eral good of society. The third were calumnious falsehoods, clothed in the garb of truth, in concerns of importance affecting the mass of mankind. The fourth unpardonable offence was vengeance cruelly inflicted, the result of hatred long cloaked under the semblance of friendship. The last was the uttering contradictory statements, in the same matter, according to the dictates of self-interest. "Each of these crimes," said he, "merits exemplary punishment, and Shaou has been guilty of them all."

ancient law to save the dignity even of the criminal; hence it does not speak in distinct terms of crimes committed by a tae foo, but employs a sort of allegory. Thus, flagrant debauchery, on the part of such a minister, or any act unworthy of his station, is veiled under this decent figure: the vases and utensils used in sacrifices are in a filthy and improper condition; or, the cloths in the place of sacrifice are torn and stained. Even where the faults are more directly adverted to, the terms are moderated. Thus, insubordination and cabals against Confucius carried the punishment of this the government, in a minister, are mi dly great criminal into effect with all its ter- characterized as not fulfilling with exactirors; he was present at the execution, and tude the duties of a public functionary; the directed that the corpse should be publicly infringement of any known law or custom, exposed for three days. This wholesome is said to be conducting himself in an exexample was attended with salutary results, traordinary manner. Great officers were

and it proves that the habitual tenderness nevertheless punished according to the of the philosopher was not the fruit of magnitude of their offences; they proweakness or timidity. The right-minded nounced their own sentence, when their part of the court applauded his firmness crimes were established, and became their and justice, and the people saw that they could confidently look to him as their fearless protector against oppression. A harmless satire, ridiculing the dress of Confucius, was all the opposition he experienced from the minister's partisans; and even the writer of the satire, in the end, became one of the warmest encomiasts of his measures.

own executioners. A tae-fao, convinced of his culpability, cited himself before judges named by the sovereign, was his own accuser, sentenced himself, and applied for permission to die. The judges, after exhorting him to humility and repentance, proceeded to take the commands of the king. On their return, the culprit, dressed in mourning, his head covered with a white His disciples, however, thought they cap, appeared at the door of the tribunal, saw, in the act and in the mode of execut- bearing the sword of execution in his hands. ing it, a formal violation of ancient rules. Falling on his knees, with his face turned The early monarchs, they argued, enacted towards the north, he awaited the result that those who held the rank of tae-foo of his application. "Our master," one of were not subject to the same penal law as the judges would say, "has graciously other criminals. The ancient regulations consented to your request: do what you purported that these high function ries think proper!" The criminal then slew should not undergo capital punishment at himself with the sword. In time, howthe hand of the public executioner; that ever, these ministers committed offences "it is sufficient that their crimes be made too openly to admit of these discreet disapparent to them, that they be made sensi- guises being observed. The people were ble of their degradation, and their punish not only the victims but the witnesses of ment may be left to themselves." In re- their guilt. The simplicity of ancient reply, Confucius gave the following expo- gulations gave way to the demands of pubsition of the ancient law, so characteristic lic justice and the very spirit of the ancient of a simple and virtuous age, which de- law, which would be violated by a slavish advelopes some singular traits of the criminal herence to its letter. Shaou-chang-maou code of early China. "This law," he ob- was guilty, in the face of the world, of the served, "does not exempt from punish-five unpardonable crimes; and by subjectment those tae-foo who commit offences ing him to this public and ignominious punishable in other men; it presumes, indeed, that individuals, who are intrusted with the correction of others, will not merit the penalty they inflict upon male. factors; but, should they have the misfortune to do so, it provides that their mode of punishment shall not degrade their rank and office. It was the aim and spirit of the

fate, I have repaired, in some sort, the mischievous effects of his evil example, by showing that no rank or station, however high, affords impunity to crime. In making Shaou's life the sole expiation of his deep guilt, I have been, perhaps, too lenient. The law has prescribed for rebellion against heaven and earth, extermination to the

fifth generation; to the fourth, for resistance his heart, they would discern a to superiors and magistrates; to the third, struggle between his own inclination for for frequent crimes against the natural law; privacy and a sense of duty to his country. to the second, for abolition of the worship "I have formed the design," he added, "of of the shin and kwei (spirits); and for mur. der, or the procuring the death of another unjustly, death without mercy."

