CHA P. XV.

The Influence of Domeftic Government on the Political.

THE changing the manners of women had, with

out doubt, a great influence on the government of Mufcovy. One thing is very clofely united to another: The defpotic power of the prince is naturally connected with the fervitude of women, the liberty of women with the fpirit of monarchy.

CHAP. XVI.

How fome Legiflators have confounded the Principles which govern Mankind.

MANNERS, and cuftoms are thofe habits which are not established by the laws, either because they were not able, or were not willing to establish them.

There is this difference between laws and manners, that the laws are moit adapted to regulate the actions of the fubject, and manners to regulate the actions of the man. There is this difference between manners and customs, that the first principally relate to the interior conduct, the others to the exterior.

These things have been sometimes confounded. Lycurgus made the fame code for the laws, manners and cuftoms; and the legiflators of China have done the fame.

We ought not to be furprised, that the legiflators of China and Sparta fhould confound the laws, manners and cuftoms: The reason is, their manners reprefent their laws, and their customs their manners.

The principal object which the legiflators of China had in view, was to make the people live in peace and tranquillity. They would have people filled with a veneration for one another, that each fhould be every moment

fenfible *Mofes made the fame code for laws and religion. The old Romans confounded the ancient cuftoms with the laws,

fenfible how greatly he was indebted to others, and that there was not a fubject who did not in fome degree depend on another fubject. They therefore gave rules of the moft extenfive civility.

Thus the inhabitants of the villages of China, observe amongst themselves the fame ceremonies, as thofe obferved by perfons of an exalted ftation: A very proper method of infpiring mild and gentle difpofitions, of maintaining peace and good order amongst the people, and of banishing all the vices which fpring from an afperity of temper. In effect, would not the freeing them from the rules of civility, be to fearch out a method for them to indulge their faults more at ease.

Civility is in this refpect of more value than politeness. Politenefs flatters the vices of others, and civility prevents ours from being brought to light. It is a barrier which men have placed in themselves to prevent the corruption of each other.

Lycurgus, whofe inftitutions were fevere, had no regard to civility, in forming the external behavior; he had a view to that warlike fpirit which he would fain give to his people. A people who were ever correcting, or ever corrected, always inftructing, or always inftructed, endued with equal fimplicity and rigor, atoned by their virtues, for their want of complaifance.

CHAP. XVII.

Of the Peculiar Quality of the Chinese Government.

THE legiflators of China went farther. They

confounded together their religion, laws, manners and cuftoms; all thofe were morals, all these were virtue. The precepts relating to thefe four points were what they called rites; and it was in the exact obfervance of thefe that the Chinese government triumphed. They fpent their whole youth in learning them, their whole life in their practice. They

* See du Halde.

+ See the claffic books from which father Du Halde gives us fome excel

ent extracts.

They were taught by their men of learning, they were inculcated by the magiftrates; and, as they included all the ordinary actions of life, when they found the means of making them strictly obferved, China was well governed.

Two things have contributed to the eafe with which thefe rites are engraved on the hearts and minds of the Chinese; the one, the difficulty of writing, which during the greatest part of their lives wholly employs their mind, because it is neceffary to prepare them to read and underftand the books in which they are comprised; the other, that the ritual precepts having nothing in them that is fpiritual, but being merely rules of common practice, they are more adapted to convince and ftrike the mind than things merely intellectual.

Those princes, who, inftead of governing by these rites, governed by the force of punishments, wanted to accomplifh that by punishments, which is not in their power to produce, that is, to give habits of morality. By punishments a fubject is very juftly cut off from fociety, who having loft the purity of his manners, violates the laws; but if all the world were to lose their moral habits, would these reestablish them? Punishments may be justly inflicted to put a stop to many of the confequences of the general evil, but it will not remove the evil itself. Thus when the principles of the Chinese government were discarded, and morality loft, the ftate fell into anarchy, and revolu tions were feen to take place.

CHAP. XVIII.

A Confequence drawn from the preceding Chapter.

FROM hence it follows that the laws of China are not deftroyed by conqueft. Their cuftoms, manners, laws and religion being the fame thing, they cannot change all these at once; and as it will happen, that either the conqueror or the conquered muft change, in China it has always been the conqueror. For the manners of the conquering nation not being its customs, nor its customs VOL. I.

Y

its

*It is this which has established emulation, which hath banished laziness, and cultivated a love of learning.

its laws, nor its laws its religion, it has been more easy for them to conform by degrees to the vanquished people, than the vanquished people to them.

There ftill follows from hence a very unhappy confe quence, which is, that it is almoft impoffible for* Chriftianity ever to be established in China. The vows of virginity, the affembling of women in churches, their neceffary communication with the minifters of religion, their participation in the facraments, auricular confeffion, extreme unction, the marriage of only one wife, all these overturn the manners and customs of the country, and with the fame blow ftrike at their religion and laws.

The Chriftian religion, by the establishment of charity,. by a public worship, by a participation of the fame facra ments, feems to demand, that all fhould be united; while the rites of China seem to ordain that all should be separated.

CHAP. XIX.

How this Union of Religion, Laws, Manners and Customs dmongst the Chinese was produced.

Filled

THE principal object of government which the Chinese legiflators had in view, was the peace and tranquillity of the empire: And subordination appeared to them as the most proper means to maintain it. with this idea, they believed it their duty to infpire a refpect for fathers, and therefore affembled all their power to effect it. They established an infinite number of rites and ceremonies to do them honor when living, and after their death. It was impoffible for them to pay fuch honors to deceased parents, without being led to honor the living. The ceremonies at the death of a father were more nearly related to religion, thofe for a living father had a greater relation to the laws, manners and cuftoms; how

ever

* See the reasons given by the Chinese magiftrates in their decrees for pro fcribing the Chriftian Religion. Edifying letters, 17th collect.

ever these were only parts of the fame code, but this code was very extenfive.

A veneration for fathers was neceffarily connected with a fuitable respect for all who reprefented fathers, such as old men, mafters, magiftrates and the emperor. This refpect for fathers, fuppofed a return of love toward children, and confequently the fame return from old men to the young, from magiftrates to thofe who were under their jurisdiction, and from the emperor to his fubjects. This formed the rites, and these rites the general spirit of the

nation.

We shall now show the relation which things, in appearance the most indifferent, may have to the fundamental conftitution of China. This empire is formed on the plan of the government of a family. If you diminish the paternal authority, or even if you retrench the ceremonies which express your respect for it, you weaken the reverence due to magiftrates, who are confidered as fathers; nor would the magiftrates have the fame care of the people whom they ought to confider as their children; and that tender relation which fubfifts between the prince and his fubjects, would infenfibly be loft. Retrench but one of thefe habits, and you overturn the ftate. It is a thing in itself very indifferent whether the daughterinlaw rifes every morning to pay fuch and fuch duties to her motherinlaw: But if we confider that these exterior habits inceffantly revive an idea neceffary to be imprinted on all minds, an idea that forms the governing spirit of the empire, we shall fee that it is neceffary that fuch or such a particular acţion Be performed.

CHA P. XX.

An Explication of a Paradox relating to the Chinese.

IT is very remarkable that the Chinese, whose lives are guided by rites, are nevertheless the greatest cheats upon earth. This appears chiefly in their trade, which, in fpite of its natural tendency, has never been able to make them honeft. He who buys of them, ought to carry with

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