I have attempted to discover some ray of light in the mythological times
of China which precede Fohi, but I have attempted in vain.
At the period, however, in which Fohi flourished, which was about three
thousand years before the new and common era of our northwestern part of
the world, I perceive wise and mild laws already established by a
beneficent sovereign. The ancient books of the Five Kings, consecrated
by the respect of so many ages, treat of the institution of agriculture,
of pastoral economy, of domestic economy, of that simple astronomy which
regulates the different seasons, and of the music which, by different
modulations, summoned men to their respective occupations. Fohi
flourished, beyond dispute, more than five thousand years ago. We may
therefore form some judgment of the great antiquity of an immense
population, thus instructed by an emperor on every topic that could
contribute to their happiness. In the laws of that monarch I see nothing
but what is mild, useful and amiable.
I was afterwards induced to inspect the code of a small nation, or
horde, which arrived about two thousand years after the period of which
we have been speaking, from a frightful desert on the banks of the river
Jordan, in a country enclosed and bristled with peaked mountains. These
laws have been transmitted to ourselves, and are daily held up to us as
the model of wisdom. The following are a few of them:
"Not to eat the pelican, nor the ossifrage, nor the griffin, nor the
ixion, nor the eel, nor the hare, because the hare ruminates, and has
not its foot cloven."
"Against men sleeping with their wives during certain periodical
affections, under pain of death to both of the offending parties."
"To exterminate without pity all the unfortunate inhabitants of the land
of Canaan, who were not even acquainted with them; to slaughter the
whole; to massacre all, men and women, old men, children, and animals,
for the greater glory of God."
"To sacrifice to the Lord whatever any man shall have devoted as an
anathema to the Lord, and to slay it without power of ransom."
"To burn widows who, not being able to be married again to their
brothers-in-law, had otherwise consoled themselves on the highway or
elsewhere," etc.
A Jesuit, who was formerly a missionary among the cannibals, at the time
when Canada still belonged to the king of France, related to me that
once, as he was explaining these Jewish laws to his neophytes, a little
impudent Frenchman, who was present at the catechising, cried out, "They
are the laws of cannibals." One of the Indians replied to him, "You are
to know, Mr. Flippant, that we are people of some decency and kindness.
We never had among us any such laws; and if we had not some kindness and
decency, we should treat you as an inhabitant of Canaan, in order to
teach you civil language."
It appears upon a comparison of the code of the Chinese with that of the
Hebrews, that laws naturally follow the manners of the people who make
them. If vultures and doves had laws, they would undoubtedly be of a
very different character.