amity. You are both Chinese; why do you | citizen had contrived to secure to himself not have national dances and music? Com- the exclusive sale of meat. His vast capital mand these indecent and barbarous mum- enabled him to pay ready money, and even mers to retire; their tumultuous conduct is to make advances, to the needy owners of catsuspicious." This requisition could not be tle; he became by degrees the proprietor resisted, and the scheme consequently fail- of all the pasturages in the vicinity of the ed. The treacherous minister then brought city; he bought cheaply but he sold dear. forward a company of Chinese comedians, The ordinary food of the people of Loo, whom he had tutored for his purpose, who and of China in general, consisted of boiled played a piece representing the debauche- rice, seasoned with salt herbs; yet someries of a certain queen of Loo. His aim times even the inferior classes gave feasts was to fascinate the king of Loo by their and entertainments, at which animal food voluptuous language and gestures. Confu- was indispensable. The monopolist thus cius, interrupting the play, sternly address- exacted a tax from every individual in the ed the king of Tse thus: "You have de- city, and his revenue was consequently clared you regard the king my master as a enormous. Confucius sent for this indivi brother; whoever, therefore, insults one dual, and gave him to understand that he insults both. Our troops are, for the same knew the source of his unjust gains, for reason, at your service, and I will give which he richly merited public punishment; them orders to avenge the affront just of- but he made this equitable proposal to him: fered to you." Then, with a loud voice," Restore," said he, "to the public what be called the party he had placed near, to whom he said, pointing to the actors, "These wretches have dared to offer an outrageous insult to their majesties; put them to death." The order was instantly obeyed. The king of Tse and his ministers were in the utmost perturbation, and, before they recovered from it, Confucius had prevailed upon the king of Loo to retire to the army. The king of Tse thought it ne cessary to make a public apology to his royal brother, and the towns were restored. The authority and influence, which Confucins had now established, enabled him to reduce the power of the three ta-foo, or great officers of state, who had become formidable to the prince, and could therefore tyrannize over the people. Like the vassals of the empire, they had rendered themselves almost independent in their estates, a few having actually built fortresses, a stretch of presumption which, Confucius remarked, was little short of open rebellion. The king readily gave his consent to a measure which tended to restore the legitimate rights of the crown, and Confucius, availing himself of a law which prescribed the height of city-walls and the nature of defences, despatched his military disciple, Tze-loo, whom he had introduced into public employment, with directions to cut down the walls to the legal height, and to destroy the towers of these ta-foo. He, moreover, restrained the powers of the other ministers within the exact bounds assigned by law.

Amongst the many anecdotes related of the manner in which Confucius dealt with abuses and malpractices, his treatment of monopolist deserves mention. A wealthy

a

you have stolen from the public. I will put you in a way to do this without incurring disgrace. Reserve so much only of your property as will suffice to support you in ease and respectability, and place the residue at my disposal for the purposes of the state. Make no attempt to justify yourself, or to change my purpose: it will be vain. I give you a few days to think of the matter." The monopolist, who believed he had secured impunity by the bribes he had distributed amongst the magistrates, found he had to deal with a man who was neither to be corrupted, duped, nor intimidated; he accordingly closed with the proposal.

In the course of his judicial duties, he held public audiences of the supreme court, at which causes were summarily adjudged in the presence of the people. Upon one of these occasions, a father accused his son of a flagrant breach of filial duty, and invoked the full penalty of the law upon him. Confucius, to the surprise of the court and audience, instead of condemning the son, committed both father and son to prison for three months. At the end of this space, he summoned them before him, and asked the father of what he accused his son. The parent quickly exclaimed, "He is innocent; if either of us be guilty, it is I, who accused my son in anger!" "I thought so," observed Confucius calmly; "go, and train your son in his duty; and, young man, remember, that filial piety is the basis of all moral obligations." This decision provoked much discussion: Ke-sun, a minister, and one of the philosopher's disciples, asked why he, who held that the whole fabric of government rested upon

