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Untitled Article
> ibte energies iiii ^ ht create newfi > m * 8 of thought and action , into * ^ gejijeraJizad idea of domestic affections ^ auid a religious reyepeiice towards the proximate author * of their being . This tnifck , . . . miujjly profound * palpably and niaitter * of-fact , explains the } vk Je history of the passive obedience of , a mass of people
fonuiitg in themselves a World , amidst h regular and . comprehensive despotism , beginning * with the parents , and extendjjpg upwards to the Imperial nod . Education being universal , the father being rewarded and elevated according to the advance of nay of his sons , and the sins of any of tfiaee sons ]> eing visited upon him , it is an easy gradation to the position of a Mandarin or other officer , who is made responsible for . any turbulence or disorder in the province which he governs as his express family . As a father has the entire control over bis offspring , even to their lives , it seeins a natural
inference therefore ^ that the Kmueror . whom the whole uoduinfereiice therefore , that the Emperor , whom the whole poputioii are taught from infancy to consider as their general Falfier and High Priest , and whose chief ministers are the Hierarchy uuder him , should possess a similar power ,-and . that each individual in virtue of the power he himself possesses , sjiouid rightfully succumb to the ascending gradation . -Hence
the . spirit , ot Paternity , acts like an immortal . influence ^ - i A theory—if theory it can be called—carefully deduced from the invariable conduct of ^ 00 , 000 , 000 of human-beings during an
authentic period of time , ( we meddle not with the poetical' or hyperbolical vanities of their own records , ) amounting to 700 yeai ^ antecedent to our Christian rera , is quite sufficient to put all difficulties at rest . And what can permanently and fundamentally alter this system of things and its correlative
wort hing ? Yeurs upon years , witli the slaughter of millions cacli year , ( the usual mode of producing conviction , adopted by civilized nations ) would not produce any permanent chaoge in their institutions . If violence were the plan , the only method would be that of expatriating all the lathers and mothers ; the oountless transports for which , owiuar to tiie
earliness ui marriages , would contain nearly all the adults ; - — - and ^ listributintr them anioii <*; ditterent nations , while their children were all educated on different priuci [) les . The Immunity and facility of doing this needs no comment . r * To change will ever occur in China iVoni its own internal
energies . It luis no energies of that kind or tendency . An occasional and temporary rebellion may arise in times of fkuiine , which the people consider as the Bole fault of the government , to whose direct conduct they rv t ' all ejood and evil dispensations . The Paternal Spirit is u bond for passive obedience which nothing short of starvation cau disturb ; nor can these brief n-eriods of famine often occur in a country whose fields ^ onietimeg produce th ree crops of rice in one year * 'ilm domestic
Untitled Article
41 £ MhCoriet x * f Chbfik .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/24/
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