The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Christianity in China, Tartan!, and Thibet. By
M. L'Abbe Hue, author of " The Chinese Em-
pire," &c. Vol. 111. Longman.
M. Huc proceeds with his careful and elaborate
work on the establishment and varying fortunes of
)cilaBrst
Christianity in China and its neighbouring states.
conversionsgi v e s severalninterestingthe
royal
particulars
He brings down his ree)rd to the commencement
of
hrecsepnetcutirryg,
athned
f• ly of Prince Sourima. The •
narrative comes
do—
s n to the death of the Emperor Khang-Hi, the
contemporary of Louis XIV. The style and cha-
racter of the work is, of course, the same as its pre-
decessors, and mere attractive to the readers who
sympathise with the progress and extension of
Jesuitism than to those of another faith. Never-
theless all of
unprejudiced minds will be able to
appreciate the courage and self.d v e ot'on of the mis-
steearies, and the difficulties and dangers wit ti
which they had to contend. The following descrip-
tion will give some idea of the risks they f
ly
one ,entered in the furtherance of their i;less
laneasr
The
eminent French Minister, Colbert, had projec'ed
a mission to China, and had made the necessary
introductory arrangements when death closed his
career. His suggestions were, however, carried
out by his successor, Louvoie, and six Jesuit mis-
sionaries were despatched. They sailed for-Batavia,
and from thence to Siam, where they arrived in
safely, but they were not so fortunate in their sub-
sequent journey :
Fathers de Fontaney, Gerbillon, Da Visdelon; Bouvet,
and Le Comte then embarked on board a small French
vessel of the Indian Company and set sail for Macao.
" The vessel," says Father Le Comte, " belonged to Mon-
sieur Constance, and appeared to be good, but she was so
knocked about that in a few hours she began to open at
all her seams." She had, in fact, encounteted one of
those terrible typhoons that cause such fearful ravage' in
the Chinese seas, The wind had become so terrific that
the sailors, losing courage, left off working the ship. The
pilot, thinking it more prudent to run ashore than to
struggle with the tempest at the risk of being swallowed in
the waves, abandoned himself to their mercy, and was
providentially cast upon the shore, without injury, behind
an island near the extremity of the kingdom of Cambodia.
The pilot declared it would be necessary to make a stay
of several months, and wait for the next monsoon, which
might enable them to get the vessel off shore, double the
points, and continue their voyage; but the missionaries,
more annoyed by the delay than fearful of any dancer
they might incur by going on, resolved to proceed by land
to Siam, in the hope of there meeting with soma English
vessel bound for Canton. They plunged into the forest,
therefore—hoping to find a village and natives who might
serve them as guides--but they soon lost their way, and
then their lives wore in as great a peril on land as they
ha! been More in the terrible typhoon at sea. Tho brooks
swollen by the rains, had rendered the
paths almost im-
passable; and the poor missionaries, walking barefoot
through rushing streams and fields covered with water,
were terribly tormented by the leeches and gnat., which in
these countries aro the scourge of the stranger; and the
forests were besides infested by serpents, tigers, elephants
and buffaloes, which prevented their enjoying one mo.
ment's undisturbed repose.
There was, too, ens enemy still more formidable than
these, against which the wayfarers had to struggle, namely,
hunger.
A s they had soon consumed the small stock of provisions
they had brought away with them, and were reduced to
distressing scarcity, they would, in all probability, have
been starved to death, but for the accidental discovery of
a village.
The inhabitants of it were not, indeed, in a position to
afford them very suberantial help, being themselves very
slenderly provided with food, but they gave them enough
to enable them to resume their march, and also showed
them the way back to their vessel, which they reached,
after a journey of fifteen days, in a state of great ex-
haustion. These fervid and intrepid monks had now had
au opportunity of know in, what a difference there is be•
twee loving hardship and*suffering in a call, in your own
country, and putting these resolutiuns into practice in the
depths of forests in a remote and foreign land.
The stranded vessel was at length got Into the port of
Siam, and the missionaries, after waiting there for some
months, decided to embark on board a Chinese junk that
was going to Ning-Po, a considerable town of Chino, in
the province of Tche-Kiang.
The following sketch of the character of the Em-
peror
Kiang-11i may be interesting to those tin-
acqueinted with the attributes of that monarch :
When he had barely attained the age of manhood, he
had to front numerous and powerful enemies, who were
attacking him on all rides; to give chase to formidable
pirates who were infesting his coasts,—to disperse the im-
mense armies of the valiant Ciu-Sang-Koui, who had
excited all the southern provinces to insurrection,
—compel the Kings of Canton and Fo-Kien to sub-
ieissien,—subjugate the prince of Cheni-Si,—and finally
extinguish, in the blood of the Mogul princes, the scions of
the ancient conquerors of China, the claims that they were
emloavouriug to revive. This is what Khang-Hi had to
effect when ho was scarcely twenty years old; and it may
bo imagined what energy and sagacity it demanded from
the young Emperor.
