famous kaaba, or pantheon of Mecca, was purified, and 350 idols, with which it was defiled, were broken in pieces. The sentence of destruction was in the same manner executed on all the idols of Arabia. All the people of that vast country adopted the worship of one God, and acknowledged Mahomet as his prophet and their sovereign. The rites of pilgrimage were, through piety or policy, re-established. The prophet himself set an example to future ages, by fulfilling the duties of a pilgrim; and 114,000 pious believers accompanied his last visit to the kaaba, or house of God. A perpetual law was also enacted, prohibiting all unbelievers in the Koran from setting foot within the precincts of the holy city.

9. A revolution was thus effected in an obscure corner of the world, which shortly after subverted or shook the most powerful monarchies, and extended its effects to the distant regions of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The prophet of Arabia commenced hostilities with the Greek empire, and unfurled his banners on the confines of Syria; but after having lost some of his most intrepid commanders, without having made any great progress, the war was neither of long continuance, nor productive of any remarkable events. The mission and life of Mahomet now drew near to an end. During the space of four years, his health had gradually declined; but till the third day preceding his dissolution, he performed the functions of public prayer, and asserting to the last the divine authority of his mission, he expired, at about the age of sixty-three, with the firmness of a philosopher, and the faith of an enthusiast.

10. In making an impartial estimate of the qualifications which distinguished the prophet of Arabia, it must be acknowledged that the vigour of his mind, and the measure of his intellectual powers, appear to have been extraordinary. At the commencement of his mission, his hopes could rest only on a very precarious foundation. The difficulties which he had to encounter were great. During a considerable time, converts were slowly made, and his prospects of success were far from being such as could animate his efforts, or flat

ter his hopes. Amidst all these embarrassing circumstances, his enterprising spirit, his steady fortitude, and bis patient perseverance, command admiration.

11. But among the distinguishing characteristics of his mind, his extraordinary talent of knowing mankind is the most remarkable. No one had ever more accurately or more successfully, studied human nature. No one more exactly knew what suited the ideas and inclinations of men, or more perfectly understood the method of gaining an ascendancy over their minds, and of rendering their passions subservient to a great design. An impartial view of the character of this extraordinary man, shows that he was formed for every thing that is great, that his ideas were grand and elevated, and his views extensive.

QUESTIONS.

1. How did Mahomet acquire his riches?-2. Where was the Koran written?-3. What was the religion of Arabia when Mahomet began his career?-4. What is his flight to Medina called?-5. When did it take place?-6. What toleration did he allow the Jews and Christians of Arabia?-7. How long had he been exiled from Mecca, when it surrendered to his arms?-8. At what age did he die?

EMPIRE OF CHINA.

1. The antiquity of this vast empire, and the state of its government, laws, manners, and attainments in the arts and sciences, have furnished a most ample field of controversy. Voltaire, Raynal, and other writers of similar principles, have, for the purpose of discrediting the scriptural account of the origin of mankind, and the received notions of the age of the universe, given to the Chinese empire an immense antiquity, and a character of such high civilization and knowledge of the sciences and arts at that remote period, as to be utterly irreconcilable with the state and progress of man, as described in the books of Moses. On the other hand, it is probable that the desire of invalidating those opinions has

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induced other writers of ability to go to an opposite extreme; to undervalue this singular people, and to give too little weight to any accounts which we have, either of the duration of their empire, the economy of their government and police, or of their attainments in the arts and sciences. Amidst this contrariety of sentiments, we shall endeavour to form such opinion as appears most consonant to the truth.

2. The panegyrists of the Chinese assert that their empire has subsisted above 4000 years, without any material alteration in its laws, manners, language, or even fashion of dress; in evidence of which they appeal to a series of eclipses, marking contemporary events, all accurately calculated, for 2155 years before the birth of Christ. As it is easy to calculate eclipses backwards from the present day to any given period of time, it is thus possible to give to a history, fictitious from beginning to end, its chronology of real eclipses. This proof, therefore, amounts to nothing, unless it were likewise proved that all those eclipses were actually recorded at the time when they happened; but this neither has been nor can be done; for it is an allowed fact, that there are no regular historical records beyond the third century before the christian æra. The present Chinese are utterly ignorant of the motions of the celestial bodies, and cannot calculate eclipses. The series mentioned has therefore in all probability been calculated by some of the Jesuits, to ingratiate themselves with the emperors, and flatter the national vanity. The Jesuits have presided in the tribunal of mathematics for above 200 years.

