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reform with the progress of time, must be admitted by all who have candidly traced the course of European History, even amidst the conflicts of party and selfishness, to have kept alive a sense of human rights, and nursed a spirit of energetic and manly freedom. From causes which it is now perhaps impossible to detect, such a development of independent interests never took place in China. The principle of paternal authority triumphed over every other influence. The institutions of Confucius, universally established, and carried systematically into practice, reduced the whole mass of citizens to one uniform level, and admitted no moving force into any part of the social system, but that which emanated from its recognised head. The Emperor of China, who is worshipped with religious honours, and considered as the supreme proprietor of all the lands in his dominions, may strictly apply to himself the words which Louis the Fourteenth, even in Old France, could not with perfect truth appropriate,-L'Etat c'est moi. It should make no material difference in our estimate of the ultimately debasing influences of this form of society, that the people themselves furnish the aristocracy by whose instrumentality it is maintained, and cheerfully bind on themselves the trammels in which they live. China is in fact a great workshop of material industry, in which the Emperor represents the master, and all the subordinate functionaries of the state are the salaried overlookers and superintendents.

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There can be little doubt, that the peculiar character of the Chinese written language has hindered the free development of the national mind. It is hardly necessary to remark, that the written character of the Chinese does not, like the alphabetical represent the sounds of the human voice, but the immediate expression of ideas by correspondent symbols. Some fatality, like that which has attended all the institutions of the Chinese, seems to have arrested their system of visible signs at this particular stage. When the old knotted cords which are alluded to in their ancient chronicles, were abandoned, the Chinese proceeded, in the first instance, like all other nations, to draw the image of the idea they wished to convey. These pictures were gradually altered and abbreviated, and at last became merely arbitrary symbols. The numbers of these had increased to such an extent, and created so much confusion, that in the reign of Tsin-chi-hoang, his minister Lisse reduced them all to one form, which was universally established by royal authority. The Chinese system of written signs is admitted by all who have studied it, to be the product of reflection

and metaphysical analysis.* The radical signs represent generic ideas, of which the particular modifications are expressed by additions to the sign. For instance, the root of a character would express metal in general, while an appended sign would indicate that the particular metal intended was copper. The peculiar structure of the written character of the Chinese is favourable to scientific classification; so that of the 214 radical characters of the Chinese, it is observed by Mr. Davis,† that 160 serve at once as component parts in the written designations of all known objects in the animal, mineral, and vegetable, kingdom hence a large portion of their literature consists in dictionaries and encyclopædias, mere nomenclatures of classification. The adoption of one written character, as the vehicle of popular instruction, amidst all the varieties of local dialects, has given to the Chinese civilization that unity of tone, by which it is so remarkably distinguished. On the other hand, the total separation of the written and spoken languages of China, has prevented both from attaining the natural perfection of speech. The spoken language has been left in a rude and barbarous state; while the written, cultivated as a science of symbols, exercising the pedantic industry of the learned, and shut out by its very nature from all immediate sympathy, with the free movements of the heart and imagination, exhibits in its most perfect state, a mere juxtaposition of general ideas, incapable of conveying those nice distinctions of thought and shades of sentiment, of which the human voice, and the alphabet which paints it to the eye, are the only adequate expression. Mr. Davist speaks favourably of the Chinese poetry, which he distributes under three heads,-1. Songs and odes; 2. Moral and didactic pieces; 3. Descriptive and sentimental. It is obviously, therefore, confined to the lower departments of the art and in the specimens which have found their way into the languages of Europe, we meet chiefly with a description of outward objects and events, and of the simple emotions which they immediately excite in the mind.

* Freret, sur la langue Chinoise; also Morrison's Dictionary and Grammar of the Chinese Language.

Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. ii. p. 326.

↑ Ibid. p. 393.

ART. VI.-TRACTS FOR THE PEOPLE, DESIGNED TO VINDICATE RELIGIOUS AND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. Vol. I. London: Effingham Wilson.

