amifs to infert 
it. The Chinefe Monarchs of the laft Race, before the 
Country was fubdued by Tartars, were defirous ra- 
ther of keeping than of extending their Dominions ; and 
for this Reafon they chofe the natural Bounds of Seas and 
Mountains, together with the artificial Fortification of 
the Great Wall, which had been railed by their An- 
ceftors, and raifed from that very Maxim which they 
now purfued. 
By this Means the fifteen Provinces of China, though 
of fuch a vaft Extent, were perfedtly well covered from 
foreign Invafion. On the Eaft or South they could be 
attacked only by a maritime Power, and a Power ca- 
pable of attacking them, they very well knew fubfifted 
hot in that Part of the Earth ; fo that their Coafts were 
perfedly faved, even fuppofing they had not been fo 
defenfible as they really are. To the South-weft they 
have a long Chain of imprafilicable Mountains, on the 
other Side of which lie the Kingdoms of Laos, Tonkin, 
Cochinchina, and Siam ; from the People of which they 
knew by Experience they had nothing to fear ; and they 
were wife enough alfo to know, that it would be much 
eafier for them to aflift thefe Nations in Cafe they were 
attacked, than to defend their refpediive Countries as Pro# 
VoL. II. N® 13-7. 
vinces. On the Weft they are likewife covered by 
Mountains, and on the North by the famous Wallj be- 
yond which they have the Country of Leontong, v/hich 
they kept as an Outwork againftthe Mantcheou Tartarst. 
This Policy of theirs was found and good, and muft 
for ever have fecured China, if their own civil Diffen- 
tions had not opened a Way to that Revolution which 
the Tartars compafied by fuperior Skill rather than 
Force. As Things now ftand there is Reafon to believe, 
that on the one Hand the Tartars will be eafily dif- 
poflefs’d, becaufe their Force daily increales in Com-> 
parifon of the native Chinefe ; and as to any Attempts 
of other Nations, they are lefs to be feared than ever, 
becaufe the Tartars heretofore, their moft formidable 
Enemies, are now become a kind of Out-guards, aS" 
willing and more capable to defend them than the pro- 
per Subjects of the Empirei, 
As this Obfervation is obvious, and as the Chinefe 
have Penetration enough in this Refpetft, we have Rea- 
fon to wonder that our Author has taken no Notice of 
it, but a little Reflexion will difeover the Caufe. He was 
not of Tartar, but of Chinefe Extraflion, and therefore 
if this Notion occurred to him, he would certainly fup- 
prefs it as deftru6live to the Honour and Reputation of 
his Country, which it is vifible enough from his Manner 
of Writing he meant to raife as high as he could. At 
the Time he wrote, the Tartars had not been Maftera 
of China above fifty Years ; and it is very natural to be- 
lieve, that the Chinefe ftill retained Hopes of being fome 
Time or other able to throw off the Yoke 5 and in 
fuch Cafes, thofe who are well verfed in the Difpofitions 
of Men, which are pretty much the fame in all Coun-? 
tries, will eafily conceive, that all Things muft appear 
to them in falfe Lights, becaufe on one Side, the flat- 
tering Expectation of becoming once more free and in-» 
dependent, heightened the Opinion of their own 
Strength \ and on the other, their Averfion to Foreign- 
ery'hindred them from perceiving that the Tartar Power 
Was continually increafing, and at the fame Time, their 
Ability of refifting declining apace. 
But to defpair, and to defpair in fo capital a Point 
as this at that Time, muft have been thought by every 
Chinefe, was what he muft wifti to avoid, and whatever 
Men wifli with Regard to fpeculative Points being al- 
ways in their Power, they feldom fail of bending their 
Belief to their Wifhes. We have various Inftances of 
this in other Countries than China, and Inftances that in 
Point of Time reach very far beyond that wherein they 
have even now been Subjedls to a foreign Power ; a 
Circumftance every where alike hateful, and which 
therefore amongft all Nations will ever have the like Ef- 
fect, till fuch Time as the Caufe imperceptibly wears out, 
that is, till thofe who were confidered as Strangers be- 
come Natives, and fo the Will to expel them is gradually 
loft. In all human Probability this Time is already 
come in the Country of which we are fpeaking, and if 
we had a Hiftjory of it written by Chinefe at thii 
Day, we fliould find him place the SubjeA that we 
have been difeuffing, in the very fame Light that we 
have done. 
We muft not however diffemble that there are various 
Paflages in his Accounts which might be correCled, and 
fome which without Prejudice to his Performance might 
have been omitted, but it is to be confidered, that 
thefe Miftakes are not very confiderable, either in their 
Nature or in their Number,that he wrote at aDiftance of 
Time, when Slips of the like kind would have been 
very pardonable, even in an Author on this Side of the 
World ; that there is fomething ufeful in feeing whac 
miftaken Opinions gain Ground in thofe Parts, and 
laftly, that there is not the leaft Danger that a Perfon, 
who hasperufed the former Volume of this Work, fljould 
be mifled' by what he fays. Add to all this, that as we 
have hardly feen any Chinefe Writer before, fo it would 
not become us to play the fevere Criticks now. The 
Knowledge our Author had, like that of his Countryman;^ 
was all of his own acquiring, and what he has commu- 
nicated, is written with that Freedom and Ingenuity, 
that it is highly reafonable we fhould afford it a fa- 
vourable Reception, and make many Allowances for 
II T 
