Not built, created feems the frowning mound;

O'er loftieft mountain tops and vales profound
Extends the wondrous length, with warlike caftles crown'd.
Immense

the rest of mankind. Nothing farther, except that they have continued till very lately without any material intercourfe with the other nations of the world.

A continued fucceffion of aftronomical obfervations, for 4000 years, was claimed by the Chinese, when they were firft vifited by the Europeans. Voltaire, that fan of truth, has often with great triumph mentioned the indubitable proofs of Chinese antiquity; but at these times he must have received his information from the fame dream which told him that Camoëns accompanied his friend Gama in the voyage which discovered the Eart Indies. If Voltaire and his difciples will talk of Chinese astronomy and the 4000 years antiquity of its perfection, let them enjoy every confequence which may poffibly result from it. But let them allow the fame liberty to others. Let them allow others to draw their inferences from a few stubborn facts; facts which demonftrate the ignorance of the Chinese in aftronomy. The earth, they imagined, was a great plain, of which their country was the midft; and fo ignorant were they of the cause of eclipfes, that they believed the fun and moon were affaulted, and in danger of being devoured by a huge dragon. The ftars were confidered as the directors of human affairs, and thus their boasted astronomy ends in that filly impofition, judicial aftrology. Though they had made some observations on the revolutions of the planets, and though in the emperor's palace there was an obfervatory the first apparatus of proper inftruments ever known in China was introduced by father Verbieft. After this it need fcarcely be added, that their

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ference, and let her add, that there is the strongest prefumptive experimental proof, that the difference thus happens. If philofophy draw her inferences from the different paffions of different tribes; let common fense reply, that ftript of every accident of brutalization and urbanity, the human mind in all its faculties, all its motives, hopes and fears, is most wonderfully the fame in every age and country. If philofophy talk of the impoffibility of peopling diftant iflands and continents from one family, let common fenfe tell her to read Bryant's Mythology. If philosophy affert that the Celts, where ever they came, found Aborigines, let common fenfe reply, there were tyrants enough almost 2000 years before their emigrations, to drive the wretched furvivers of flaughtered hofts to the remoteft wilds. She may also add, that many islands have been found which bore not one trace of mankind, and that even Otaheite bears the evident marks of receiving its inhabitants from a fhipwreck, its only animals being the hog, the dog, and the rat. word, let common fenfe fay to philofophy, "I open my egg with a penknife, but you open yours with the blow of a sledge hammer."

In a

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Immense the northern wastes their horrors spread;

In froft and fnow the seas and fhores are clad.

Thefe

aftronomical obfervations which pretend an antiquity of 4000 years, are as falfe as a Welch genealogy, and that the Chinese themselves, when inftructed by the Jefuits, were obliged to own that their calculations were erroneous and impoffible. The great credit and admiration which their aftronomical and mathematical knowledge procured to the Jefuits, afford an indubitable confirmation of these facts.

Ridiculous as their astronomical are their historical antiquities. After all Voltaire has faid of it, the oldest date to which their history pretends is not much above 4000 years. During this period 236 kings have reigned, of 22 different families. The first king reigned 100 years; then we have the names of fome others, but without any detail of actions, or that concatenation of events which distinguishes authentic hiftory. That mark of truth does not begin to appear for upwards of 2000 years of the Chinese legends. Little more than the names of kings, and these often interrupted with wide chafms, compose all the annals of China, till about the period of the Christian æra. Something like a hiftory then commences; but that is again interrupted by a wide chafm, which the Chinese know not how to fill up otherwife, than by afferting that a century or two elapfed in the time, and that at fuch a period a new family mounted the throne. Such is the hiftory of China, full brother in every family feature to those Monkish tales, which fent a daughter of Pharaoh to be queen of Scotland, which fent Brutus to England, and a grandson of Noah to teach school among the mountains of Wales.

a Immense the northern waftes their horrors Spread—Tartary, Siberia, Samoyada, Kamchatki, &c. A fhort account of the Grand Lama of Thibet Tartary fhall complete our view of the superftitions of the Eaft. While the other Pagans of Afia worship the moft ugly monftrous idols, the Tartars of Thibet adore a real living god. He fits cross-legged on his throne in the great temple, adorned with gold and diamonds. He never fpeaks, but fometimes elevates his hand in token that he approves of the prayers of his

worshippers. He is a ruddy well-looking young man, about 25 or 27, and is the most miferable wretch on earth, being the mere puppet of his priests, who difpatch him whenever age or fickness make any alteration in his features; and another, inftructed to act his part, is put in his place. Princes of very distant provinces fend tribute to this deity and implore his bleffing,

These shores forfake, to future ages due:

A world of islands claims thy happier view,
Where lavish Nature all her bounty pours,

And flowers and fruits of every fragrance showers.
Japan behold; beneath the globe's broad face
Northward fhe finks, the nether feas embrace
Her eastern bounds; what glorious fruitage there,
Illuftrious GAMA, fhall thy labours bear!

