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suppose the possibility of holding a communication with those powers of darkness, for wicked and malignant purposes, can excite no surprise in those who consider how fond we are of prying into faturity, and with what delight our imagination dwells on terrible and frightful objects, the offspring of fear,--perhaps the strongest passion in the human soul.-There have not been wanting men at all times, who, endowed with superior powers of intellect, have attacked popular prejudices, and endeavoured to free their fellow-creatures from the chains of superstition. Yet the belief of witchcraft held such firm possession of the human mind, that it could not easily be eradicated. It is well known that James the First wrote a book in defence of it, and which is said not to be totally deficient in learning and ingenuity. Perhaps no person has treated the subject with more ability than the famous Balthazar Bekker, in his Monde enchanté. That extraordinary man, who died in 1698, examined, with incredible pains, every story recorded by the Pagan, Jewish, or Christian writers, which seemed to favour the agency of evil spirits in the affairs of the world; and he made it appear, that they all originated either in mistake or imposture. As he expressed himself with great boldness, and entertained some opinions which were rather singular, he was exposed to a cruel persecution; yet his system seems to be founded on this great and important truth-That we cannot allow to the Devil the power of violating or suspending the laws of Nature, consistently with a belief of the attributes which we are taught by our religion to ascribe to the Deity.

The learned Mr. Farmer, in our times, in his excellent book on Miracles, offered some admirable observations on the subject of witchcraft; and we should not omit Mr. Addison's Spectator, No. 117, replete as it is with good sense and a tender benevolence, which, it is said, produced at the time most salutary effects.

The author of the pamphlet before us appears to be actuated by the best intentions: but we are sorry to find, from his preface, that, in an age which calls itself enlightened, there should be any occasion for exploding the doctrine of witchcraft, the belief of which, he thinks, has been revived by the writings of Wesley and his followers.

The subject of the first sermon is the Witch of Endor; and that of the second, the miracles supposed to have been performed by the magicians in Egypt, in opposition to Moses and Aaron. Having explained these passages of scripture in a sensible and satisfactory manner, he proceeds to combat, in the third and fourth sermons, with considerable learning and strength of argument, every thing that has been said in favour of the agency of evil spirits, and their com munication with mankind. The pamphlet terminates with an aċcount of the witches of Warboys, which, from its singularity, may engage attention, although the perusal of it cannot but be painful to the humane and feeling heart :-the consequences of the ridiculous prosecution proving fatal to the poor wretches who were so absurdly and foolishly charged with crimes not in nature for them to commit."

Abridged from the edition of 1593.

It

120

It would be injustice to Mr. Naylor, were we to conclude without acknowledging the ability and judgment with which he has treated the subject of witchcraft in these Four Discourses.

Art. 70. Preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, May 10, 1796. By the Rev. Thomas Rennel, D.D. late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. 4to. Is. Rivington.

Evangelical doctrine, apostolical discipline, zeal against popery and heresy, united with learning, eloquence, and loyalty, are in this discourse exhibited as the leading features of the Church of England, and as sufficient claims to the favour and patronage of the public. The sermon is clegantly composed, and well suited to the occasion.

CORRESPONDENCE.

In answer to the inquiry of Clericus Bedfordensis, we inform him that there are four Treatises on the use of the Greek Middle Verb, by WOLLE, KUSTER, CLERICUS, and SCHMIDIUS, published together, in duodecimo, at Leipsig, 1733. Ludolphus Kuster's work has also been printed in London, 1750, with an Index vocabulorum, in quilus anceps vocalis pro longa habenda est, by Edward Leedes, the editor of some Dialogues of Lucian, and the grammatical antagonist of Richard Johnson, the hardy opponent of Bentley's Horace. Kuster's Treatise is the most elaborate, and will be of most service to our correspondent; who may also collect several pertinent remarks on this subject, from Clark's Notes on Homer. The most infallible source of knowlege, however, must be an accurate observation of the usage of the Middle Voice, in the writings of the most anticnt Greek authors.

The complete discussion of such a topic as the use of the Middle Voice would occupy more space, and employ more time, than we have the power of giving to Correspondents.

Rusticus wishes to know when the proposed Oxford edition of Strabo is likely to make its appearance. He would have obtained more certain information on this point, had he directed his inquiries immediately to Oxford: we believe, however, that we may inform .him that the work is in forwardness, but that the time of its publication is yet uncertain.

Cestriensis reminds us that the ideal character of a Duke of Bedford, extracted in our last Review, p. 479, 480, from "Anecdotes of the House of Bedford," is copied from the xxiiid letter of the celebrated Junius. We must confess that the passage excited in our minds some idea of having seen it before, which was corroborated by its being marked in the book with quotation commas; but no reference to any author was to be found, and our memory did not at that moment serve to ascertain its origin.

An Old Friend arrived too late to make his appearance.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1797.

ART. I. Sir George Staunton's Account of the Embassy to China. [Article continued from p. 77.]

E are now to attend the embassy in its progress to Pekin, WE and thence to the country residence of the Emperor. When passing through Tien-sing, the vessels conveying the Ambassador and suite had an opportunity of observing that great city, which appeared to be nearly as long as London. The account given by the Mandarins of the place made its population amount to 700,000 persons. The houses of Tiensing are of brick, of a leaden blue colour; and many of them are, contrary to the common mode of building, two stories high. In consequence of the patriarchal custom, retained by the Chinese, of having all the succeeding generations of the same family under a single roof, it is computed that nearly ten men fit to bear arms are commonly found in every Chinese house. The junks, covering the waters which divide this commercial city, contained many thousand inhabitants: for the wives and families of the sailors reside with them constantly on board; and there many of them are born, and all of them spend their lives. Every shore is to them foreign, and the earth an element with which they are only occasionally connected.

