to the Principles of their Doctrine Sommona-Codom before his Death ordered that some Statues and Temples should be Consecrated to him and since his Death he is in that State of repose which they express by they word Nireupan This is not a place but a kind of Being for to speak truly they say Sommona-Codom is no where and he enjoys not any Felicity he is without power and out of a condition to do either Good or Evil unto Men expressions which the Portugueses have rendered by the word Annihilation Nevertheless on the other hand the Siameses do esteem Sommona-Codom happy they offer up Prayers unto him and demand of him whatever they want whether that their Doctrine agrees not with it self or that they extend their worship beyond their Doctrine but in what Sense soever they attribute Power to Sommona-Codom they agree that he has it only over the Siameses and that he concerns not himself with other People who adore other Men besides him That it is probable that Sommona-Codom never has been As therefore they report nothing but Fables of their Sommona-Codom that they respect him not as the Author of their Laws and their Doctrine but at most as him who has re-established them amongst Men and that in fine they have no reasonable Memory of him it may be doubted in my Opinion that there ever was such a man He seems to have been invented to be the Idea of a Man whom Vertue as they apprehend it has rendered happy in the times of their Fables that is to say beyond what their Histories contain certain And because that they have thought necessary to give at the same time an opposite Idea of a Man whom his wickedness has subjected to great Torments they have certainly invented that Thevetat whom they suppose to have been Brother to Sommona-Codom and his Enemy They make them both to be Talapoins and when they alledge that Sommona-Codom has been King they report it as they declare he has been an Ape and a Pig They suppose that in the several Transmigrations of his Soul he has been all things and allways excellent in every kind that is to say he has been the most commendable of all Pigs as the most commendable of all Kings I know not from whence Mr. Gervaise judges that the Chineses pretend that Sommona-Codom was of their Country I have seen nothing thereof in the Relations of China but only what I have spoken concerning Chekia or Chaka The Life of Thevetat was given me translated from the Baly but not to interrupt my discourse I will put it at the end of this Relation 'T is also a Texture of Fables and a curious specimen of the thoughts of these men touching the Vertues and Vices the Punishments and Rewards the Nature and the Transmigrations of Souls I must not omit what I borrow from Mr. Harbelot A conjecture upon the Etymology of Sommona-Codom and what Language the Baly may be I have thought it necessary to consult him about what I know of the Siamese to the end that he might observe what the words which I know thereof have in common with the Arabian Turkish and Persian and he informed that Suman which must be pronounced Souman signifies Heaven in Persian and that Codum or Codom signifies Ancient in the same Tongue so that Sommona-Codom seems to signifie the eternal or uncreated Heaven because that in Persian and in Hebrew the word which signifies Ancient implys likewise uncreated or eternal And as touching the Baly Tongue he informed me that the ancient Persian is called Pahalevi or Pahali and that between Pahali and Bahali the Persians make no Difference Add that the word Pout which in Persian signifies an Idol or false God and which doubtless signified Mercury when the Persians were Idolaters signifies Mercury amongst the Siameses as I have already remark'd Mercury who was the God of the Sciences seems to have been adored through the whole Earth by reason doubtless that Knowledge is one of the most essential Attributes of the true God Remarks which may hereafter excite the curiosity of the learned men that shall be designed to travel into the East But I know not whether to this hour it is not lawful to believe that this is a proof of what I have said It seems to prove that the worship of the Chineses is more antient at Siam than the Opinion of the Metempsychosis that the Ancestors of the Siameses must have adored the Heaven like the ancient Chineses and as perhaps the ancient Persians did and that having afterwards embraced the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis and forgot the true meaning of the name of Sommona-Codom they have made a man of the Spirit of Heaven and have attributed unto him all the fables that I have related 'T is a great Art to change the belief of the People to leave unto them their ancient words by cloathing them with new Idea's Thus it may be that the Ancestors of the Siameses have thought that the Spirit of Heaven ruled the whole Nature though the modern Siameses do not believe it of Sommona-Codom they believe on the contrary as I have said that such a care is opposite to the supream felicity They believe also