Khans-Hi soon learned from the missionaries attached
to his court to what a far higher degree of perfection the
arts and sciences had been carried in the West, and he
knew better than to follow merely the Chinese books in
such matters. He pointed out to his astonished people a
new path, into which inordinate attachment to ancient
custom, as well as mistaken presumption, had hitherto pre-
vented their entering. Ho himself cultivated the scioeces
of Europe with incredible ardour; and geometry, astro-
nomy, medicine, anatomy, and other branches of physical
science, beeeme successively the subjects of intense appli-
cation to him. In the cause of art he was no less zealous
than in that. of science; ho established in his palace various
atelers, in which he kept the most skilful and industrious
artists and workmen constantly employed, giving them the
masterpieces of Europe as models ; painters, sculptors, en-
gravers, enamellers, arti:ani ie steel and cop; er, emulated
each other in endeavouring, under the direction of Euro-
peans, to satisfy the taste of a prince who could so well
appreciate and reward works of merit.
It was this love for science and art in Kliang-17i which "
procured for the missionaries a freedom of access to his
person not granted to the first dignitaries of the empire,
nor even to the princes of the blood; and in the frequent
conversations, in which this great sovereign seemed to for-
get the majesty of the throne to place himself on a level
with mere monks, the truths of Christianity were often
discussed. He could not but appreciate the purity of the
moral system of the religion with which he thus bee-me
acquainted, and he spoke in praise of it before his whole
court, protected its ministers by a public edict, and per-
mitted its flee exercise throughout his empire ; but it
not, nevertheless, appear that he ever had any serious in-
tention of embracing it. If he favoured the missionaries
it was because they were useful to hint, and that the
splendour of their talents shed glory on his reign.
The missionaries of Pekin had I.),:cn orerwhelmed by the
favouts of the Emperor Khang-Hi, and we nerd not, there-
fore be surprised at their zealous eulogies of the monarch
who had raised them above all the princes of Chins. In
speaking of the splendour of his reign, they are continu-
ally comparing him to his contemporary Louis XIV. of.
France; the " Historical Portrait of the Emperor of
Chins," published by Father Bouvet in 1697, carries
out in detail the parallel between the two sovereigns.
and Louis XIV., who could net but be flattered by it,
several times testified his esteem for Khang-Hi' with-
out breaking through the custom of the Kings of France,
of not sending embassies to China for fear of compromis-
ing their di pity.
Mireberiu says somewhere, in speaking of Louis XIV.,
that he was the most Oiiental king of the West ; and when
we see in what honour the arts and sciences were held at
isseha during the reign of Khang-Hi, may we not say that
he was the most Western monarch of the East?
The work is, of course, far from its completion,
arid is yet some distaneo from the record of the
labours of I. L'Abbe Hue himself. The attention
which has lately been directed to the Celestial Em-
pire and the Mongolisn dominions will probably
ensure for this work an extensive c'rculation, ludo-
pendently of the authority attaching to its author's
name and position among those of his own creed.
The writer has contrived to invest a somewhat
tedious subject with some degree of interest, and to
advance another step in his laborious undertaking
with credit to himself and satisfaction to hie
readers.

The Mohawk Chief. By the author of "The Fall
of the Nan Soung." 3 volt,. Newby. •
In the preface to this work we aro told that the
author is a young adventurer in the " vast arena
of literary contention," and this fact affords room
for the charitaVe hope that time and experience
may give him the opportunity for improvement.
They may teach bins that fine writing conftists in
something more than the transposing of words and
ntle-
the use of the second person singular ; that wog
and
men do not usually address a lady as "Mi -
that the grand melo-dramatic effect of carrying of
the heroine is now
school of the Minerva press. Tile fact of an Indian
generally abandoned to the
chief beinc, the successful competitor for the hand
of the fair Maria certainly gives some degree of
:toe:1011
novelty to the work, though it does not say much
for the taste of the heroine Shert it is true,
envoerydoulLbll7baense
when the extreme vulgarity of civilistd lover..
1 is •
to see the name of a previous work ou the title-
eesrtiz,
PaAs the style of the wrter, and the occasional
asfasion of his ideas and sentences, would
. made,takennhostoreqadu
soem
to mark this as a first attempt. Should he ever
make a third attempt, we should strongly recom-
mend him to revise it most carefully, and expunge
vulgarity and coarseness which °ffexpunge,
ofid the
reader in this work ; to abandon the attempt
eloqu°nce, which is certainly a
forlorn at
condense and simplify ; to refine andrevise
; to
then, possibly, he may produce vi‘n
; and
a
afford saqsfaction to lovers off
thework which will
and despt rate school of fiction. very romantic

TIII LATE FIRE IN A.LEGATE.—The adjourned coro-
n tr s inq lest was brought to a close vesterday, when the
jury, siter a careful r.umming up by the coroner, an-
n ,unct,., that they were unanimous in their verdict
wh.lch was that the premises had been wilfully set on
fire by the two persons who were seen to leave tbe house
at or near 9 o'clock at night ; but who those persons
wer3 there was not sutE,iierit evidence to prove.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—At a meeting of the
council of the College, on the 14th inst , Mr. Thomas
Wormald, one cf the surgeons of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital was elected a membei of the Court of Examiners ,
in tl.e vacancy occasioned by the decease of. Mr.
BenjaminO the
sameT Travers,
nStehrej e
jaanetk
sSounrigaenopnr,zoe her Ma
7a jaersdteyd..
to Mr. Alfred Poland, of Guy's Hospital, for his essay
on gun shot wounds and their treatment.