the doctrine of filial piety, and who upheld source, are themselves the source of sucthe ancient maxim, that a disobedient son ceeding generations. The first duty of deserved death, should capriciously over- mankind is, gratitude to heaven; the look such an offence? His answer was ir second, gratitude to those from whom we refragable. "My intention was," said sprung. It was to inculcate, at the same Confucius, "that three classes of persons time, this double obligation, that Füh-he might deduce practical lessons from that established the rites in honor of heaven case; namely, children who failed in re- and of ancestors, requiring that, immespect towards their parents,-parents who diately after sacrificing to the Shang-te, neglected the education of those to whom homage should be rendered to our prothey had given birth,—and, lastly, persons genitors. But as neither the one nor the filling judicial posts, who might perceive other was visible by the bodily organs, he the danger of precipitate judgments on ac- sought emblems of them in the material cusations dictated by passion. Had I acted heavens.* The Shang-te is represented upon the hasty charge of an irritated parent, under the general emblem of the visible I should have punished the son wrongfully, firmament, as well as under the particular and plunged father and family in misery. symbols of the sun, the moon, and the A judge, who chastises indiscriminately all earth, because by their means we enjoy who appear to have violated the law, is not the gifts of the Shang-te. The sun is the less cruel than a general who should put source of life and light; the moon illumito the sword all the inhabitants of a town nates the world by night. By observing he has taken by assault. The offences of the course of these luminaries, mankind the inferior classes are often the result of are enabled to distinguish times and seaignorance, and lack, therefore, the main sons. The ancients, with the view of coningredient of guilt. To punish such of necting the act with its object, when they fenders rigorously is equivalent to con- established the practice of sacrificing to the demning the innocent. A strict execution Shang-te, fixed the day of the winter solof the laws should fall upon the great and stice, because the sun, after having passed those in authority, whose guilty example through the twelve palaces assigned appais pernicious, and who fail to instruct their rently by the Shang-te as its annual resi inferiors. To be indulgent towards the dence, began its career anew, to distribute former, and severe towards the latter, is blessings throughout the earth. After repugnant to justice and right reason. evincing, in some measure, their obliga 'Punish even with death those who de- tions to the Shang-te, to whom, as the serve chastisement,' says the ancient book; universal principle of existence, they owed 'but do not forget that he is no criminal life and all that sustains it, the hearts of who has committed an offence without the sacrificers turned, with a natural imknowing it to be such.' Let us begin, pulse, towards those by whom the life they therefore, by instructing the people, and enjoyed had been successively transmitted we may then let loose the rigor of the to them; and they founded a ceremonial law against those who, in spite of know- of respect to their honor, as the comple ledge, fail in their social duties." ment of the solemn worship due to the Shang-te. The Chow princes have added another rite, a sacrifice to the Shang-te in the spring season, to render thanks to him for the fruits of the earth, and to implore him to preserve them." After describing various existing forms of sacrifice, he conIn one of the discourses which the king, tinued: "Thus, under whatever denomi Ting-kung, had with Confucius, happening nation our worship is paid, whatever be the to touch upon the customs of high anti-apparent object, and of what kind soever quity, he inquired why the ancient empe- be its external forms, it is invariably the rors, in their sacrifices, had connected an- Shang-te to whom it is addressed; the cestors with the Teen. The answer of the philosopher (presuming that M. Amiot's translation from the Kea-yu, or familiar sayings of Confucius, be, as we believe it, faithful) is extremely curious.

Ke-sun was so impressed with the justice of these remarks, that he resolved to appoint no magistrate who was not capable of instructing the people; and he filled up the first vacancy with the philosopher's celebrated disciple, Tsze-loo.

"The Teen," said he, "is the universal principle and prolific source of all things. Our ancestors, who sprung from this

There is a difference in the mode of worship

ping the Shang-te," observes Confucius, "by the emperor and by other sovereigns, for this reason. The son of heaven,' or supreme ruler on earth, when he sacrifices to the Shang-te, represents the whole body of the people; his prayers are ad dressed in the name and on the behalf of the

nation. The other sovereigns represent only that portion of the nation confided to their rule."

Shang-te is the direct and chief object of | parison be allowed, I might apply it to illustrate our veneration."

A more rational exposition of natural theology, and one more repugnant to the notion of atheism, which is vulgarly imputed to the Confucian school, it is hardly possible to expect from an individual who lived two thousand three hundred years ago, and who had had no intercourse with other civilized nations.

UPON THE USE OF ORIENTAL IMAGES IN

POETRY.