How bright a filver mine! when heaven's own lore
From pagan drofs fhall purify her ore.

Beneath the spreading wings of purple morn,
Behold what isles these glistening seas adorn!
Mid hundreds yet unnamed, Ternat behold!
By day her hills in pitchy clouds inroll'd,
By night like rolling waves the sheets of fire
Blaze o'er the feas, and high to heaven afpire.
For Lufian hands here blooms the fragrant clove,
But Lufian blood fhall fprinkle every grove.

The

and as Voltaire has merrily told us, think themselves fecure of benediction, if favoured with something from his godship, esteemed more facred than the hallowed cow-dung of the Bramins.

b How bright a filver mine. -By this beautiful metaphor, omitted by Caftera, Camoëns alludes to the great fuccefs, which in his time attended the Jefuit miffionaries in Japan. James I. fent an embaffy to the fovereign, and opened a trade with this country, but it was foon fuffered to decline. The Dutch are the only Europeans who now traffic with the Japonefe, which it is faid they obtain by trampling on the crofs and by abjuring the Chriftian name. In religion the Japonese are much the fame as their neighbours of China. And in the frequency of felf-murder, fays Voltaire, they vie with their brother-iflanders of England.

The golden birds that ever fail the skies
Here to the fun display their shining dyes,
Each want fupplied on air they ever foar;

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The ground they touch not till they breathe no more.
Here Banda's ifles their fair embroidery spread

Of various fruitage, azure, white, and red;
And birds of every beauteous plume display
Their glittering radiance, as from spray to spray,
From bower to bower, on busy wings they rove,
To feize the tribute of the spicy grove.
Borneo here expands her ample breast,

By Nature's hand in woods of camphire dreft;
The precious liquid weeping from the trees
Glows warm with health, the balfam of disease.
Fair are Timora's dales with groves array'd:

Each rivulet murmurs in the fragrant shade,

And in its crystal breast displays the bowers

Of Sanders, bleft with health-reftoring powers.
Where to the fouth the world's broad furface bends,
Lo, Sunda's realm her spreading arms extends.
From hence the pilgrim brings the wondrous tale,
A river groaning through a dreary dale,

d

For

The ground they touch not. -Thefe are commonly called the birds of Paradife. It was the old erroneous opinion, that they always foared in the air, and that the female hatched her young on the back of the male. Their feathers bear a mixture of the most beautiful azure, purple and golden colours, which have a fine effect in the rays of the fun.

From hence the pilgrim brings the wondrous tale.- Streams of this kind are common in many countries. Caftera attributes this quality to the exceffive

For all is ftone around, converts to stone

Whate'er of verdure in its breaft was thrown.
Lo, gleaming blue o'er fair Sumatra's skies
Another mountain's trembling flames arise;
Here from the trees the gum all fragrance fwells,

e

And fofteft oil a wondrous fountain wells.

Nor these alone the happy ifle bestows,

Fine is her gold, her filk refplendent glows.
Wide forefts there beneath Maldivia's f tide
From withering air their wondrous fruitage hide.
The green-hair'd Nereids tend the bowry dells,
Whofe wondrous fruitage poifon's rage expels.
In Ceylon, lo, how high yon mountain's brows!
The failing clouds its middle height enclose.
Holy the hill is deem'd, the hallowed & tread
Of fainted footstep marks its rocky head.

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ceffive cold of the waters, but this is a mistake. The waters of fome springs are impregnated with fparry particles, which adhering to the herbage or the clay on the banks of their channel, harden into ftone and incruft the original retainers.

e Here from the trees the gum Benjamin, a fpecies of frankincenfe. The oil mentioned in the next line, is that called the rock oil, a black fœtid mineral oleum, good for bruises and sprains.

f Wide forefts there beneath Maldivia's tide. A fea plant, refembling the palm, grows in great abundance in the bays about the Maldivian iflands. The boughs rife to the top of the water, and bear a kind of apple, called the coco of Maldivia, which is esteemed an antidote against poison.

g the tread of fainted footstep.- -The imprint of a human foot is found on the high mountain, called the Pic of Adam. Legendary tradition fays, that Adam, after he was expelled from Paradise, did penance 300 years on this hill, on which he left the print of his footstep. This tale seems to be Jewish or Mohammedan, for the natives, according to Capt. Knox, who was twenty years a captive in Ceylon, pretend the impreffion

was