Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/148

124 divine right is superadded to that of earthly supremacy. Heaven and earth are considered the parents of all mankind, and the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, is of course next in authority, and reverenced accordingly. Whosoever, therefore, obtains the decree of Heaven, to ascend "the dragon throne," has a sort of mysterious dignity thrown around him; and it is in their opinion as wicked to dispute the authority of the supreme on earth as the supreme in Heaven. Both parents and rulers are by the Chinese infinitely exalted above children and subjects, and receive not only homage but adoration. Moral feeling, therefore, carried to an excess, and strengthened by superstitious awe, lead the Chinese without questioning to yield to authority; and this submissive, unresisting spirit is the source of that peace and good order which prevail throughout the empire. Thus to establish, and thus to sanction the most absolute despotism, and to render it subservient to the pacification of a great country, certainly argues a degree of penetration and discernment which does not comport with a barbarous state of society.

We are not here defending the justness of the principle, or maintaining the doctrine, that, because a ruler chooses to call himself the parent of a nation, therefore all his subjects arc children, and to be treated as if they were in their nonage; but if it be an object to secure the submission of the populace to a few rulers, we say, that a more convenient and effectual plan could not have been adopted. Grounding the authority on the most readily acknowledged title, that of the parental prerogative; and demanding obedience on the most powerfully constraining principle, that of filial affection; it is not strange, that subjection is attained,