No More Learning

So false in their
dealings, they boast that none but a Chinese can cheat a Chinese. The
crime which disgraces human nature, is in this nation of atheists, and
most stupid of all idolaters, common as _that charter'd libertine, the
air_. Destitute, even in idea, of that elevation of soul which is
expressed by the best sense of the word piety, in the time of calamity
whole provinces are desolated by self-murder; an end, as Hume says, of
some of the admired names of antiquity, not unworthy of so detestable a
character. And, as it is always found congenial to baseness of heart,
the most dastardly cowardice completes the description of that of the
Chinese.

Unimproved as their arts is their learning. Though their language
consists of few words, it is almost impossible for a stranger to attain
the art of speaking it. And what a European learns ere he is seven years
old, to read, is the labour of the life of a Chinese. In place of our 24
letters, they have more than 60,000 marks, which compose their writings:
and their paucity of words, all of which may be attained in a few hours,
requires such an infinite variety of tone and action, that the slightest
mistake in modulation renders the speaker unintelligible. And in
addressing a great man, in place of "my Lord," you may call him a
_beast_, the word being the some, all the difference consisting in the
tone of it. A language like this must ever be a bar to the progress and
accomplishments of literature. Of medicine they are very ignorant. The
ginseng, which they pretended was a universal remedy, is found to be a
root of no singular virtue. Their books consist of odes without poetry,
and of moral maxims, excellent in themselves, but without investigation
or reasoning. For, to philosophical discussion and metaphysics they seem
utterly strangers; and, when taught mathematics by the Jesuits, their
greatest men were lost in astonishment. Whatever their political wisdom
has been, at present it is narrow and barbarous.
Jealous lest strangers
should steal their arts--arts which are excelled at Dresden, and other
parts of Europe--they preclude themselves from the great advantages
which arise from an intercourse with civilized nations. Yet, in the laws
which they impose on every foreign ship which enters their ports for
traffic, they even exceed the cunning and avarice of the Dutch. In their
internal policy the military government of Rome under the emperors is
revived, with accumulated barbarism. In every city and province the
military are the constables and peace officers. What a picture is this!
Nothing but Chinese or Dutch industry could preserve the traffic and
population of a country under the control of armed ruffians. But, hence
the emperor has leisure to cultivate his gardens, and to write
despicable odes to his concubines.

Whatever was their most ancient doctrine, certain it is that the
legislators who formed the present system of China presented to their
people no other object of worship than _Tien Kamti_, the material
heavens and their influencing power; by which an intelligent principle
is excluded. Yet, finding that the human mind in the rudest breasts is
conscious of its weakness, and prone to believe the occurrences of life
under the power of lucky or unlucky observances, they permitted their
people the use of sacrifices to those Lucretian gods of superstitious
fear. Nor was the principle of devotion, imprinted by Heaven in the
human heart, alone perverted; another unextinguishable passion was also
misled. On tablets, in every family, are written the names of the last
three of their ancestors, added to each, "Here rests his soul:" and
before these tablets they burn incense, and pay adoration. Confucius,
who, according to their histories, had been in the West about 500 years
before the Christian era, appears to be only the confirmer of their old
opinions; but the accounts of him and his doctrine are involved in
uncertainty. In their places of worship, however, boards are act up,
inscribed, "This is the seat of the soul of Confucius," and to these,
and their ancestors, they celebrate solemn sacrifices, without seeming
to possess any idea of the intellectual existence of the departed soul.
The Jesuit Ricci, and his brethren of the Chinese mission, _very
honestly_ told their converts, that _Tien_ was the God of the
Christians, and that the label of Confucius was the term by which they
expressed His divine majesty. But, after a long and severe scrutiny at
the court of Rome, Tien was found to signify nothing more than
_heavenly_ or _universal matter_, and the Jesuits of China were ordered
to renounce this heresy. Among all the sects who worship different idols
in China, there is only one which has any tolerable idea of the
immortality of the soul; and among these, says Leland, Christianity at
present obtains some footing.