FOR a considerable time past Tracts have been issued at short intervals, by an Association in Oxford, best known as the PUSEYITES, of which an account was given in a former Number of the TEACHER, (Vol. II. p. 1.); and also by a Roman Catholic Association in London, which, employing some of the ablest writers of that body, as well as selecting their most popular treatises, publishes at the low price of a penny or three-halfpence each, (with a reduction on a quantity taken for distribution,) a tract of a size usually sold for sixpence or more. These two sets of Tracts have one object in common, though they are not by any means friendly to each other, namely, the restoration of the Empire of authority in matters of Religion. They both, no doubt with an equal desire of promoting the welfare of souls, by inculcating upon them the danger of falling into damnable errors, urge the readers to place themselves under the direction of the Church,-the infallible Church of the respective parties-and to place their hopes of salvation in the due observance of the ordinances of religion, as prescribed by these churches. Both of these Societies evidently consider themselves as acting members of an infallible Church, though one of them must be, and both may be, involved in gross error. Besides these two series of publications, there are many others in extensive circulation, in a tolerably cheap form for distribution, which, without directly recommending authority in matters of faith, support the doctrines usually termed orthodox, as if thoroughly established, and make no scruple of thundering their anathemas against all who differ from them. These hold out the Scriptures as their rule of faith, denying the authority claimed by the Editors of the two sets of Tracts above referred to, but as they proceed on the supposition of their own interpretation of them being infallibly right, and that all who differ from them of course hold erroneous opinions, opinions injurious to their present welfare as well as contributing to their eternal damnation, they have an equal tendency to prevent freedom of inquiry. The one party refer to a traditionary authority of the Church, and would have its dictates enforced by the civil power; the other relies on its interpretation of Scripture, and would enforce its dictates by synods, presbyteries, church sessions and the like, punishing by exclusion from ordinances, those who

even venture to listen to heretics, unless they make humble submission. It is true that all these bodies have a few points in common, particularly the doctrine of the Trinity, but then the points of difference are also very numerous, so that amongst the number of infallible churches, differing from each other, as to what is requisite for salvation, they must of necessity inquire what claims these several bodies have, that they may select, or rather whether any body of men can have any claim whatsoever to consider themselves as the infallible directors of others. To assist in such inquiry, another series of cheap Tracts (though from the want of sufficient sale, or sufficient contributors to bear the loss, less cheap,) was commenced in October 1839, and continued monthly till the present volume was completed. The suspension of the publication for a time, (for we hope it will be only a suspension,) was evidently occasioned by want of encouragement, and the twelve published, though they may still be had separately, are now collected in the volume before us. The object of publishing them is to counteract the other Tracts, by asserting and defending religious and Christian liberty. The editors, whosoever they be, have had recourse to some of the best Tracts of a former period, in doing which they follow the example of the other Editors, and like them they do not exclude themselves from the use of new matter when supplied with it. The volume published, however, only contains one original Tract, the eleventh of the series. Two of the Tracts are from the pen of JOHN MILTON, the first and the tenth, and certainly they are productions which cannot be too extensively circulated, going, as they do, to the foundation of religious liberty, and establishing that foundation upon a solid rock. But it may be objected,-Is not this claiming infallibility for Milton or for ourselves? No-for it is not any doctrine, or set of doctrines, which is thus said to be established, but the fact, that there is no infallible church in existence, that nothing is infallible but what God has expressly revealed, and that no man or body of men, no pope, council, or assembly, has any right to judge or condemn the opinions of others, in understanding that revelation.

Who with another's eye can read?
Or worship by another's creed ?
Trusting thy grace, we form our own,
And bow to thy commands alone.

:

SCOTT.

The volume, and each of the Tracts separately, has this sentence of Milton, as a motto on the title-page "Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potencie of life in

them, to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are: nay, they do preserve as in a viol the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master-spirit imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." Such precious life-blood is "The Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, showing that it is not lawful for any power on earth to compel in matters of religion." Those who are themselves the slaves of the authority of councils, assemblies, synods, all composed of fallible men, bring it as a charge against Unitarians, that they are fond of quoting and resting on the opinions of distinguished men, claiming Milton and Locke and Newton in favour of their opinions; but when it can be fairly done, are not the opinions of each of these master-spirits, whose greatness even those most adverse to them, cannot deny are not, we say, the opinions of Milton or Locke or Newton, if we must have recourse to authority, deserving of more attention than those of any assembly of divines that ever met since the time of the Apostles, howsoever they may deceive themselves or others with notions of their infallibility? We would not take even Milton as our guide and director, but we would much rather take him than the Council of Nice or Trent, or than the Convocation of the Church of England, if we must renounce the Scriptures as our authority, and the Lord Jesus as the only head of his church. And it is only in this way that great names are produced as authority by Unitarians.

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This first tract was addressed by Milton to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, and is printed from the edition of 1659. It commences with asserting that there have been two things ever found working much mischief to the church of God, and the advancement of truth, force on the one side restraining, and hire on the other side corrupting the teachers thereof." To the former of these he confines himself in the present tract, and promises that his argument "shall be drawn from the Scripture only, and therein from true fundamental principles of the Gospel to all knowing Christians undeniable." The matters of religion, with which he argues that no civil power should interfere, are explained to be "such things as belong chiefly to the knowledge and service of God, and are either above the reach and light of nature without revelation from above, and therefore liable to be variously understood by human reason; or such things as are enjoined or forbidden by divine precept, which else by the light of reason would seem indifferent to be done or not done; and so likewise must needs appear to every man as the precept is understood. Whence,"

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