"as a father." P. 4. l. ii. Czu Cum, a difciple of Confucius, confults him, whether the piety or virtue of a rich man is to be estimated according to his alms. "It is not virtue," fays Confucius, "unless "the principle or motive of action be holiness." "That fanctity, charity, or piety, which I require, "O my difciple, is a fixed habit or affection of the mind, confonant with reafon, whereby a man "wholly fubjugates all selfish feelings, and becomes "ever anxious for the good of others; identifying "the good of his neighbour with his own, rejoicing "in his profperity, and grieving for his adverfity, as "if it happened to himfelf. This was the aim of "Yao and Xun ; yet they owned that their efforts "were unequal to the accomplishment of this great purification."

From thefe remarkable fentences it fufficiently appears, that a confiderable revenue was applied to the relief of the infirm and needy in China in the earliest times; and the principles of charity were well understood.

Barrow eftimates the population of modern China at three hundred millions, allowing two hundred and fifty-fix perfons to a fquare mile. They are fubject to dreadful famines, by which " a whole province is "fometimes half depopulated; wretched parents are "reduced, by imperious want, to fell or deftroy their "offspring, and children to put an end, by violence, "to the fufferings of their aged and infirm parents." These calamities he attributes, among other caufes, to the divifion of land to all, that all may barely provide for themselves the articles of first neceffity for fubfift"There are no great farmers who store their grain, to throw into the market in feafons of scarcity. "In fuch feasons the only refource is that of the government opening its magazines: this is feldom

ence.

"

adequate to the wants of the people." " Although "in China the public law be not established, of the jus trium liberorum, by which every Roman ci"tizen, having three children, was entitled to certain "privileges and immunities; yet every male child may be provided for, and receive a stipend, from "the moment of his birth, by his name being en"rolled on the military lift." This may, perhaps, be not only a convenient mode of eafing the burthen of large families to the poor, but may likewise prove to be the most effectual and least oppreffive method of raising recruits for fleets and armies.

M. De Paw, fpeaking of the Jefuits' account of the Chinese population, obferves, "Il faut que le "P. Parenin fe foit convaincu, pendant le fejour "qu'il a fait à la Chine, que la fureur.de mutiler "les enfants eft encore plus commune qu'on ne pourroit le croire; puifqu' il tache d'expliquer par la comment Polygamie peutetre si fort en vogue dans un pays où il ne nait certainement pas plus de filles que de garçons. (Lettres Edi"fiantes, 26 Receuil.) Mais comme prefque tous "les enfants qu'on y etouffe, qu'on y jette dans les "rivieres, où qu'on porte à la voirie, font des filles, "cela laiffe fubfifter la difficulté dans fa force; car "enfin on y maffacre plus d'individus du fexe "feminin qu'on n'y chatre de males.-Il y a à la "Chine une multitude d'hommes qui vivent dans le "celibat; on y compte plus d'un million de moines "dont la plupart sont Mendians, & dont il n'y a "aucun qui foit marié : les voleurs qui inondent les provinces n'ont pas de famille: enfin les maitres ne "permettent pas le mariage aux efclaves, et le nombre "des efclaves eft tres grand."

Barrow calculates that near nine thousand infants are annually deftroyed in Pekin alone.

"It is

probable that extreme poverty and hopeless in"digence, the frequent experience of direful famines, "and the scenes of mifery and calamity occafioned by them, acting on minds whofe affections are not very powerful, induce this unnatural crime, which "common cuftom has encouraged, and which is not 66 prohibited by pofitive law. Almost all the in"fants that are exposed are females, who are the "least able to provide for themselves, and the least "profitable to their parents; and the practice is "moft frequent in crowded cities, where not only

66

poverty more commonly prevails, but fo many "examples daily occur of inhumanity, of fummary punishments, acts of violence and cruelty, that the "mind becomes callous, and habituated to fcenes "that once would have fhocked, &c."

