happiness, and bring back man to that fabled era of con

tentment.

But there was another element in the character of this extraordinary man, besides the absorbing adoration of virtue, which we cannot pass over in silence. It was his intense love of his fellow-man. To him, it is true, his countrymen were all mankind, for he knew none others he therefore speaks of them as such, but we are not on this account to conclude that his sympathy was confined to his countrymen alone. If it were so, he would be no true hero, for none such lives only for a country. The names which take the highest place in the catalogue of human worthies are only such as have sympathy for all mankind, not for this or that corner of the world. His system we call the Chinese, not because it was expressly intended for men born in China, and for none others, but because it happens to be there prevalent. It was evidently intended originally for humanity generally, not for Chinese humanity only. This intense love of the human race beams forth whenever he enters upon the results likely to follow adherence to his dogmas. The gratification and delight with which he contemplates the attainment by an individual of the "superiority," of which he so strongly advocates the necessity, are evidently the offspring of pure benevolence. He is gratified and happy not because they have followed his system, but because they have attained that which will make them happy. This universal benevolence is further exemplified in the estimation in which he held the lighter graces that tend to gladden the soul. There was nothing harsh and morose about him; he delighted to see men happy; he knew that numbers are rendered happy by these means, and he would have been the last in the world to check that happiness or take these means

of happiness away. The hermit or misanthropist who removes himself from the contemplation of human life because he believes that the temptations he meets in the world may prove too strong for him, and who exercises his virtues in private with a kind of fiendish gratification that man and he have no more connection with each other, would find little sympathy in the mind of such an one as Confucius was. They might have the same admiration of virtue, the same horror of vice, but their characters would be the reverse of each other, because the one had, and the other had not, benevolence. The one wrapped up in a gloomy selfishness would cherish his virtues closer because other men had them not; the other would be for distributing them to all the world.

Again, the character of Confucius is distinguished by its ingenuousness. There was no deceit, no craftiness, about himself

personally. Such as he was he loved to be seen of his disciples, and to exhibit himself to the world. We speak now of his personal individual character, not of his systems; he was sometimes obliged to do violence to his feelings in them, in order to be consistent, but in every thing relating to himself he was candid and open. How easy would it not have been for him to have assumed a higher position than he did. He was no vulgar prophet. "I am the most exalted in the world; I am the chief in the world; I am the most excellent in the world”— such were the assertions of the founder or revivifyer of the Buddhistic sect. "There is no God but God, and Mahommed is the prophet of God," was the battle cry which the Arabian pretender taught to his disciples; but in the case of Confucius there was no assumption of sanctity, no arrogation to himself of superiority: his expressions were humble and modest.— "I was not born," was his simple confession, " endowed with all knowledge, I am merely a man who loved the ancients, and who did all I could to arrive at truth;" what a contrast to the bombast, the arrogance, the self-exaltation of Gotamo and Mahommed! We shall not be able duly to appreciate the ingenuousness of the reply we have above quoted unless we reflect on the position which Confucius occupied at the time he gave it. He was looked up to by numerous disciples as something more than a man-kings were eager to obtain his advice and counsel-the multitude were ready to fall down and worship him if he gave them but the signal. Did it require then no self denial on his part, no ingenuousness, no moral courage, no repression of ambition to reply, "I was not born endowed with all knowledge, I am merely a man who loved the ancients and who did all I could to arrive at truth?"

Those only who are unacquainted with the Chinese sacred books will think that we have, in these observations, overdrawn the character of Confucius, or presented it in too favorable a light. Our object has been to pourtray his systems of philosophy in such a manner that none can charge us with undue partiality for them, and in our anxiety so to do, it may be that we have presented their defects in too prominent a light. But with regard to his personal character, reviewing it as developed in his writings and those of his disciples, we have little hesitation in asserting that no unbiassed enquirer can rise from the perusal of these works without the highest admiration of the man, as a natural man, esteem or despise the philosopher as he may.

Since the foregoing remarks were written we had the curiosity to turn to the account of the great Chinese Philosopher which has been furnished by one of the most recent and popu

