or Kong-fu-tse, the most eminent, and most justly venerated of all the philosophers of China, a descendant of the imperial family of the dynasty of Chang, was born in the kingdom of Lu, now called the province of Chang-tong, about 550 years before the commencement of the Christian era. This makes him to have been contemporary with Pythagoras and Solon, and prior to the days of Socrates. He gave striking proofs of very uncommon talents at an early period of life, which were cultivated and improved with great fidelity under the tuition of the ablest masters. Scarcely had he attained to the years of maturity, when he evinced himself acquainted with all the literature of that period, possessing, in particular, a comprehensive knowledge of the canonical and classical books, ascribed to the legislators Yao and Chun, which the Chinese emphatically denominate the five volumes. as containing the essence of all their science and morality. Nature had bestowed upon him a most amiable temper, and his moral deportment was altogether unexceptionable. He acquired a distinguished reputation for humility, sincerity, the government of his appetites, a disinterested heart, and a sovereign contempt of wealth. These rare qualities pointed him out as a proper person to fill offices of importance and trust in the government of his country, which he did with honour to himself and advantage to the empire. These public stations afforded him excellent opportunities of estimating with accuracy the true state of morals among his countrymen, which at this time were dissolute and vicious in the extreme. He conceived the godlike idea of attempting a general reformation both in morals and in politics, and his efforts for some time were attended with such remarkable effects, that he inspired his countrymen with a just veneration for his excellent character, and gratitude for his exertions, being raised to a station of the last importance in the kingdom of Lu. Here his counsels and advice were productive of the most beneficial consequences, in establishing good order, the due exercise of justice, concord, and decorum through the whole kingdom. As it thus very naturally became an object of admiration, so likewise, neighbouring princes beheld with envy its growing happiness and prosperity; to destroy which they contrived a fatal and effectual expedient. The king of T'hi being apprehensive, that if the king of Lu continued to be directed by the wisdom and sound policy of Confucius, he would soon become by far too powerful, sent him and his nobility a present of the most beautiful young women, trained up from their infancy in all the arts of seduction, who were but too successful in plunging the whole court into voluptuousness and dissipation. This demolished in a short time, the whole of that beautiful fabric which had been erected by Confucius. Finding it a hopeless attempt to stem the universal torrent of corruption and depravity, he resolved to exert his talents in some distant kingdom, in the philanthropic cause of moral reformation, in hopes of better success. But he had the mortification to discover, that vice was everywhere triumphant, while virtue, that darling of his soul, was compelled to hide her head. This induced him to adopt the more humble, although not the less interesting employment, of a teacher of youth, in which he made great and rapid progress. About 600 of his scholars were sent into different parts of the empire, to carry on his favourite work of moral reformation. Among his disciples, 72 were remarkably distinguished above the rest for their mental acquisitions, and 10 others were deemed superior, even to these, as having a thorough comprehension of their master's whole system. These were divided by him into four classes: the first being destined to the study of the moral virtues; the second to the arts of logic and public speaking; the third class studied jurisprudence and the duties of the civil magistrate; and public speaking, or the delivery of popular discourses on moral topics. Indefatigable, however, as his labours were, the task was too mighty to be accomplished by human exertions. During his last illness, he declared to his pupils, that the grief of his mind occasioned by the profligacy of human nature was become insupportable; and with a melancholy voice, he exclaimed "Immensé mountain, how art thou fallen! The grand machine is demolished, and the wife and the virtuous are no more." The kings will not follow my maxims; I am no longer useful on earth; it is, therefore, time that I should quit it." On uttering these words he was seized with a lethargy, which brought him to the grave. He finished his honourable career in the 72nd year of his age, in his native kingdom, to which he had returned in company with his disciples. It is frequently the fate of illustrious characters, never to be properly valued till they are cut off by death; which was the case with Confucius. The whole empire of China bewailed the loss of him, and erected innumerable edifices to perpetuate his memory, adorned with such honourable inscriptions as the following: "To the great master;" "To the chief doctor;" "To the saint;" "To the wife king of literature;" "To the instructor of emperors and kings." All his defendants, even to the present day, enjoy the honourable title and office of mandarins, and are exempted from the payment of taxes to the emperor, as well as the princes of the blood. The man who applies for the title of doctor, must previously have made a present to a mandarin descended in a direct line from Confucius. The writings of this great man are esteemed by the Chinese as of the highest authority, next to the five volumes, to which he modestly acknowledges himself to have been much indebted. His works are, 1. The T'ae-hio; "The Grand Science, or School of Adults," chiefly intended for the information of princes and magistrates, recommending the duties of self-government, and uniform obedience to the laws of right reason. 2. The Chong-yong, or "Immutable Medium," in which he shews its importance in the government of the passions by a variety of examples, and points out the method of arriving at perfection in virtue. 3. Lung-yu, or moral and tententious discourses, which exhibit a lively picture of the opinions, conduct, and maxims of Confucius and his followers. 4. Meng-tse, the book of Mencius, which derived its name from one of that great philosopher's disciples. These are all deservedly esteemed by the Chinese, being held next in importance to the five volumes. 5. The Hyau-king, or dissertation on the duty and respect which children owe their parents; and, 6. The Syan-hyo, or science for children, being a judicious collection of moral sentences from ancient and modern writers.

If a fair and impartial estimate of the religion of Confucius be made, it cannot be viewed in any other light than as an uncorrupted deism, although he has sometimes been accused of befriending and secretly propagating atheistical sentiments; but such an accusation is as cruel as it is unjust, since the purity of his moral precepts, and the acknowledged rectitude of his whole deportment, are utterly incompatible with such a supposition. He considered the Tyen or Deity as the purest and most perfect essence, principle and source of all things in the boundless universe; who is absolutely independent, omnipotent, the governor and guardian of every thing; possessed of infinite wisdom which nothing can deceive; holy, without partiality, of unlimited goodness and justice. We are at a loss to form any adequate opinion of his sentiments relative to the soul of man and the doctrine of futurity, having no well authenticated data, on which to proceed. His morality is in many instances superior to that of Greece and Rome, The religion of Confucius, notwithstanding the estimation in which he is held, is adopted as a model by none of his countrymen, the literati excepted. Their prevailing system is a medley of pagan idolatry and the fabulous superstition of the Indians, introduced into China by Fo, in the first century of the Christian era.