surrounding uniformity of Chinese life, like
the one tree of the desert (for which, see
Panorama of Overland Mail, and hear lecture
upon same); or will he become non-entity,
like among like, adding nothing to the first
idea—silence in a calm? In the Jewish synagogue
of Kai-foung-fou, concerning which we
have presently to speak, there are Chinese
inscriptions. The first placed there in 1444,
by a literary Jew, is intended to prove the
close analogy between Jewish and Chinese
points of doctrine. "The author," it says,
"of the law of Yse-lo-ye (Israel) is Ha-vou-lo-han
(Abraham). His law was translated
by tradition to Nichè (Moses). He received
his book on Mount Sinai. His book has fifty-four
sections. The doctrine which is therein
contained, is much like that of the Kings,"
(which are sacred volumes of the Chinese). The
author of the inscription repeats many passages
to prove that in their worship to
heaven, their ceremonies, their behaviour to
the old. and young, their patriarchal character,
their prayers, and their mode of
honouring dead ancestors, the Jews resemble
the Chinese.

The author of a second inscription, a grand
mandarin in his own time, speaks to the
same purpose. "From the time of Han,"
says this gentleman, whose name is Too-tang,
"from the time of Han, the Jews fixed
themselves in China; and in the twentieth year of
the cycle 65, (which is, by interpretation, 1163,)
they offered to the Emperor Hiao-tsong a
tribute of cloth from India. He received
them well, and permitted them to live in
Kai-foung-fou. They formed then sixty-six
families. They built a synagogue where they
placed their Kings, or Divine Scriptures."
This mandarin concludes with an eulogium
of Jewish virtue, after the approved manner
of epitaphs.

The Jews emphatically cultivated agriculture,
commerce, were faithful in the armies,
upright as magistrates, and rigid in
observance of their ceremonies. One only
wants to wind up with the scrap, "Affliction
sore, long time they bore;" but affliction
on account of the Chinese, at any rate,
they certainly did not bear; they were
more than tolerated, they were understood;
ceremony-men to ceremony-men were ceremoniously
polite to one another. The Jews
and Chinese even intermarried; on their first
introduction by way of Persia to the
Chinese Empire, they had settled here and
there in sundry Chinese cities; but by
marriage with Chinese disciples of Confucius
or Mahomet, the Jewish colonies were melted
down into the pure Chinese metal; and when
this history begins, nothing is known of any
synagogue in China, save the synagogue at
Kai-foung-fou, which is a city in the heart of
the Flowery Land, the capital of the central
province of Honan; and for an account of
which we are indebted to Father Ricci, one
of the Jesuit Missionaries.

Father Ricci died in the year 1610, at Pekin,
which was his station. Father Ricci, at Pekin,
first heard of the Jewish synagogue at Kai-foung-fou,
and the information startled him
exceedingly. The young Jew who enlightened
Father Ricci on the subject told him that there
were then at Kai-foung-fou barely a dozen
Jewish families, and that for five or six hundred
years they had preserved in their synagogue
a very ancient copy of the Pentateuch. The
father produced a Hebrew Bible, and the
young man recognised the characters, although
he could not read them, for he knew no
language but Chinese. Four years after this,
Father Ricci (whose business at Pekin would
not permit him to go gadding) had an opportunity
of sending off to Kai-foung-fou a
Chinese Jesuit, with a letter written in Chinese,
to the chief of the synagogue. He explained to
the rabbi his own reverence for the books of
the Old Testament, and informed him of its
fulfilled predictions, and the advent of a
Messiah. The rabbi shook his head at that,
saying, "that so it could not be, because they
had yet to expect the Messiah for ten thousand
years." The good-natured rabbi nevertheless
did homage to Father Ricci's great
abilities. He was an old man, and saw none
about him fit to guide his people; he therefore
besought the learned Jesuit to come to
Kai-foung-fou, and undertake the guidance of
the synagogue, under one only condition, a
true Chinese-Jewish one, that he would pledge
himself to abstinence from all forbidden meats.
However, that was very much as if Dr. Jones
of Bettws-y-Coed should offer his practice to
Sir B. Brodie of London. Father Ricci had
a larger work in hand, and so he stopped at
Pekin.

In 1613, Father Aleni (such an uncommonly
wise man, that the Chinese called him the
Confucius of Europe) was directed to proceed
to Kai-foung-fou and make investigation.
Father Aleni, being well up in his Hebrew,
was a promising man to send on such an
errand, but he found the rabbi dead, and the
Jews, though they let him see the synagogue,
would not produce their books. The particulars
of nothing having been done on this
occasion are to be found related by Father
Trigaut, in choice Latin, and choicer Italian,
(de Expedit. Sinicâ, lib.1., cap.2, p.118,)
and by Father Samedo (Relatlione della China,
part 1., cap.30, p.193.)

A residence was established by the Jesuits
in Kai-foung-fou. Now, thought those who
thought at all upon such matters, we shall
have something done. If we can only compare
our Old Testament texts with an ancient
exemplar, that will be no small gain. A
certain Father Gozani went zealously into
the whole subject, entered the synagogue,
copied the inscriptions, and transmitted them
to Rorne.

The Jews told Father Gozani that in a
temple at Pekin was a large volume, wherein
were inscribed the sacred books of foreigners