and pay the forfeit of their rashness, by adding to the number of the transformations through which they had vainly hoped to pass.

No sooner had we perused the work before us, than this story rushed forcibly to our remembrance. Numerous as have been the attempts to elucidate the book of the Revelations, various and contradictory as have been the conclusións which they who have made these attempts have drawn, and confident as every succeeding interpreter has felt, that all who have gone before him have grossly erred; adventurous critics every day arise to overthrow the systems which others have raised, and to establish another; in its turn exposed to the fate of all that have been formed before. What rashness is here! Who can hope for success where a Mede and a Newton have failed!

Mr. G. has attempted an explanation only of the thirteen last chapters of the Revelations. These he imagines detail the rise of the western empire, its subjugation to popery, the consequent destruction of the true church, and the rise of the false one upon its ruins, which was to remain triumphant during 1260 years. This false church arose, according to this writer, in the year 536, when the Goths were expel

led from Rome by Belisarius, and the Pope was left there supreme spiritual head of the Roman em-. pire. At this time also the ten horned beasts or ten kings arose, who were to govern the western empire 1260 years, and who did govern it till the year 1796, the exact period foretold. They were subverted by the French revolution, the Pope carried prisoner to France, where he died; Rome sacked and pillaged, and the host of monks and priests utterly abolished throughout France, and many other countries. But to this has succeeded "a new reign, of the three heads of the eagle, according to the prophecy of Esdras, more fierce and intolerant than that which was subverted*." Three years from the present date, the temple of God, i. e. men's hearts, will be purged from sin; then will succeed 45 years of grace for the recovery of the world from its present distress, when the scattering of the holy people will be accomplished, a new order of things will arise, the millennium will commence, and Christ shall reign on earth during 365,000 of its annual revolutions.

Such is a brief outline of the system which has cost Mr. Goring the labour of ten long years.

IN the Annual Review for the year 1802, we gave a full and favourable account of the first volume of this very useful work and we rejoice that the public approbation has been such as to encou rage the author to proceed in his

valuable labours. The volume before us is conducted with the same judgment that appeared in the former, and will be found to contain much additional aid towards obtaining a due acquaintance with the word of God.

WE are happy to announce these new editions of a work so curious and useful, and it will afford us the truest pleasure, frequently to be called to the same duty. As the second volume has not been known so long as the first, an extract from it may not be unacceptable to our readers. We select, as likely to prove most generally interesting, the following account of the Chi

nese:

"LEAVING Hindostan, we must take a north-easterly course to arrive at China, and consider the several books accounted sacred in that country. Something should be premised: 1. On the origin and antiquity of its empire. 2. On the geographical notions which the antients extertained of it; and 3. On the rise and progress of the intercourse between it and Europe.

"i. The origin and antiquity of the empire of China, are among the questions which have exercised in a particular manner the ingenuity of the learned. After much discussion, six things appear to be settled with some appearance of precision: 1. That the most probable opinion respecting the origin of the Chinese is, that China was first peopled from Hindostan: this is the universal belief of the learned of Benares, and is confirmed by a passage cited for the purpose, by Sir William Jones, from the Institutes of Monu, a work, which in a question of this nature, is of the very highest authority: 2. That the first known seat of the Chinese is Chinsi, the most north-western province of the present empire of China: 3. That adopting the chronology of the Septua gint, the era of the Chinese empire may be fixed, with some latitude of calculation at 2,500 years before Christ: 4. That, with the same latitude, its historical æra may be fixed at 800 years before Christ: 5. That the actual form and extent of

the Chinese government, may be dated from the dynasty of Hune, 206 years before Christ: 6. And that, to repel the invasion of the Huons, the celebrated wall of China was built about a century before the accession of that dynasty.