From the Asiatic Journal.

If there is a famine of invention in the land, is the eloquent remark of the poet Young, in one of his neglected prose-treatises, we must, like the brethren of Joseph, travel into a distant country for food; we must visit the rich and remote ancients. A great genius, however, he thinks, may live at home. But with the exception of Shakspeare-and he travelled for his plots,—we do not find that genius has ever lived at home with any advantage. It has wandered along the shore of Time, and diligently collected the costly fragments which the tide of years rolls in. Homer's is the only lamp whose mys terious lustre we are incompetent to explain; and Criticism, which was first conducted over

the wave

By the clear light of the Mæonian star,

is unable to ascertain even the age in which it

rose.

the imagery of a poem. The flowers of fancy
may be brought from foreign lands-from Ita-
lian gardens, or Eastern valleys-but we must
find them in connection with the flowers of our
own fields, and the trees of our own woods.
There should be a home-feeling in the picture.
An English cottage ought to glimmer through
an Eastern grove; and a green churchyard,
with its hillocks and monitory rhymes, may
touch the heart through the myrtles of Attica,
or the walks of Vallembrosa. Milton, with con-
summate skill, has shed a domestic interest over
his happy Garden. And so it should always be;
even in the Elysium of poetical fancy, we must
recognise our own sun, and our own stars:

Largior hic campos æther et lumine vestit
Purpureo.

This is the secret of the popularity of Gray, who, with less fancy and less splendor than Collins, has won for himself a more abiding home in the hearts of the many, though he may not in so high a degree awaken the wonder and admiration of the few.

Pliny mentions a Latin tragic writer, who always terminated any friendly dispute upon a passage in his plays, by exclaiming, "I appeal to the people." The Greek sculptors and painters, not only exhibited their productions, but altered them in accordance with the public criticism. It may not be uninteresting to give a few examples of this feeling in later times. Michael Angelo said to a sculptor, who was anxious to let in a favorable light upon his performance, "Do not trouble yourself unnecessarily; the light of the public square will best put its merits to the test." There is an anecdote, not dissimilar, told of Annibal Caracci. Having observed that a picture by Domenichino-the flagellation of St. Andrew-powerfully affected If genius travels, however, it always returns an old woman, who gazed with apparent indifto its birth-place; if it is led onward by Hope, ference upon a martyrdom by Guido-Caracci it is brought back by Memory. The Iliad was immediately awarded the palm to the former. a national story; so was the Eneid; so was The great composer Handel informed Lady the Lusiad; so, in a certain sense, were the Luxborough,-Shenstone's pleasant correspondromance of Ariosto and the solemn visions of ent-that the hints of his very best songs had Dante. The poem of Milton was not so much been suggested by the sounds of London cries national, as universal; not so much addressed in the street. Undoubtedly, there is in every to one people, as to the world. But it is occa-hosom a lively sympathy with familiar objects. sionally felt, in reading his wonderful works, Pricet mentions a picture by Nicholas Poussin, that he travelled too far; that he lived too long in the Orleans collection-the infant Moses examong those "remote and rich ancients ;" and posed on the Nile. The figures are painted with that, in listening to extraordinary beauty and force; the face of the mother, averted in agony; the departing father clasping his drapery; the elder boy clinging to na-him, with terror marked in each feature-all strike the beholder with horror and sadness. In this absorption of human interest, the exquisite back-ground of the picture is forgotten-with its wood scenery and architectural magnificence.

Their golden trumpet of eternal praise, he forgot sometimes the simple music of his tive land.

Humboldt observed, near Atures, some old trees, decorated with every color and blossom; the yellow canisteria; the blue-flowered bignonia; but close by their side grew mosses precisely resembling those of Europe. If the com

Father Amiot remarks upon the terms in this passage, that the expressions Teen and Shang-te are often synonymous, and denote the Being who is above all; and that the word Teen is also used in a sense purely material, signifying only the sky.'"

But the object of these remarks was to direct the attention of poetical minds to a source of illustrations, from which few writers have drawn the assistance which it is capable of supplying. If we glance at the great productions of modern

*To Celer. B. vii., Lett. xvii.
† Oct. 16, 1748.

Essays on the Picturesque, T. ii., P. 360.