As the embassy proceeded, the Barbadoes millet, already mentioned, and which is more cultivated than rice in all the northern provinces, was frequently seen planted in alternate rows, having between them rows of the panicum Italicum, or panicum crus galli, to be sheltered for a time by their taller neighbour. This first ripens, and is reaped; when the grains which it has sheltered, being then exposed to the sun's rays, ripen in their turn, and are cut down by the sickle. A species of Dolichos, not unlike the kidney-bean, is sometimes planted in vacant spots near the edges of the bank; and sometimes the travellers beheld whole fields of beans, or sesamum: while no weeds were any where observed to take from useful produce the nourishing power of the earth. K

VOL. XXIV.

Few

Few carriages were seen on the road, and none with more than two wheels, for conveying either travellers or goods. Gentlemen travel generally on horseback, or in sedan-chairs, or chair-palanquins; and ladies are mostly carried in close litters, suspended between mules or horses. The custom mentioned by Milton,

"Where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany waggons light*,"

is still retained. Those cany waggons are small carts formed of bamboo; and when the wind favours the progress of such a cart, a sail is hoisted, made of mat, and fastened to two poles in the opposite sides of the cart.

The travellers did not see even a hillock between them and the horizon, until the fourth day of their departure from Tiensing, when some blue mountains were observed rising from the north-west; and they indicated the approach to Pekin, beyond which they were situated. Two days afterward, on the 16th of August, the yachts anchored off the city of Tong-choo-foo, at the distance of about 12 miles from that great capital.

Pekin stands at the western extremity of an immense plain, probably formed by alluvial land brought down by torrents from the neighbouring mountains. The route lay through it to the autumnal palace of the Emperor, called Yuen-min-yuen, or garden of perpetual verdure, where such of the presents as could not be transported with safety to Zhe-hol were to be deposited.The following important observation we shall not abridge:

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Amongst all the crowds assembled near Tong-choo-foo, or those which the approach of the Embassy had attracted in other places, since its entrance into China, not one person in the habit of a beggar had been seen, or any one observed to solicit charity. No small portion of the people seemed, it is true, to be in a state approaching indigence; but none driven to the necessity, or inured to the habit, of craving assistance from a stranger. The present was not, indeed, one of those seasons of calamity, which destroys or diminishes the usual resources of the peasant, and drives him sometimes, even into criminal excesses, to procure subsistence. In such times, however, the Emperor of China always comes forward; he orders the granaries to be opened; he remits the taxes to those who are visited by misfortunes; he affords assistance to enable them to retrieve their affairs he appears to his subjects, as standing almost in the place of providence, in their favour: he is perfectly aware by how much a stronger chain he thus maintains his absolute dominion, than the dread of punishments would afford. He has shewn himself so jealous of retaining the exclusive privilege of benevolence to his subjects, that he not only rejected, but was offended at, the proposal once made to him, by some considerable merchants, to contribute towards

Par. Lost, B. iii. 1. 438

the

the relief of a suffering province. He accepted, at the same time, the donation of a rich widow of Tien-sing, towards the expences of the Thibet war. But independently of any general evil, which every wise government is attentive to remedy or alleviate, accidental causes of distress, or individual failures of the means to procure subsistence, give occasion, at all times, in most other countries, to the affecting spectacle of human beings dependent for their existence, on the precarious aid of those whom they may chance to meet, but who have the power of withholding it.'

In travelling through China, the spectator observes fewer public buildings than might be expected in so antient a kingdom; the reason of which is, that it has been hitherto the cruel policy of every dynasty, or new family mounting the throne of China, not only to destroy the remaining branches of the former race, but to level the edifices dedicated to their memory. Of those circular and lofty buildings termed Pagodas, there are several kinds, and dedicated to several uses: but none, as commonly supposed, to religious worship. The temples consecrated to this purpose differ little in height from common dwelling houses. This observation leads the author to the following remark, which we believe to be as new as it is important:

There is in China no state religion. None is paid, preferred, or encouraged by it. The Emperor is of one faith; many of the mandarines of another; and the majority of the common people of a third, which is that of Fo. This last class, the least capable, from ignorance, of explaining the phenomena of nature, and the most exposed to wants which it cannot supply by ordinary means, is willing to recur to the supposition of extraordinary powers, which may operate the effects it cannot explain, and grant the requests which it cannot otherwise obtain.

No people are, in fact, more superstitious than the common Chinese. Beside the habitual offices of devotion on the part of the priests and females, the temples are particularly frequented by the disciples of Fo, previously to any undertaking of importance; whether to marry, or go a journey, or conclude a bargain, or change situation, or for any other material event in life, it is necessary first to consult the superintendant deity. This is performed by various methods. Some place a parcel of consecrated sticks, differently marked and. numbered, which the consultant, kneeling before the altar, shakes in a hollow bamboo, until one of them falls on the ground; its mark is examined, and referred to a correspondent mark in a book which the priest holds open, and sometimes even it is written upon a sheet of paper pasted upon the inside of the temple. Polygonal pieces of wood are by others thrown into the air. Each side has its particular mark; the side that is uppermost when fallen on the floor, is in like manner referred to its correspondent mark in the book or sheet of fate. If the first throw be favourable, the person who made it prostrates himself in gratitude, and undertakes afterwards, with con→

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fidence,

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