CONFERENCE II. 461 by computation of times, thirty two years after, the death of Christ. This poison began at court., and corrupted every town : Thenation is now infected with idolatry, andbecome a monstrous receptacle for all sort of errors. It is hard to recount what strange fables, superstitions, opi- nions about the transmigration of souls, idolatry, and down- right atheism, dividethe inhabitants of the land, and at this pre- sent have a strong masteryover them. The ape, the elephant, . and the dragon, have been worshipped in several places, under pretence that the godFo had beensuccessively transmigrated into those animals. China is now the most superstitious of all nations with all her boasted superiority of sense and reason : She has lost the true God, and gone on continually to increase the mem- ber of her idols, till one may see all sorts of them in their tem- ples. . Yet if they worshipan idol a great while, and they do not obtainwhat they desire, they load him with reproaches, and with stripes, they tie him with cords, pluck him clown from his seat, drag him along the streets through mud and dunghills, to punish him. Lately there was one of these idols called to ac- count before a Judge, and was punished by perpetual banish- ment, and had his temple destroyed, as being useless to the kingdom : And the reason of his punishment was, his not saving the life of a person, whose recovery their bonzes, or priests, had promised in his name : Yet insteadofcoming to more true know- ledge of the weakness of their gods, the people grow more blind every day, notwithstanding all their sufficiency of reason to lead them into truth, and all the boasted writings of their wise philo- sopher Confucious among them. These bonzes indeed give the people many good instructions in rules of virtue; but they take care to recommend themselves to their liberality : " Entertain and nourish up, say they, the bonzes ; build them monasteries and temples, that their prayers and voluntary penances may obtain for you exemption from that punishment which your sins have deserved. Burn paper gilt and washed with silver, and habits made of stuff and silk : All these in the other world shall be turn- ed into real gold and silver, and into true and substantial gar- ments, which shall be given to your deceased fathers faithfully, who will make use of them as they have occasion. If you do notregard these commands, you shall, after your death, be era. elly tormented, and exposed to several metemphsychoses, or transmigrations ; that is to say, you shall be born in the shape of rats, horses, mules, and all other creatures." This last point makes a great impression upon their minds. I remember, says father Le Comte, that being in the pro. vince of Xansi, I was sent for to christen a sick person : It was an old man of threescore and ten, who lived upon a small pen., lion which the emperor had given him. When I came into the
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