"the nations that cover the surface of the earth, there is none "that can boast of a history so ancient, fo authentic, and fo "uninterrupted as the Chinese." It happens, that the reverse of this affertion is true. The learned and judicious DE GUIGNES has shown the uncertainty and fpurioufnefs of Chinese history, in a Memoir, that is reviewed in this prefent Appendix; and other modern publications of great merit concur in overturning that vifionary fabric of hiftorical facts, which the Jefuits have been erecting and varnishing for many years, to amuse and aftonifh the public, and to anfwer their own purposes.

M. Pau's charge of barbarity and imbecility against the Chinese, for allowing the caftration of fuch multitudes for the clafs of eunuchs, is founded on undeniable fact. Our ExJefuit, unable to refute it, employs all his dulcet jargon to soften and diminish the atrocious horror of this practice. He tells us, that the victims fuffer little in the operation, which is not so cruel and murtherous as it has been reprefented,-that the number of eunuchs, which formerly was fcarcely to be reckoned, is now reduced to what is merely neceffary, even to fix thousand (which is not true.)-As to the accufation brought against the Chinese, of expofing their children in great numbers, this (fuppofing the fact untrue) is not the invention of M. Pau; for it is from the Miffionaries themselves, that we have the accounts of this horrid cuftom; and the Jesuits, who wrote the Lettres edifiantes, have affirmed, in several places, that the Chinese throw their children into the streets, lakes or rivers, where they miferably perifh. Miffionary AMIOT does not deny, that of the children thus expofed feveral perish; but he charges nevertheless the account of his Brother-Miffionaries with inaccuracy and error. He obferves, that the crime under confideration is perpetrated only in the cities by the lowest of the populace, that the government, not thinking it adviseable to punish it with feverity, has, however, taken the moft prudent measures to prevent its commiffion ;-that, for this purpose, five carriages set out every day before fun-rife, to take all the children that are expofed, dead or alive, in the different quarters of the city; and that the former are buried with the decent celebration of funeral rites, while the latter are placed in charity-houses under the wifeft regulations, where they are maintained and educated at the expence of the government. It cannot be denied, that this part of the Chinese police, if it be. not adapted to prevent the cuftom of expofing children, is, at least, proper to fave the lives of these innocent creatures, and to hinder their parents from putting them to death through.

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the despair of poverty. These charitable houses are frequently vifited by the magiftrates; they are alfo vifited by people of all ranks; and as the Chinese have a peculiar defire of leaving fucceffors to lament them, and to pay to their memories the duties. of filial affection and piety, it frequently happens, that perfons, who have no children, come to thefe houfes, and chufe adoptive ones, whom they bring up as their own, and make them their heirs.

There is fomething very fingular in the funeral cuftoms obferved with refpect to fuch of the expofed children as are found dead. They are laid all together in a kind of fepulchre, where they are covered with a little quick-lime, that there flesh may be foon confumed.

Once a year, a certain number of Mandarins come in ceremony to the charitable establishment above mentioned, where they are prefent at the conftruction of a pile, defigned to reduce to ashes what remains of the bodies of the deceased infants. During the whole time that the pile is on fire, it is furrounded by a confiderable number of Bonzes, who addrefs prayers to the fpirits of the earth, and to those who prefide over generations, befeeching them to fhew themfelves more favourable than they had formerly been, to thefe little creatures, when they fhall again appear under a new form. When the prayers are finished, the pile confumed, and nothing remains but the afhes, the Mandarin deputies make the multitude withdraw, and they themselves depart until the next day, when they return to be present at the ceremony of gathering up the afhes. Thefe are collected, with a repetition of the ceremonies of the preceding day, are put into a fack, and thrown into the river, or the nearest stream. The Bonzes renew their prayers to the fpirits of the waters and the fpirits that prefide over the generations, to grant their affiftance, in order to make the afhes exhale in vapours, and concur, as foon as poffible, in the regeneration of some new beings, fimilar to those of which they are the remains, but happier in a longer and more perfect existence. -Our Miffionary having inquired into the reason why thefe ashes were thrown into the water, instead of being buried in the earth, was told by a fenfible and well-informed man what follows: "The people are made to believe, that the ashes thrown "into the river, being thus more speedily diffolved, than they "would have been if committed to the earth, are sooner ca"pable of becoming new beings, by rifing in the air with the ર watery exhalations.-But the true and political reafon of "throwing the afhes into the water, is, that before the inftitu❝tion of this ceremony, the government had difcovered, that a fuperftitious ufe was made of thefe afhes, by employing them in magical operations and chymical experiments, in "order

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"order to bring to greater perfection, by the intervention of fire, the fubftances which enter into the compofition of mixt "bodies. It is more efpecially alleged, that these afhes, mixed "with the earth of which the China ware is made, render the "latter more folid, tranfparent and beautiful, than it would otherwife be." If this remark be true, it may be poffible to produce the fame effect by the afhes of the bones of young animals.

A very general account of the Chinese government (or rather of the Emperor's manner of governing), as alfo of the fucceffion to the empire, is the next object of controversy between our Miffionary and M. Pau, that we here meet with. This is followed by an account of the climate of Petchely, and a defcription of the ceremonies obferved at the funeral of the Emprefs-Mother, who died the 2d of March 1777, the 42d year of the reign of Kien-long.

ART. V.

Hiftoire de l'Homme, confideré dans fes Mœurs, dans fes Ujages, et dans fa Vie privée, &c.-The History of Man, confidered with respect to his Morals, Manners, and Cuftoms in private Life. Vol. I. 12mo. Paris. 1779.

