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368 THE WILL IN NATURE.
My intention in giving the above quotations and expla
nations, is merely to prepare the way for the extremely re
markable passage, which it is the object of the present
chapter to communicate, and to render that passage more
intelligible to the reader by first making him realize the
standpoint from which these investigations were made, and
thus throwing light upon the relation between them and
their subject. For Europeans, when investigating this
matter in China in the way and in the spirit described,
always inquiring for the supreme principle of all things,
the power that rules the world, &c. &c., had often been re
ferred to that which is designated by the word Tien (Engl.
T heen). Now, the more usual meaning of this word is
"
Heaven," as Morrison also says in his dictionary ;
still it
is a well-known thing that Tien is used in a figurative
sense also, and then has a metaphysical signification. In
"
"
l
the Lettres Edifiantes we find the following explana
"
tion :
Chin-tien
Hing-tien is the material, visible heaven ;
the spiritual and invisible heaven. Sonnerat too, 2 in his
travels in East-India and China, says :
" When the Jesuits
disputed with the rest of the missionaries as to the mean
ing of the word Tien, whether it was Heaven or God, the
that mankind consists exclusively of Jews. For the
"
"
Times of the
18th October, 1854, relates that an American ship, under command of
Captain Burr, had arrived in Jeddo Bay, and gives his account of the
favourable reception he met with there, at the end of which we find :
" He likewise asserts the Japanese to be a nation of Atheists, denying
the existence of a God and selecting as an object of worship either the
spiritual Emperor at Meaco, or any other Japanese. He was told by
the interpreters that formerly their religion was similar to that of
China, but that the belief in a supreme Being has latterly been entirely
discarded (this is a mistake) and he professed to be much shocked at
Deejunoskee (a slightly Americanised Japanese), declaring his belief in
the Deity. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
1 Edition de, 1819, vol. xi. p. 461.
* Book iv. ch. i.