3. But if the authentic annals of this empire go back even to the third century before Christ, and record at that time a high state of civilization, we must allow that the Chinese are an ancient and early polished people, and that they have possessed a singular constancy in their government, laws, and manners. Sir William Jones, no bigotted encomiast of this people, allows their great antiquity and early civilization, and, with much apparent probability, traces their origin from the Hin

The Chinese architecture has variety, lightness, and sometimes elegance, but has no grandeur or symmetrical beauty.

8. Yet, in some of the arts, the Chinese have attained to great perfection. Agriculture is carried in China to the highest pitch of improvement. There is not a spot of waste land in the whole empire, nor any which is not highly cultivated. The emperor himself is the chief of the husbandmen, and annually holds the plough with his own hands. Hence, and from the modes of economising food, is supported the astonishing population of 333 millions, or 260 inhabitants to every square mile of the empire. The gardening of the Chinese, and their admirable embellishment of rural nature, have of late been the object of imitation in Europe, but with far inferior success. The manufacture of porcelain is an original invention of this people; and the Europeans, though excelling them in the form and ornament of the utensils, have never been able to attain to the excellence of the material.

9. The morals of the Chinese have furnished much subject both of encomium and censure. The books of Confucius are said to contain a most admirable system of morality; but the principles of morals have their foundation in human nature, and must, in theory, be every where the same. The moral virtues of a people are not to be estimated from the books of their philosophers. It is probable that the manners of the superior classes are, in China, as elsewhere, much influenced by education and example. The morals of the lower classes are said to be beyond measure loose, and their practices most dishonest; nor are they regulated by any principle but selfish interest, or restrained but by the fear of punishment.

10. The religion of the Chinese is different in the different ranks of society. There is no religion of the state. The emperor and the higher mandarins profess the belief of one Supreme Being, Changli, whom they worship by prayer and thanksgiving, without any mixture of idolatrous practices. They respect the Lama of Thibet, as the high-priest or prophet of this religion.

A prevalent sect is that of Tao-sse, who believe in the power of magic, the agency of spirits, and the divining of future events. A third is the sect of Fo, derived from India, whose priests are the Bonzes, and whose fundamental doctrine is, that all things rose out of nothing, and finally must return to it; that all animals are first to undergo a series of transmigrations; and that, as man's chief happiness is to approach as near as possible to a state of annihilation in this life, absolute idleness is more laudable than occupation of any kind. A variety of hideous idols are worshipped by

this sect.

11. The Chinese have their sacred books, termed Kings, which, amidst some good moral precepts, contain much mystery, childish superstition, and absurdity. These are chiefly resorted to for the divining of future events, which seems the ultimatum of research among the Chinese philosophers. The observation of the heavenly bodies is made for that purpose alone; the changes of weather, the performance or omission of certain ceremonies, the occurrence of certain events in particular times and places, are all believed to have their influence on futurity, and are therefore carefully observed and recorded; and the rules by which those omens are interpreted are said to have been prescribed by the great Confucius, the father of the Chinese philosophy, 500 years before the Christian æra.

12. We conclude, on the whole, that the Chinese are a very remarkable people; that their government, laws, policy, and knowledge of the arts and sciences, exhibit unquestionable proofs of great antiquity and early civilization; but that the extraordinary measure of duration assigned to their empire by some modern writers, rests on no solid proof; nor are their government, laws, manners, arts, or scientific attainments, at all deserving of that superlative and most exaggerated encomium which has been bestowed on them.

13. From time's remotest dawn, where China brings, In proud succession, all her patriot kings; O'er desert sands, deep gulfs, and hills sublime, Extends her massy wall from clime to clime;