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Untitled Article
religion of seniority , eldership , or , as they consider it , natural gradations of jwwer and ' obedience , evidentl y had ks » 0 tighr ; fes shown by Dr . Morrison , and by these works , in the prefcfcpfs and practice of Confucius , wfyose injunctions on this head Are certainly very different from those of our own great Lawgiver and Moralist , who says , * Call no man your father upon earth , for one is your father , and all ye are brethren / But in China the principle of filial subserviency has all the force of
education from the dawn of consciousness , combined with those general feelings which are instinctive and immutable . That Spirit is therefore the secret cause of the utterly uriprogresfcive character of this vast nation : it instantly puts down , as with a sacred Hand , every possible effort at improvement in government , philosophy , morality , and customs ; and crushes and absorbs the very elements of hope and patriotic thought and feeling , in the bosoms of its countless inhabitants .
In the present period of momentous political straggles in our own country , it would be worse than waste of time to make any efforts to draw attention to the state of Chltra , except as matter of general information , offering -fixed data for new arguments and interesting speculations . r fo congratulate thefee people on the manifestation of some sigtisof progress , ' because we fiud h few of the native portrait paitfters of Canton and Macao , adopting a little shadow and perspective , instead of their accustomed flat absurdities , would bear
rather a satvrical than complimentary construction ; but we must . say , that we discover occasional signs of a latent spirit of resistance to oppression ; though no doubt arising at times from envy at the promotion and rank of meritorious rivals ; in the concoction of sundry anonymous lampoons , which are sometimes aimed directly at the highest authorities . That the powerful impetus certain to follow those immense changes which are certain to occur throughout Kurope ; shaking the
very bavse of the whole social fabric , and bringing down much of its vast frame-work' and still more of its superstructure , in ruins before the feet of emancipated Knowledge , will eventually carry its influence to every part of the habitable world , we are calmly and happily convinced . Hitherto , the grand requisitions for all extensive effects have been—means for overcoming
distance and physical resistance ^ no matter of what kind , dead earth or human bodies . The perfection of steam will be ( sufficiently fur all practical purposes ) the ; coin promise of time , and space , and material substance . Add to this , the profound knowledge of what human nature really is ; and the power then posses&M , is at once awful from its magnitude , and deeply cheering to those of this brief generation , who , standing on the crumbling brink of the grav « , can yet feel secure that happfar fbel tout walk over tiiem . R . H ^ H ,
Untitled Article
HisLari ** of China . 417 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 417, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/25/
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