2. In respect to its geographhy, it already has been observed, that the geographical knowledge of the Greeks did not extend, in the north eastern parts of Asia, much beyond the Imaus, or Caf. The geographical knowledge of the Ro. mans extended much farther, their Sericu regio probably was a part of the Scythia extra Imaums and stretched from the Altai mountains, over the country of Cha. mi, to Kantcheau in a north-western part of the province of Chinsi. 'Till d'Anville asserted and established a contrary opinion, modern geographers supposed the Sinarum regio corresponded with China, but he appears to prove its correspondence with Cochin China.

3. The antient Roman historians are wholly silent on the subject of any political relations between Rome and China; the indefatigable industry of M. de Guignes (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxxii. p. 355) has proved that there was an occasional intercourse between them from the Chinese writers, and Ptolemy, Ammi. anus, Marcellinus, and other authors, show that a considerable trade, in the article of silk, was carried on between China and the western parts of Asia, and Europe. It was managed by caravans, some of which took a northern, others a southern route; the former passed over the Great Desert to Kashgar, where Ptolemy fixes the station of the merchants, qui ad Seres proficiscuntur, thence through Persia to Syria: the whole journey took up 243 days, but a great proportion of the commodity was purchased in its passage, by the merchants of Nisibis and Armenia. The southern route took the caravans through the mountains of Thibet, to the Guzzarat, where they were met by the

merchants of the west. The commerce was also carried on by sea. The ships of the Chinese sailed from its eastern ports to Malucca, or to chem, the promontory of Sumatra, and when that was not the term of the voyage, they sailed on to Ceylon the Taprobané of the antients, where they were met by the merch..nts of the Persian Gulph and the countries adjacent. Such was the nature of the commercial intercourse between China and Europe, till the reign of the emperor Justinian, when silkworms were introduced into Europe. From that time the intercourse between the countries gradually ore away; and at the end of a few centuries, Europe almost wholly forgot the existence, and even the name of China. The history of the introduction of the silk-worm into Lurope, is one of the most pleasing parts of Mr. Gibbon's work.

4. The first writer to whom, after that time, we are indebted for an account of China, is Cosmas Indico;leustes, or the Indian Navigator; he performed his voyage about the year 522; a valuable extract of it was given in French and Greek by Thevenot (Relations Curieuses) and the whole of it was published by Montfaucon in his Nova Collectio Patrum.

"But the work of Cosmas Indicopleustes was soon forgotten, and Europe generally remained in ignorance of China, til about the end of the 12th century, when John Carpin, a Polonese friar, and Rubruquis a French friar penetrated into it, and, on their return, published accounts of it In the following century, the travels of Marco Polo, in Tartary and China made their appearance; what he said of China, was at first thought fabulous; by degrees it was more favourably received, and insensibly obtained general credit. Soon after the Portuguese doubled the Cape of Good Hope, their ships reached China; and they obtained leave to settle at Macao. Several priests of the order of St. Ignatius, advanced into different par s of the country; their knowledge of the arts and sciences recommended them to the court; of this circumstance they availed themselves to propagate t e gospel: an account of their labours, of their vicissitudes of favour and persecution, and of many curious circumstances respecting the na tural, civil, and religious history of the country, has been published by them in several works, particularly their Lettres Edifiuntes et Curieuses, of which Fonte

nelle said, that he had never read a work which answered better to its title. Of the the general accuracy of those letters, and the works of Father du Halde au Father Coil, the writer has often heard the late SGcorge Staunton speak in the highest terms is testimony is certainly of great weight; and the writer avails him-elf with much satisfaction, of this opportunity of mentioning a gentleman, whose talents and unconquerable vigour of mind, ren lered his country essential services on many important occasions, and whose many amiable and estimable qualities, will long remain in the memory of his numerous friends, and are, seen by them with great pleasure to survive in his son. The labours of de Guignes, the Fourmonts, and Freret, are well known; an interesting account of the rise and progress of Chinese literature in Europe is prefixed by Bayer to Museum Sinicum.

