Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/400

 that mankind consists exclusively of Jews. For the Times of the 18th October, 1854, relates that an American ship, under command of Captain Burr, had arrived in Jeddo Bay, and gives his account of the favourable reception he met with there, at the end of which we find: "He likewise asserts the Japanese to be a nation of Atheists, denying the existence of a God and selecting as an object of worship either the spiritual Emperor at Meaco, or any other Japanese. He was told by the interpreters that formerly their religion was similar to that of China, but that the belief in a supreme Being has latterly been entirely discarded (this is a mistake) and he professed to be much shocked at Deejunokee [The Yankee](a somewhat Americanised Japanese), declaring his belief in the Deity. [Add. to 3rd ed.]

368 THE WILL IN NATURE.

My intention in giving the above quotations and explanations, is merely to prepare the way for the extremely remarkable passage, which it is the object of the present chapter to communicate, and to render that passage more intelligible to the reader by first making him realize the standpoint from which these investigations were made, and thus throwing light upon the relation between them and their subject. For Europeans, when investigating this matter in China in the way and in the spirit described, always inquiring for the supreme principle of all things, the power that rules the world, &c. &c., had often been referred to that which is designated by the word Tien (English: T'hëen). Now, the more usual meaning of this word is "Heaven," as Morrison also says in his dictionary; still it is a well-known thing that Tien is used in a figurative sense also, and then has a metaphysical signification. In the Lettres édifiantes l we find the following explanation: "Hing-tien is the material, visible heaven; Chin-tien the spiritual and invisible heaven. Sonnerat too, 2 in his travels in East-India and China, says: "When the Jesuits disputed with the rest of the missionaries as to the meaning of the word Tien, whether it was Heaven or God, the

1 Édition de 1819, vol. ii. p. 461.

2 Journey to East India and China, Book iv. ch. i.

SINOLOGY.