that Sommona-Codom has sinned and that he has been punished at the time that he was worthy of the Nireupan because they believe the extream virtue impossible They believe that the worship of Sommona-Codom is only for them and that amongst the other Nations there are other men who have render'd themselves worthy of Altars and which those other Nations must adore All the Indians in general are therefore perswaded What is the Spirit of the Faith of the Indians or the Submission which they have to their Traditions that different people must have different Worships but by approving that other People have each their worship they comprehend not that some would exterminate theirs They think not like us that Faith is a Virtue they believe because they know not how to doubt but they perswade not themselves that there is a Faith and Worship which ought to be the Faith and the Worship of all Nations Their Priests preach not that a Soul shall be punished in the other world for not having believed the Traditions of his Country in this because they understand not that any of them denies the Fables of their Books They are ready to believe whatever is told rhem of a foreign Religion how incomprehensible soever it be but they cannot believe that their own is false and much less can they resolve to change their Laws their Manners and their Worship One had better to show them the contrarieties and gross Ignorance in their Books they do sometimes agree herein but for all this they reject not their Books as for some falsity we reject not every Historian nor every Physical Book They believe not that their Doctrine has been dictated by an eternal and infallible Truth of which they have not
intire to the worship of the dead And it is necessary that the Chineses understand it thus and that they think not that Pagode signifies God for Father Magaillans informs us that they are offended when Confucius is treated as a Pagode because this is to treat him not as God which would not be an injury to Confucius but as a Man arrived at the supreme Vertue of the Indians which the Chineses do think very much inferior to the Vertue of Confucius CHAP. XXIII Concerning the Origine of the Talapoins and of their Opinions It seems that it may be found in the Chinese Antiquity WHen I would seek by what degrees Humane Reason could precipitate itself into such strange Digressions I think to find the Footsteps thereof in the Chinese Antiquity The Chineses are so ancient If the ancient Chineses acknowledge the Deity they soon corrupted the Idea thereof that it must be presumed that at the beginning they knew the true God and by him good and bad Works and the Recompences or Punishments which the one and the other were to expect from that Omnipotent Judge but that by little and little they have obscur'd and corrupted these Idea's God that Being so pure and so perfect is at most become the material Soul of the entire World or of its most beautiful part which is the Heaven His Providence and his Power have been no more than a limited Providence and Power tho' nevertheless a great deal more extensive than the strength and prudence of Men. It seems says Father Trigaut in the first Book of his Christian Expedition to China chap. 10. That the ancient Chineses have believed the Heaven and the Earth animated and that they have ador'd the Soul as a Supreme God calling him the King of Heaven or simply the Heaven and the Earth Father Trigaut might raise the same doubt upon all things for the Doctrine of the Chineses has continually attributed Spirits to the four parts of the World to the Planets to the Mountains to the Rivers to the Plants to the Cities and their Ditches to Houses and their Chimnies and in a word to all things And all the Spirits appear not good to them they acknowledge some wicked ones to be the immediate cause of the mischiefs and disasters to which the humane life is subject Moreover as they thought the Earth and the Sea fixt to the Heaven by the Horizon they have attributed but one Spirit or one Soul to the Heaven and the Earth tho' nevertheless and perhaps by some thought contrary to their first opinion they have built two different Temples the one consecrated to the Heaven and the other to the Earth As therefore the Soul of Man was in their opinion They have taken from God the infinite Providence and Omnipotence the source of all the vital Actions of Man so they gave a Soul unto the Sun to be the source of its qualities and of its motions and on this Principle the Soul 's diffused every where causing in all Bodies the Actions which appear natural to these Bodies there needs no more to explain in this opinion the whole oeconomie of Nature and to supply the Omnipotence and infinite Providence which they admit not in any Spirit not even in that of the Heaven In truth as it seems that Man using things natural for his nourishment They have made God as a King of all Nature but not a King always obeyed or for his conveniency has some power over things Natural the ancient opinion