Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/92

80 that it appears superfluous to invoke the testimony of modern authors, but they may nevertheless carry with them some authority. Many letters written in the last century mention the existence of the inscription, and, what is very remarkable, do not say a syllable against its authenticity. How can we suppose that there should not be found in all the empire a single writer who should undertake to unveil the fraudulent artifice of the Christians and missionaries, especially in those epochs of persecution, when the government, the mandarins and the people, were all leagued against Christianity? What a piece of good fortune it would have been for a writer of that time to be able to fling a good pamphlet in the face of the "Worshippers of the Lord of Heaven," and prove to the whole empire that they were no better than cheats and impostors! But nothing of the kind took place; though a thousand calumnies were invented against the missionaries, though they were accused of boiling little children to make opium, and of tearing out the eyes of sick people.

As for the inscription of Si-ngan-Fou, not a moment's doubt appears to have been entertained, for there is not the slightest insinuation of the kind to be found, even in the most violent manifestoes that have ever been published in China, against Christians and missionaries.

Here, surely, are proofs numerous and decisive enough in favour of the monument of Si-ngan-Fou. Let us be permitted, nevertheless, to add one consideration, which forms, in our opinion, a more conclusive proof than all the historic and scientific testimony that we have brought forward.

At the time of the discovery of the inscription, there were in the Chinese empire, a great number of