HE encomiums that have been lavifhed upon hiftory, as adapted to give us an extenfive knowledge of human nature, will appear more or less undeferved to those who confider attentively the objects exhibited in almost all the hiftorical productions known to us, and more efpecially in modern hiftories. Is it in the recital of wars, revolutions, and conquefts, in the exhibition of that uniform circle of viciffitudes and events, that relates to the fall or rife of empires, and is turned round by the main fprings of rapacity and ambition, that we shall find the portraiture of human nature? Is it here that we find man,-the primitive lines of his moral conftitution,—the fentiments and manners that are the true ornaments of humanity, and the effufions and exertions of the human heart in the different fcenes and relations of private life; in a word, fhall we find here the true portrait of man? No certainly our Author at least thinks as we do." In the midst (fays he) of

that immenfe hiftorical confluence of accumulated facts, which form (if I may fo exprefs myfelf) a coloffal groupe, "I look about for MAN, and can scarcely perceive him: I fee nothing of his afpect in private life: his morals and 66 manners elcape my fight: I fee him on the throne,—at the "head of an army,-furrounded with, pomp, triumphal en

figns, and marks of elevation and grandeur; and inftead of "being entertained with a hiftory of the human heart, I learn "the hiftory of the four parts of the world."

Our

Our Author propofes to do better: his défign is to give the true and complete hiftory of man in all his afpecs: the human understanding, and the human heart, are the objects he propofes to unfold and illuftrate in his moral and philofophical hiftory. This hiftory is divided into four periods. The firft, which takes up entirely this firft volume, comprehends 1656 years, beginning with the creation, and ending with the deluge; the fecond, which is to employ the two fucceeding volumes, comprehends 1164 years, which elapfed between the deluge and the fiege of Troy; the third period will bring down this hiftory to the birth of Chrift; and the fourth to the prefent time.

The first volume only has yet appeared, which comprehends the first period. Here the birth of the world and of man are related. The origin of language, the primitive language,agriculture,-population,-inventions,-difcoveries,-means of fubfiftence, and ufeful arts, are treated with a circumftantial detail:-the origin of idolatry and fuperftition is unfolded,civilization is defcribed, in its degrees, progrefs, means and inftruments. We fee here, farther, cities built, nations formed, legiflation introduced, fubordination and laws eftablished, civil government fucceeding anarchy, lands divided, property regulated, commerce increafing, morals, virtues and vices exhibited in all their afpects, whether in private, domeftic, or public life, until corruption of manners arose to that height, which drew down upon mankind the chaftifement of Heaven in the univerfal deluge. Such are the principal contents of this first volume, in which the Author follows the progrefs of the human mind with attention, defcribes its efforts and operations, its virtues and vices, with an exact and animated pencil, and fhews himself to be no mean mafter in the fchool of moral painters.

ART. VI.

Lettres Phyfiques et Morales, fur l'Hiftoire de la Terre et de l'Homme, &c. LETTERS, Philofophical and Moral, concerning the Hitory of the Earth and of Man, addreffed to the QUB N of Great Britain, .&c. by J. A. DE LUC, Citizen of Geneva, Reader to her Majefly, F. R. S. Correfpondent Member of the Royal Academies of Sciences at Paris and Montpellier. In Five Volumes 8vo. Hague. 1780. Sold, in London, by Dodfley, &c. 11. 10.

fewed.

WE have not, in many years, met with a work more

replete with rational entertainment and folid inftruction, and which we can more confcientiously recommend to the friends, and alfo to the enemies, of true philofophy, than the work now before us. It is not the hafty production of a few months, or the refult of obfervations and experiments made

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with

with precipitation and rapidity; it is the fruit of a long, laborious, and attentive study of nature, carried on, with little interruption, during the fpace of thirty years; and it bears all the marks of a fagacious and experienced obferver, a profound and original thinker, a found logician, and a good man. It is filled with precious materials relative to the natural world, and to the branch of philofophy of which that world is more peculiarly the object; and it exhibits rational, extensive, and noble views of the connection of Nature with its AUTHOR, and with the moral and religious fyftem of the univerfe. As Man is not lefs the fubject of this work than the globe he inhabits, a subject, fo extenfive and complicated in its relations, could not but open to this ardent, this eagle-eyed inquirer a vaft and varied field of obfervation: fo that M. DE LUC, who has hitherto been only known as one of the first natural philofophers of our time, affumes here new afpccts, ftill more interefting to humanity, namely, thofe of the moralift, the citizen, the friend of man,-who fpeaks the language of wisdom to the peasant, the artift, the legislator, and the fovereign, and appreciates with fenfibility, truth, and precifion, the genuine fources of human felicity.

So much for the Author and his Work in general and now a previous word to our Readers.The fuperficial Reader will here find things beyond his reach, but he may yet pick up many facts, truths, and obfervations, that will afford him much inftruction and entertainment; and there is no Reader, who, with a competent degree of attention, may not comprehend the great and effential lines of our Author's fyftem, with refpect to the theory of the earth, and the destination of its principal inhabitant.—It is also to be noticed, that there are parts in this Work, which (notwithstanding the peculiar merit of their affemblage) do not ceafe to be highly interesting, even when detached from the whole.-There is, for example, a rich field of curious objects for the lover of natural hiftory: There are fubtile refearches concerning matter and spirit, and their mysterious union, for the metaphysician :-there are important difcuffions, experiments, and refults, for the natural philofopher :-there are useful views of rural and political economy for the true patriot-and the minifters of religion will meet with judicious and interefting difquifitions, relative to their profeffion, polity, and the mafter-fcience, that connects the theory of this world with a profpect of a better.-In short(permit the metaphor) there is here a rich and varied feaft; and though all palates may not relish, nor every stomach be able to digeft the contents of each dish, yet no guest need rife from table without having made a good meal, and many will make an exquifite one.

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