The great, central figure of idolatry is the Pope, who sits enthroned in Rome; and is, generally, a very old man, not always remarkable for wisdom nor virtue. He claims to be the sole vicegerent of the Christ-god, and only visible divine Head—all who do not worship him are really not true worshippers. Yet, there are many Sects of this Superstition; and in England, the Sovereign is held to be the true Pope and Head! The English Pope now worshipped is therefore a woman—the Queen! Such a thing seemed to me to be too wild—a phantasy—I could not comprehend. I knew that this Sect—the Roman—had long ago followers in our Flowery Kingdom; and our annals show was tolerated: not, however, for the Superstition, but for the Bonzes, who were masters of some useful knowledge. Personally, I never knew any native devotees of the Superstition—in fact it has steadily diminished in repute, and its few and scattered adherents are very obscure. So I was, and am still, puzzled by this extraordinary Sect. I have read the Creed; a sort of verbal incantation, made by devotees in the temples.
One day, I begged of a good-natured, large-bellied, Priest to explain to me; and ventured to ask him if the Creed was really an Article of Belief, or only a formal and meaningless Invocation—like some of the mummeries [phin-zi] of our Superstitious Sects. He looked surprised; but when he saw that he was thus accosted by a "Heathen Chinee" (as these Barbarians always contemptuously call the inhabitants of our Central Land), he merely said: "Why, you have in China our Missionaries to enlighten your darkness; have you never met them?" "No; I have heard of them at Shanghai; but they do not speak our tongue, nor do we understand them; and their teachings, even if understood, would attract no attention from the Literati, who would consider them as unworthy of notice as any other Superstition." "How so? our Religion is no Superstition; it is the true and only true Religion, revealed by God himself to his chosen people, and miraculously preserved for all believers." "I bow before your Illustrious mind and body; but we have, and have had from time immemorial, just such pretensions; they are as old as history." "I will not argue; but look at the excellency of our divine religion!" "Where shall I look? If you mean the excellency of certain moral principles, there is nothing peculiar to your Sect in them. They have been taught in our schools for thousands of years—they are excellent; they show the divine in man—man is of the divine; morality comes of that." "But look at your frightful vices; at your Pagan worship—see the effects of idolatry!" "I bow to your Illustrious mind." I saw my effort to obtain any reasonable explanation was fruitless; I made my obeisance and left. What an illustration of ignorant and superstitious conceit! Vice, thousands of miles beyond sea, so dreadful; the vice at hand, defiling every corner, unseen! The only true Religion of this Priest will not see, or, seeing, he will not believe that it is Vice—or, at any rate, idolatrous—pagan Vice! I could not believe, at first, that the Superstition was more than a Form, kept up merely for the advantage of the Priests. The sharp intellects of the Barbarians, applied so fruitfully to useful arts, seemed stultified, if I held to their actual belief. I doubted the honesty of the Priests; I knew the bad character of many of the Bonzes of our Superstitious Sects. Now, better acquainted with the imperfect civilization of the people, I am not moved by these ignorant and bigoted displays. Poverty, vice, and drunkenness; crimes of violence and fraud, are rife among the Barbarians. The Temples, ordered and maintained by the Queen-Pope, are, for the most part—especially in great cities—empty. The Sects of the Low-Caste people, despised by the High-Caste, are far more zealous worshippers, though not better Christians. The funds raised to support the great Temples and the Priests, are nearly all absorbed by them, and the Temples left ruinous. The lowest Castes do not worship, but curse the Sovereign Lord. Yet, our Illustrious Kingdom is called Pagan—Heathen—words implying every degradation; and our people fit only to be turned over to the endless torments of Evil Spirits!
Like our Confutze, the principles of morality and general benevolence are taught in the sayings ascribed to Christ. Yet fighting in the most brutal manner is allowed in the Schools, although the teachings of Christ, commanding Charity and Peace, are conned over in the daily lessons; and horrible Wars for the subjugation of other Peoples, incessantly waged! Still, if we may believe these Barbarians, all true religion and virtue are possessed only by them! The education of the people has been disregarded; and now, when the wisest of their great men has, with great difficulty, caused a decree to issue for the teaching of the neglected masses, at least, in some rudimental learning, the purpose is likely to fail. The Priests demand that the Superstition shall be taught, and those of one Sect insist that they shall lead; denouncing a differing Sect. Each Sect denounces every other: and, so far is the contention carried, that the teaching of the people is lost sight of; the special Superstition of a Sect being held by its adherents far more important than merely "Secular" teaching! It must be understood, that though, commonly, there is but little real reverence for the Supreme Lord, and less benevolence, yet, such is the hold which the Bonzes have got of the imagination (by means of the devil and hell, which are greatly feared), that they are a power. Their demands, therefore, as to the education of the people, will be respected; and the matter be left, largely, in their hands. This, owing to the bitterness existing among the Bonzes of the Sects, will cause the whole attempt to fail—to fail, as a general measure. The Lowest orders, for whom the design was chiefly devised, do not hold the Bonzes in esteem, and will not be so readily led by them, even were the Priests themselves in accord. The Sects and the Priests not only fight upon this subject; they are usually at strife upon any matter wherein their coöperation is desired. One leading rule of the Sacred Writings commands, Peace. In respect of all who differ from them, these Sects say that the true meaning is, War! Each Sect dislikes and denounces every other; and the members of all damn to everlasting torments the whole human race but themselves! This place of eternal torture in "fire and brimstone" [Zan-tan-li] is called Hell [Tha-dee]!