lar authorities in the literary world-the Encyclopedia Britannica. And seldom have we been more disappointed. The sketch is altogether a most meagre and unsatisfactory oneone, indeed, wholly unworthy of the general high character of the work in which it is contained. Its brevity may be judged of from the fact of its occupying only a single page; its unsatisfactoriness, from the circumstance of its supplying only the names or titles of the Philosopher's works, with no attempt to impart any notion whatever of their contents! Now such an account of such a man—a man, the impress of whose mind and principles has for upwards of two thousand years been enstamped on the institutions of the most populous of Empires-can scarcely be said to be creditable to the conductors of a work of such high pretensions as the Encyclopedia Britannica. That such an article on Confucius should have appeared in that work, in its first edition, nearly eighty years ago, when comparatively little was known of China and its affairs, would be nothing surprising. But that such an article should find a place in the seventh edition of the work, and in a volume bearing the recent date of 1842, when new stores of information on every Chinese subject have been accumulated in no stinted measure, is surely calculated to excite at once regret and surprize. The little which the article does contain, is of a biographical description. And here it is but justice to the author to say, that he appears to have formed a proper estimate of the personal character of the Philosopher. He tells us that nature had bestowed on him "a most amiable temper," and that his own "moral character was altogether unexceptionable"-that he acquired "a distinguished reputation for humility, sincerity, the government of his appetites, a disinterested heart, and a sovereign contempt of wealth." After alluding to his strenuous efforts in attempting to effect the moral, political, and religious reformation of his own native province-his temporary success and subsequent failure-the Encyclopedist thus proceeds: Finding it a hopeless attempt to stem the universal torrent of corruption and depravity, he resolved to exert his talents in some distant kingdom, in the philanthropic cause of moral reformation with better hopes of success. But he had the mortification to discover that vice was everywhere triumphant, while virtue was compelled to hide her head. This induced him to adopt the more humble, although not the less interesting, employment of a teacher of youth, in which he made great and rapid progress. About six hundred of his scholars were sent to different parts of the empire to carry on his favourite work of moral reformation. Indefatigable, however, as his labours were, the task was too mighty to be

66

accomplished by human exertions. During his last illness, he declared to his pupils, that the grief of his mind occasioned by the profligacy of human nature had become insupportable; and with a melancholy voice he exclaimed, Immense mountain, how art thou fallen! the grand machine is demolished, and the wise and the virtuous are no more. The kings will not follow my maxims: I am no longer useful on earth; it is, therefore, time that I should quit it.' On uttering these words he was seized with a lethargy, which brought him to the grave.”

In conclusion, we may once more state what has been repeatedly announced already, that our present design has been neither to vindicate nor to confute the systems of Confucius, but simply to shew what they really are;-though it has been found impossible wholly to abstain from the expression of a passing reflection. From a careful perusal of such of his writings as have been rendered accessible to us, we are inclined to concur in the eulogium which the Encyclopedist has pronounced on his system of morality, when he says, that it is "in many respects superior to that of Greece and Rome, and yields to none upon earth, except to that of Divine Revelation." In other words, as a system of mere natural or human morality-such morality as unregenerate man may conceive and attain to by his own unaided efforts-that of Confucius may be allowed to hold the foremost place. And yet, however excellent as a mere human system, how immeasurably short it comes of that which is Divine! To it we may well apply the pointed remarks of an American journalist, when descanting on the subject of "comparative morality" generally; that is, a comparison of the moral systems which obtained among the most enlightened nations of antiquity, with the perfect law of God, in two points of view, as systems of rules, and as systems of motives. "The classical reader," says he, " cannot but he struck with particular sentiments in the moral writers of Greece and Rome. But compare the most perfect body of moral rules with which they were acquainted, with the law of God, and how great the difference; how many virtues are omitted. But even supposing it to be complete as a code of moral laws, how destitute of power to enforce them. On the other hand, how grand, how mighty the motives which the Christian moralist can employ. We need not point them out; we shall only observe that while the study of comparative morality would bring the Collegian's classic stores into requisition, it would afford his teacher an admirable opportunity of inculcating some of the most destinctive and important truths of the Gospel."

ART. IV.-1. An Act for establishing a Court of Subordinate Jurisdiction in the City of Calcutta. (Read in Council for the first time on the 13th March, 1847.) Calcutta Gazette,

March 27.

2. An Act for the Improvement of the Administration of Justice in the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal. Read first time 13th March, 1847.-Ibid.

3. An Act for facilitating the execution of the Process of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal and the taking of affidavits out of the limits of the Jurisdiction of the said Court. Read first time 13th March, 1847.—Ibid.

THE reading in Council on one day of three draft Acts for the improvement of the administration of justice in one presidency, is, for India, a great fact, and equally gratifying and remarkable, when we recollect that the object of one of the three has apparently been dropped, after having been for several years from time to time in different shapes before the Legislative Council and in the Gazette; and that the other two acts are for the Reform of a Court which presumed in its early days to defy and overawe the Government,* and in which proved abuses of various kinds have been preserved almost like sacred things. The first mentioned draft act, for the establishment of a Subordinate Court in and for Calcutta, affords extrinsically as respects its origin and history, and intrinsically as regards its present provisions, curious matter for reflection. Its origin was as follows: for many years there had been a small Cause Court or Court of Requests, with a jurisdiction to the amount of Rupees 350 (£35), legally extending only to debts, but which had been exercised generally as to all kinds of causes of action. An attorney of the Supreme Court having discovered the excess of jurisdiction in a case against one of his clients, brought an action against a native judge of the court, who was defended at the expense of the Government, but the decision on the question of jurisdiction was against him, and the Government compromised for the damages at rupees 200(£20 twenty) and paid the costs altogether amounting to upwards of £220. The case made a strong impression on the intelligent part of the native, as well as on the small European, community. The result was that the Court took care afterwards to keep within its strictly legal jurisdiction:

Mill's British India.