of the Chineses allowing such a like power proportionably to all the Souls supposed that that of the Heaven might act over Nature with a prudence and strength incomparably greater than Humane Prudence and Power But at the same time it acknowledg'd in the Soul of every thing an interior force independent by its nature from the Power of Heaven and which acted sometimes against the Designs of Heaven The Heaven governed Nature as a powerful King the other Souls paid Obedience to him He almost continually forced them but some there were which sometimes dispenced with obeying him Confucius believes extream Vertue impossible and consequently he thinks the Idea we have of God impossible Confucius discoursing of boundless Vertue which is the true Idea that we have of the Divinity thinks it impossible How vertuous soever saith he a man is there will yet be a degree of Vertue to which he cannot attain The Heaven and the Earth adds he tho' so great so perfect and so curiously wrought cannot yet satisfy the Desires of all by reason of the Inconstancy of the Seasons and of the Elements so that Man finds in them wherewith to reprehend and even just Subjects of Indignation Wherefore if we throughly comprehend the greatness of extreme Virtue we shall necessarily confess that the whole Vniverse can neither contain nor sustain the weight thereof If on the contrary we think upon that subtil and conceal'd point of Perfection in which it consists we shall confess that the whole World can neither divide nor penetrate it These are the words of Confucius as Father Couplet has given them us by which this Philosopher seems to have had no other intention than to describe the real Divinity which he believes impossible seeing that he finds it no where not even in the Spirit of the Heaven and the Earth which is what he conceived most perfect The Worship due to the Creator divided amongst the Creatures by the Ancient Chineses The Divine Power and Providence being thus distributed as by Piece-meals to an infinite number of Souls the ancient Chineses thought themselves obliged to address to this infinite multitude of Souls and Spirits the Vows and Worship which they ow'd only to one alone Of Nature they make a State like to theirs Of Nature they make an invisible Monarchy which they mould theirs upon and of which they believe that the invisible members had a continual correspondence with the members of the Chinese Monarchy which they thought to possess near the whole Earth To the Spirit of Heaven they allot six principal Ministers as the King of China has six which are the Presidents of the six chief Tribunals wherein they only have a determinative Voice They believe that the King of Heaven for they give this Title to the Spirit of Heaven intermeddled only with the person and manners of the King of China That all men ought to honour this supream Spirit but that the King of China only was worthy to offer Sacrifices unto him and for these Sacrifices they had no other Priest The Ministers of China offer'd Sacrifices to the Ministers of Heaven and every Chinese Officer thus honoured an Officer like to him near Heaven The People sacrificed to a multitude of Spirits diffused every where and every one was Priest in this sort of worship there being not any Order or Religious body for the service of the Temples and for the Sacrifices What the
Indians have added to these Errors The Indians do now believe like the ancient Chineses some Souls as well good as bad diffused every where to which they have distributed the Divine Omnipotence And there is yet found some remains of this very Opinion amongst the Indians which have embraced Mahumetanism But by a new Error the Pagans of the Indies have thought all these Souls of the same nature and they have made them all to rowl from one body to another The Spirit of the Heaven of the ancient Chineses had some Air of Divinity It was I think immortal and not subject to wax old and to die and to leave its place to a Successor but in the Indian Doctrine of the Metempsychosis the Souls are fixed no where and succeeding one another every where they are not one better than another by their nature they are only designed to higher or lower functions in Nature according to the merit of their work Why the Indians have consecrated no Temple to the Spirits not even to that of Heaven The Antient Chineses have divided the Justice of God The Justice of Heaven was principally busied in punishing the Faults of the Kings of China Thus the Indians have consecrated no Temples to the Spirits not so much as to that of Heaven because they believe them all Souls like all the rest which are still in the course of Transmigration that is to say in Sin and in the Torments of different sorts of life and consequently unworthy of having Altars But if the ancient Chineses have as I may say reduc'd the Providence and Omnipotence of God into piece-meals they have not less divided his Justice They assert that the Spirits like concealed Ministers were principally busied in