5. All the works of literature which the Chinese have composed are divided by them into four classes; 1st, That of Kings, or the Sacred Books; 2d, That Su, or Che, or Bocks of History; 3d, That of Tsu or Tse, or Books of Philosophy; 4th, That of Feie, or Miscellanies.

"The Kings, or Sacred Books, answer to what we call Theology: they were divided into two classes; the first were five in number; the Y-King, the Chou-King, the ChiKing, the Li-ki and Tehun-tsiçou. The rKing consists of horizontal lines, entire or cut, which are multiplied and combined into sixty-four different forms or positions: they appear involved in impenetrable mystery; but some writers have affected to discover in them the origin of all beings, the principles of natural history, and the harmony of the universe. The Chou-King contained the public annals of the nation: all that remains of it are fragments collected by Confucius. His object in compiling them was to form a collection of the precepts and instructions given by princes to their ministers and subjects: a translation of it was published by Father Gaubil. The ChiKing is a collection of poems on different subjects; a translation of it was made by Father Gaubil, and published by M. de Guignes in 1770. The Li-ki contained the civil and religious ceremonial of the Chinese; all that remains of it is an extract of it, published in the reign of Ham, about 200 years before the Christian æra. The Tchun-tsicou is a work of Confucius; contains the annals of twelve kings, whe

A

reigned in Lon, his native country. work, ranked among the Sacred Books, called the Yo-King, on the subject of music, formerly existed, but it is wholly lost. Thirty other works are called Kings; they are held in great respect, but are not deemed sacred.

"The second class of the Sacred Books of the Chinese, consist of the Su-Chi, or the Four Books: they are moral writings composed by Confucius, or his disciples.

66

Many commentaries have been written, and many dictionaries have been composed to facilitate the intelligence of the Sacred Books. 6 They contain,' says Father Premare, (Lettres Edif. et Cur. Tom. xxi. p 218. Ed. 1781) the whole of the Chinese religion. In the fundamental doctrines of them, may be found the principles of natural law, which the antient Chinese received from the sons of Noah: they teach the reader to know and reverence the Supreme Being. Like the Patriarchs, under the unwritten law, the emperor is both king and pontiff: to him it belongs to offer, at certain times of the year, sacrifice for his people; to him it belongs to prescribe ceremonies to decide on doctrines. This alone can be This alone can be called the established religion of China; all other sects are considered by them as extraneous, false, and pernicious, and are only tolerated. The Christian religion was declared lawful by a public edict; in a subsequent reign, it was proscribed.'

The whole of Father Premare's letter deserves to be read: it is entitled to all the praise bestowed by Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. 8. ch. 31.) on the letters of Father Parennin and Father Muiran."

The appendix to the second volume contains two curious and valuable dissertations. 1. On the truth of the narrative of a great council of the Jews on the plain of Ageda in Hungary; published in the Phonix in 1707, and referred to in the first of the Hor. Bib. The author is inclined to think it a mere fable. 2. A short historical outline of the

disputes respecting the authenticity of The verse of the three heavenly witnesses, on 1 John v. 7. ; addressed to the Rev. Herbert March. This is a very able view of this celebrated controversy.

It is much to be wished that men of reading would pursue the plan which Mr. B. has in these volumes marked out, with respect to other subjects of curious enquiry in which they may either professionally It would or incidentally engage. be of advantage to themselves, and eminently useful to others, by directing them to the best sources of information.

THE attempts lately made by some eminent philosophers upon the continent, to account for the order of the physical world from material causes, and thus to exclude the notion of a Deity, have given occasion, we are told, to these discourses; and have thus been the means of affording another instance of good arising out of evil, and of the advancement of truth in consequence of the efforts of its adversa

ries.

ANN.REV. VOL. VI.

The first of these discourses is introductory; consisting of some general observations upon the folly of Atheism, and the nature of the evidence by which the existence and attributes of God are proved.

In the second discourse, the preacher enters upon his arguments.

"Serious reflections upon that little which the ancient philosophers had discovered, led them to the acknowledgement of a God. And if the narrow views they L