In the implicit acquiescence of the christian world in the fables of the Chinese story, these writers of insubordination and discord, encountered a disposition more favourable to their nefarious machinations, than even their vanity had whispered them to hope. It was not easy for the curious and ingenious mind, quietly to believe their antiquity, without endeavouring to account for so singular an age; and as the verity of their preten sions was wholly irreconcileable with the inspired history of the first ages, the latter was perverted and sacrificed for the laboured maintenance of the former. The ark of Noah and his family were not only translated from Ararat in Armenia to the Tartarian mountains, but the universality of the deluge has been denied and attempted to be proved,* but the attempt was as ineffectual as the motive was reprehensible. It is notwithstanding not adverse to their hopes, that the Chinese fables should still continue to find believers and supporters among those who ranked themselves the followers of Heaven, and not the advocates of an abominable system of materiality. The least superstitious, and most unprejudiced of their historians or nobles, date their origin so early as 2200 years before Christ; nor can they but in violation of the laws and the forfeiture of life, bring it down to a later period. According to the Mosaic history, Noah and his sons "went forth out of the ark," in the year 2348 before Christ, which leaves one hundred and forty eight years for his posterity to penetrate into the remote parts of Scythia, there to multiply to millions, and afterwards to emigrate to China, and establish a monarchy more vast and populous than any modern nation of Europe, or the world; and all this in the short, very short space of one hundred and forty eight years:-how prodigious; how impossible an increase! By what method of arithmetical progression, then, do these zealous friends of a monstrous systèm, account for the establishment and populousness of the Chinese empire, at a period when the human race were once more bursting into existence, and from the family of one man, repopulating a desert earth? It is apparent, hence, that the books of Moses must either be rejected as apochryphal; or the fictions of the people of China, viewed in their legitimate character, and allowed a portionate degree of credit and authority.

I have searched with diligence the records of the Tartars, or rather the histories relating to them, but compiled, if not fabricated by others, for some beam of light which might direct us in assigning the probable time of the settlement of China; but I have searched without success proportioned to my labour; or finding the little which an antecedent knowledge of the barrenness of their early or even recent history had disposed me to look for. Whether such information can at all be accessible, is rendered highly problematical, if not certain; a people fired with no ambition, but that of pillage; ignorant of all glory or fame, but the transient reputation which superior bodily energy, or persevering brutality bestowed; sheltered by no permanent habitation, but ranging from place to place, from clime to clime, as necessity urged, or a restless disposition suggested; whose lives passed in successive generations undistinguished by actions worthy of emulation; who knew no leisure, as they never were industrious, or had no time for reflection, because perpetually occupied in providing for subsistence, to supply present appetite: Such a people would never mark the course of passing ages, which they were conscious had existed, only from the certainty of their own feeling, and not from the recollection of events, made memorable by the sublime discoveries of philosophy, or the astonishing exploits of genius, intrepidity and valour. Divided into distinct separate tribes, or hordes, bound to observe no common law, and shackled by no moral or political obligation, each provided the means of subsistence for itself, unconcerned for and neglectful of one another; they continued tenants of the same portion of ground, only while it yielded its spontaneous fruits, to gratify their desires, and support their flocks, and it is therefore extremely probable, that, as intercourse was so rare, and the cords of society so loosely thrown about them, that little interest was excited for the welfare, or much regret manifested for the disappearance of a neighbouring horde, known to its brethren only by the same physical qualities, which serve to distinguish and separate even the beasts of the forest. The migration, therefore, of many tribes, would be disregarded by those remaining, and the settlement of a proximate country effected without the knowledge of those hordes, who wholly engrossed by

their own interest and wants, cared not to inquire after the fate of others, allied by no ties of propinquity, or attached by no endearments of kindness and friendship.

We are, under such considerations, not surprised that the Tartar records are devoid of facts to show the time, manner, or course of those emigrations, which were so frequently made by scattered hordes, to people more congenial countries; among the first of which China may be ranked, as holding more allurements, and promising higher remuneration to the stranger, than is common to other climes: that it would consequently be the first settled, is very likely, if it were the first known; and till it is discovered that the Tartars were early acquainted with it, no certain conclusion can be made of its early establishment into an empire.