punishing the hidden faults of men that the Spirit of Heaven punished the faults of the King the Ministring Spirits of Heaven the faults of the King's Ministers and so of other Spirits in regard of other men On this Foundation they said to their King that though he was the adoptive Son of Heaven yet the Heaven would not have any regard to him by any sort of Affliction but by the sole consideration of the good or evil that he should do in the Government of his Kingdom They called the Chinese Empire the Celestial Command because said they a King of China ought to govern his State as Heaven governed Nature and that it was to Heaven that he ought to seek the Science of Governing They acknowledged that not only the Art of Ruling was a Present from Heaven but that Regality it self was given by Heaven and that it was a present difficult to keep because that they supposed that Kings could not maintain themselves on the Throne without the savour of Heaven nor please Heaven but by Vertue How they believe their Kings responsable to Heaven for the manners of their Subjects They carried this Doctrine so far that they pretended that the sole Vertue of Kings might render their Subjects Vertuous and that thereby the Kings were first responsible to Heaven for the wicked manners of their Kingdom The Vertue of Kings that is to say the Art of Ruling according to the Laws of China was in their Opinion a Donative from Heaven which they called Celestial Reason or Reason given by Heaven and like to that of Heaven The Vertue of Subjects according to them the regards of the Citizens as well from one to another as from all towards their Prince according to the Laws of China was the work of good Kings 'T is a small matter said they to punish Crimes it is necessary that a King prevents them by his Vertue They extoll one of their Kings for having reigned Twenty two years the People not perceiving that is to say not feeling the weight of the Royal Authority no more than the force which moves Nature and which they attribute to Heaven They report then that for these Twenty two years there was not one single Process in all China nor one single Execution of Justice a Wonder which they call to govern imperceptably like the Heaven and which alone may cause a doubt of the Fidelity of their History Another of their Kings meeting as they say a Criminal which was lead to Punishment took it upon himself for that under his Reign he committed Crimes worthy of Death And another seeing China afflicted with Sterility for seven years condemned himself if their History may be credited to bear the Crimes of his People as thinking himself only culpable and resolved to devote himself to death and to sacrifice himself to the Spirit of Heaven the Revenger of the Crimes of Kings But their History adds that Heaven satisfied with the Piety of that Prince exempted him from that Sacrifice and restored Fertility to the Lands by a sudden and plentiful Rain As the Heaven therefore executes Justice only upon the King and that it inflicts it only upon the King for what it sees punishable in the People the Ministers of Heaven do execute Justice on the secret Faults which the King's Ministers commit and all the Officers which depend upon them and after the same manner the other Spirits do watch over the Actions of the Men that in the Kingdom of China have a rank equal to that which these Spirits do possess in the invincible Monarchy of Nature whereof the Spirit of Heaven is King Besides this the natural Honor which most men have of the dead The Chineses fear their dead Parents whom they knew very well in their Life-time and the Opinion which several have of having seen them appear to them whether by an effect of this natural Honor which represents them to them or by Dreams so lively that they resemble the Truth do induce the ancient Chineses to believe that the Souls of their Ancestors which they judged to be of very subtile matter pleased themselves in continuing about their Posterity and that they might though after their death chastise the Faults of their Children The Chinese People still continue in these opinions of the temporal Punishments and Rewards which come from the Soul of Heaven and from all the other Souls though moreover for the greatest part they have embraced the Opinion of the Metempsychosis unknown to their Ancestors But by little and little the Men of Letters that is to say The Impiety of the present Chineses which are men of Learning those that have some degrees of Literature and who alone have a Hand in the Government being become altogether impious and yet having altered nothing in the Language of their Predecessors have made of the Soul of Heaven and of all the other Souls I know not what aerial substances uuprovided of Intelligence and for the Judge of our Works they have established a blind Fatality which in their opinion makes that which might exercise an Omnipotent and Illuminated Justice How ancient this Impiety is at China belongs not to me to determin Father de Rhodes in his