In the ceaseless conflicts of the Sects, the most dreadful crimes have been committed. The chief events recorded in the annals of the Western Barbarians for many ages, and even to this time, have been only bloody wars, massacres, and vile intrigues, springing out of these conflicts: horrible crimes, again and again repeated, and under circumstances too dreadful for belief. And when I have looked into the causes of these shocking events, there seemed to be no more involved than the manner of interpreting some obscure word or phrase in the Sacred Writings; which to a wise man would be unimportant, however interpreted, or if never interpreted at all!
At this moment, the best intellects among the English (who boast that they are superior to all other Barbarians), are hotly disputing as to the proper mode of wearing vestments, of holding or of not holding candles, of standing and posturing, and other matters equally important, when the Priests officiate in the Temples. The most trivial thing in the Superstition is esteemed of such consequence, that an error respecting it may be fatal to the "soul" [pan-tzi] in the future life! Some of the most learned fear the words and "missives" of the poor old man, who sits in Rome (already referred to), and is worshipped by most Christians out of England (and by very many in it) as the only delegate of the Christ-god. They fear this Pope—fear that by his connection with the Evil One he will "play the devil" among them. And though of precisely the same Christ-god Superstition, merely because of a difference of opinion as to the visible "Head" of that Superstition, really believe that this poor old man (called by the larger portion of Christians, with profound worship, Pope, Holy Father) may, by his wicked devices, allure into his worship, and bring under his power, the English Barbarians; to the everlasting destruction of their souls!
This notion of an Evil-one, universal among all the Barbarians, I never well comprehended. We have in our Flowery Kingdom Sects which believe in good and bad Spirits; although our Literati smile at such things; that is, in the vulgar forms. But the Christians assert that the Devil is too strong with men for the Supreme Lord—and the English Sect say that the Pope is a very child of the Devil! To be sure, their Sect is the feeblest of all, and merely separated from the great Pope-sect upon points not touching the superstition itself, and really on selfish and personal grounds. They know that the Pope justly claims a direct and regular succession from the Christ-God; that he and his adherents, forming the vast majority of Christians (as all the sects call themselves) are believers with themselves in all the main "dogmas" [ka-nti] of the Superstition; yet, none the less, they are the children of the Evil-one, and fit for Hell. And not the vulgar only, but the learned actually have a horror that the Pope may be again worshipped in England. A calamity too terrible for contemplation!
The Pope-worshipping Sect repay this hate with an equal abhorrence, and send the English heretics to the awful Hell, with the same satisfaction.
All the Western Barbarians worship this new Christ-God, but, like our devoters of Fo, divided into many Sects, as I have already intimated. The benignant Fo, teaches his idolatrous devotees how to differ without hate. But, these Christians are always at strife, bitter and irreconcilable; not as to essentials, even within the Superstition itself, (to say nothing of genuine morality), but as to things trivial and absurd. One will say, "Be baptised or be damned to the eternal Hell!" But another says, "Baptism is only a symbol, one may be saved without it." Then, "What is baptism?" Some say "The Priest must immerse in water;" but another, "No, the Priest must sprinkle the face only." Yet another, "Water is itself nothing, Priest nothing, unless before either, the baptism of the 'Holy Spirit' have occurred." To perfect the "rite," all say that the Priest must offer proper "Incantations," and generally in the Temples before the Idol. The contestants damn each other to everlasting torments for not being truly baptised.
All the Sects say, "You must believe in Christ or be damned;" but do not agree as to what this Belief is, and go on damning each the other for not having truly believed.
It is impossible, however, to make intelligible the countless vagaries of the Sects. They all fight under the same Christ-God, whom they all address, among other titles, as the "Prince of Peace" [Tchu-pe]. They all profess to follow His precepts, one of which is to love all men, even enemies (not friends, one of these angry disputants once said). These revered Precepts are written in the Sacred Books, and all the Sects swear their oaths upon these, and resort to them for the unchangeable rules of belief and practice. They all declare that the Sacred Writings are so plain that a man, "though a fool, may understand," and so clear, "that he who runs may read." Yet, they curse each other to the eternal torments for interpreting erroneously. The truth is, that the Books are most obscure, and differences of interpretation are inseperable from their use; the terrible thing is, that Superstition has made these differences so important. The Sacred Writings are contradictory, and teeming with things indifferent, meaningless, or trivial. Written at widely different periods, by many hands, long ages ago, in an obscure and barbarous dialect, for different objects, their true meanings cannot always be rendered. But few, even of the Priest-class, can read them at all in the original. They are mainly Records of the Laws, customs and wars of an obscure and terrible race, here and there interspersed with Invocations to the Gods of that race, and with their Proverbs, or words of wisdom. This tribe, called Jews, revolted from their masters, the Egyptians, and fled into a desert region lying west from the Hindoos. The man who led them in this revolt was learned in the laws and customs of Egypt, and upon these he founded his own system. He declared himself to be directly called by Jah (Jehovah) to be their High Priest and Judge—that they were to obey him who received from Jah immediate instructions—that, in fact, to disobey him was to disobey Jah. That he was to lead them forth to found a new State, and that the power to announce the will of Jah alone resided with him and his successors, in this High Priesthood, and that they could only be successful over their enemies and prosper, by an implicit obedience to Jah, by the mouth of the High Priest.