That it requires neither an higher age nor a superior sagacity, to produce uniformity, in the manners, and beget equality in the minds of a people, is very apparent from this circumstance, that reason as it is excursive in its range after objects and its sentiments, is proportionately capricious and fanciful in its selection; that as occasion is denied for the improvement of the mind, and the means wanted for acquisition, intellectual disparity will be created; and that reason and learning will of consequence be more equally distributed, or rather. equally absent to all, as all approximate more or less to instinctive capacity. Of this latter complexion are the Chinese, and that it can evince a high antiquity, it is neither reasonable nor specious to affirm; for though long continuance may radicate a custom, it must primarily be produced by some inherent propensity or defect of the mind, which though it may in some instances be factitious from moral or political causes, is nevertheless quite as effectual in operating the result. But to aver that China is so many thousand years old, because the people are more uniform in their minds, manners, and customs, than other nations is equally ridiculous with the assertion of a French philosopher, who insisted that he had travelled to the moon by the way of Canada!

From these facts, therefore, though few, yet weighty; stated as succinctly as perspicuity would allow, we shall induce only the fallacy of the pretentions of Chinese authors and history-makers,

ofcredulous missionaries and inquisitive pseudo-philosophers; without claiming such abundance of penetration as to assign the precise period of the radical establishment of China, and the exact age it has attained. What we have endeavoured to demonstrate, and what we presume has been satisfactorily evinced; we could insist on with more arguments than have been used: but as these are needless, we shall conclude in the words of one celebrated as well for his Asiatic knowledge, as his great erudition. He says and it encounters our implicit concurrence, that "Their letters, "if we may so call them, are merely the symbols of ideas; their "philosophy seems yet in so rude a state as hardly to deserve the "appellation; they have no ancient monuments from which their "origin can be traced, EVEN BY PLAUSIBLE CONJECTURE; ❝their sciences are wholly exotic; and their mechanical arts have "nothing in them characteristic of a particular family*, nothing "which any set of men in a country so highly favoured by "nature, might not have discovered and improvedt.”

PROCLUS.

CRITICISM-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS, A SATIRE BY LORD

BYRON.

THE literary world has long been expecting a bout between Gifford and Jeffreys. The former, is an Englishman of strong and muscular joints and limbs, athletic and robust. He has long been known as a champion of approved power and activity.— He formerly had a boxing match with Della Crusca, who was at that time believed to be no insignificant opponent. The moment these two doughty champions were brought into the field and stripped for the combat, Gifford viewed his adversary with an eye of contempt. He declared that he was ashamed to cope

* In regard to their mechanical arts, we differ in sentiment from this philosophical author, and differ with regret.—Their arts as far as they are native, and that most of them are so appears highly probable, are stamped with a peculiar characteristic, which is imparted to every thing in China whether original or exotic. This subject, however, will be minutely discussed in another essay, which shall not here be anticipated.

Sir William Jones.

with him; that if victory followed his blows, he should only be accused of breaking a butterfly upon a wheel. This modern Entellus, seemed at that time to have his knuckles fortified with the cœstus of Hercules. In the first round he laid his adversa

ry sprawling in the dirt. In the second round his blows were directed with such dexterity, and so well "put in” that in the language of the profession, poor Della was "doubled scientifically.' Unable to maintain the contest, he was carried off in much the same manner that his predecessor Dares was, and with as little pity, from the contest. There had been at this time a noted bruiser by the name of Peter Pindar. Not satisfied by the exercise of his muscular strength on those whose rank in society was as despicable as his own; he assailed indiscriminately women and boys, painters, poets, kings and bishops. Every character was solicitous to avoid a contest with the sturdy Peter, whose audacity at last became so notorious that he seemed to outrage all decorum and honour by special license. The bully was considered as invulnerable to shame, and the amazing disparity in a contest between a man who is delicately alfve to such impulses, and one too callous to feel any, has not been sufficiently regarded. In such men there must be an entire renovation of character before the parties meet upon equal terms.The one possesses a standard of moral integrity by which he measures his own actions; the other has long abandoned that standard, and rests fully confident that nothing worse can be said of him than what he has actually done. This security that infamy confers, is a coat of mail in comparison with which the armour of Achilles is but a cobweb. Thus armed and accoutered this bully of Parnassus, proceeded with entire safety in the exercise of his vocation. He at last challenged Gifford to the field, and that challenge was accepted. The bets ran high, and the chances were considered nearly equal. After a little squaring, the parties set to. Peter was carried off almost exanimate and has never recovered to the present day. As soon as he was able to appear abroad again in the public streets, he did not seem inclined to wield against his opponent the cœstus of the muse.He therefore provided himself with a stout oaken sapling, determined to inflict a more vigorous chastisement than the muses were capable of giving. His ill fortune threw his old adversary