Page:Ningpo to Shanghai.djvu/80

66   Warmly interested in the rebellion, and viewing, with regret, the general apathy in China regarding it, we take this opportunity to republish the Reverend Dr Medhurst's&mdash;

CRITIQUE ON THE 'IMPERIAL DECLARATION OF THAE-PING."

This pamphlet consist of two odes and two essays. The first is entitled "an ode on the origin of virtue and the saving of the world." does not much answer to the name it bears. The first line, indeed, tells us that the origin of virtue is from Heaven, by which is meant God; and then the author goes on to talk about virtue and God, in rather an unconnected strain; but from beginning to end of the ode we hear nothing about the saving of the world, nor is the name or work of the Saviour once alluded to. We must ascribe something of this rambling forgetfulness to the fact of the author having to compose in rhyme, which has made him more attentive to the harmonical succession of sounds, than to the theme with which he professed to start. Notwithstanding, however, its want of connection. and the awkwardness with which the ode necessarily reads in a translation, there are many important truths, and some splendid passages to be met with therein, which in a great measure redeem its character.

In the commencement of the ode the author maintains the unity of God, who, he says, is the common parent of all, and to whom from the earliest ages down to a period approaching the Christian era, both princes and people gave special honor. On this he grounds the exhortation to all, to unite in worshipping him, from whom every fibre and thread, every drop and sop come, and to whom our daily devotions should be paid. To worship any other being, the author says, would be as vain, as it is sinful: he created all the elements of nature, every breath we draw depends on him, no other being can interfere with his arrangements, and to no one else can be ascribed the honour of our creation. Idols, it is affirmed, are only recent inventions; creation, therefore, could not have originated with them. Growing eloquent in his pleadings for God, the author tells us, "He warms us by his sun, He moistens us by his rain, He moves the thunderbolt, He scatters the wind;" let us act, therefore, like honest men, and give to God the honour which is due to him alone.