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 as much as if their exclusive wall had surrounded their whole empire, and debarred all others from intercourse with them. Those who are accustomed to attach veneration to antiquity, will probably regard the Chinese with some degree of interest on account of their patriarchal character; and those who love to survey human society in every possible stage, will be gratified with the contemplation of it, as it existed not only centuries, but milleniums ago. The modern kingdoms of Europe are but of yesterday, compared with the Chinese; and though western nations have grown rapidly since their origin, yet they cannot look back to any very distant period, when their ancestors laid the foundation of their present greatness, and established systems which still exist and characterize their populations. The Chinese, on the contrary, have derived their veneration for parents, and their subjection to rulers, with the arrangements of domestic life, from the first founders of their monarchy; and embody in their present conduct principles which were laid down four thousand years ago.

A few allusions to Chinese history may not be amiss here. Of the great Yu, the founder of their first dynasty, B.C. 2204, they write, that "seeing his father had been put to death, for not completing the work of draining the waters, he applied himself more assiduously to that undertaking, which kept him from home thirteen years; and though during that period, he thrice passed his own door, he would not enter. When he was appointed ruler, he rose ten times from a single meal to listen to complaints, and thrice tied up his hair while in the bath, to attend to some urgent affair, with