districts, is uncertain. The limits of Persia form an insuperable barrier to our knowledge, and almost all the rest of Asia, during this period, is covered, as it were, with impenetrable darkness. Many Jews were no doubt settled in Arabia. Mahomet found them both numerous and powerful, and a Jewish dynasty had long sat on one of the native thrones; but this subject will come under our notice when we consider the influence of the progress of Mahometanism, as connected with the History of the Jews. All other accounts of oriental Jews, at this early period, are so obscure,* so entirely or so nearly fabulous, that they may wisely be dismissed, but there is one curious point, which, as it seems to rest on better evidence, demands more particular notice, the establishment of a Jewish colony in China, if not anterior, certainly immediately subsequent to the time of our Lord. This singular discovery was made known to Europe by the Jesuit missionaries, but unfortunately the Father Gozani, who had the best opportunity of obtaining accurate information both as to their history and the manuscripts of the law which they possessed, was ignorant of the Hebrew language. It was inferred from their tradition, in our opinion, somewhat hastily, that Jews had been settled in the country 249 years before the Christian era. More authentic statements fixed their introduction into

That there were Parthian, as well as Elamite, (Persian,) and Mesopotamian Jews, is clear from the Acts of the Apostles; the traditions of Christianity assert the early propagation of the faith in those regions, which intimates, we are inclined to think, that the Jews were numerous, but little is known which is either distinct or certain.

the empire towards the close of the reign of Mingti, of the dynasty of Han, who reigned from 58 to 75 A. C. They were originally 70 sings or fami lies, and settled in the cities of Nimpo, Ning-hiu, Hamtcheu, Peking, and Caifongfou. Only seven remained in the middle of the seventeenth century, all in the latter city, the capital of Honan. They came from Si-yu, the west country, and their Hebrew language betrayed evident signs of corruption from the introduction of Persian words. They could not have been of the earlier dispersion, for they had the book of Ezra, and highly reverenced his name. They knew nothing, or at least had preserved no knowledge of Christ or his religion. They were employed in agriculture and traffic. They had cultivated learning with success, and some of them, as it was attested by extant inscriptions, had been highly honoured with the imperial favour, and had attained the rank of Mandarins. One of these inscriptions, bearing date in 1515, praises the Jews for their integrity and fidelity, in agricultural pursuits, in traffic, in the magistracy, and in the army, and their punctual observance of their own religious ceremonies: it assures them of the emperor's high esteem. They paid great respect to the name of Confucius, and after the Chinese customs preserved the memory of their fathers, with religious reverence, on tablets inscribed with their names; in other respects they were strict Jews: they observed the sabbath, lighting no fire, and preparing their food on the preceding day they practised circumcision on the eighth day they intermarried only among themselves. They believe, according to the Jesuit,

:

in Purgatory, Hell, Paradise, the Resurrection, and the last Judgment; in Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim. They neither make, nor attempt to make proselytes. Their sacred edifice (a remarkable fact) resembles much more the Temple than the modern synagogue. It is situated in an open space, among pavilions or avenues of trees. It consists of a nave and two aisles, the centre is divided into a holy place, and a Holy of Holies, which is square without and circular within; here are deposited the books of the Law,* and the sacred chamber is only entered by the chief priest. The chief priest is not distinguished by any splendour of apparel, only by a red belt of silk, which passes over his right and under his left shoulder. They chaunt the sacred scripture and their prayers, as Father Gozani had heard the Jews in Italy. They entertain distinct though remote hopes of the coming of the Messiah. Such, in a brief outline, is the history of one branch of this extraordinary people, thus in the eastern as well as the western extremity of the old world, resisting the common laws by which nations seem to be absorbed into each other. However opposite the institutions, the usages, the manners of the people among whom they dwell; whether the government be mild or intolerant; the Jews, equally inflexible and unso

The learned Baron de Sacy has clearly shown that the existing copies of the sacred writings among the Chinese Jews, imperfect as they are, are not older than the year 1620 A. C. Their former sacred books had been destroyed first by an inundation of the great Yellow River in 1446, afterwards by a fire about 1600, and lastly, those they possess were greatly damaged by a second inundation in 1642.

cial, maintain their seclusion from the rest of mankind. The same principles operate on the banks of the Yellow River, and on those of the Tiber or the Seine; the Jew, severed for ages from all intercourse with his brethren, amid the inaccessible regions of the Celestial Empire, in most respects, remains as he would have been, if he had continued to inhabit the vallies of Palestine, under the constant and immediate superintendence of the national chief of his religion, the Patriarch of Tiberias.

BOOK XX.

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

Effects of the Great Revolutions in the World, from the fourth to the eighth Century-Restoration of the Persian Kingdom and Magian Religion-Jews of Mesopotamia—Babylonian Talmud — Establishment of Christianity—Attempts at Conversion—Constantine—Julian—Rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem—Theodosius and St. Ambrose-Conflicts between Jews and Christians Conversions in Minorca and Crete-Tumults in Alexandria-Fall of the Patriarchate.