"How weak in reality must be the boasted filial "affection of the Chinese for their parents, who fcruple not to be the murderers of their own "children. Filial piety among them may be rather "confidered in the light of an ancient precept, carrying with it the weight of pofitive law, than the "effect of fentiment."

“I am informed, that foundling hospitals do exist "in China, but that they are on a finall fcale, being "raised and supported by donations of individuals; "and their continuance is, therefore, as precarious as "the wealth of their charitable founders."-Travels in China, c. iv.

The allotment of fmall portions of land, by way of or in lieu of poor-rates, appears to promote a kind of starving industry, which co operates, with the custom of infanticide, to force the growth of a most wretched population. Charity can never thrive amidst customs, against which reafon, not lefs than humanity, revolts.

Charity amongst other ancient and modern
Asiatics.

The best maxims and regulations of civil polity of the ancient Egyptians may, probably, be incorporated with the laws of Mofes. "Their laws are "highly commended by Strabo and Diodorus; and "it is none of the least commendations of them, that "Solon and Lycurgus borrowed fo many of their "conftitutions from them, and for the prudent ma

nagement of their government; as the continuance "of their state so long in peace and quietnefs is an "invincible demonftration of it; fo the report given "of them in fcripture adds a further teftimony to it, "for therein the King of Egypt is called the fon "of the Wise.' Isaiah xix. 11. Moses, probably, "excelled the most renowned of the Grecian phi ❝lofophers in that very learning wherewith they "made fo great a noise in the world, which was "originally Egyptian; as is evident in the whole "feries of the Grecian philofophers, who went, age "after age, to Egypt to get fome scraps of that "learning there, which Mofes could not but have "full meals of, because of his high place, great "intereft, and power in Egypt." Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacræ, b. ii. s. 7.

The laws and maxims of religion delivered to the Perfians by Zerdufht or Zoroafter, in the days of Gushtafp or Hyftafpes, or of Darius his fon, about five hundred years before CHRIST, were clearly borrowed from the Jewish code. Zerdufht appears to have been a pupil, affociate, or servant, of fome Jewish prophet or prieft, probably of Ezra. The mafs of fingular extravagance, entitled Zendavefta, tranflated into French from the ancient language by

Monfieur Anquetil du Perron, although very curious, feems less calculated to procure refpect for the name of Zoroafter, than the abridgement of his doctrines in modern Perfian, called the Sad-der, translated into Latin by Mr. T. Hyde.* The exhortations to charity are frequent, but often accompanied with fantastic qualifications. The work is divided into one hundred chapters or gates, as the name Sad-der imports. Gate 21. "It is the duty "of the religious at all meal times to feed the faith"ful, that is to say, the virtuous and pious, but not the vicious; for it is a principle of the true religion, "that to feed the hungry, with a pious motive, is an "act of high merit, if goodnefs in others, and not "fin, be thereby promoted."

Gate 35. "When you eat bread, fet apart three "mouthfuls for the dogs; and when your bread is "eaten, give these morfels to a dog, and beat him. "not; for of all the poor creatures through land "or fea, none is poorer than a dog."

Gate 25. "Abftain from immoderate fafting; "for to be without food from morning to night is "not good, nor prescribed by religion! Our fafting "confifts in this, to abftain from fin."

The latter has a plainnefs of good fenfe, which feems to belong to a structure of different character from that of the former gate.

Among the precepts of Zerdufht, relative to the duties of priests, enumerated in the Ancient Universal History, vol. ii. b. 1, p. 79, is the following: "He (the priest) is to take the layman's tithe, i. e. "the tenth of all that he has, but not to his own

Veterum Perfarum eorumque Magorum liber Sad-der, I, terprete Thomâ Hyde, S. T. D. Ling. Hebr. in Univ. Oxon. Prof. Reg. &c. A collection of Canons and Precepts of Zerdusht, made by a Deftur, or High Prieft, in verfe.