religious contention broke out in Bagdad itself, between the rigid and
the lax parties, and the followers of the Abbassides and of Ali.

If we consult ancient history, the case is the same; the Jews, a people
of progress, were ruined, as appears on the face of Scripture, by
internal causes; they split into sects, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians,
Essenes, as soon as the Divine Hand retired from the direct government
of their polity; and they were fighting together in Jerusalem when the
Romans were beleaguering its walls. Nay, even the disunion, which was a
special and divine punishment for their sins, was fulfilled according to
this natural law which I am illustrating; it was the splendid reign of
Solomon, the era of literature, commerce, opulence, and general
prosperity, which was the antecedent of fatal revolutions. If we turn to
civilized nations of an even earlier date, the case is the same; we are
accustomed indeed to associate Chinese and Egyptians with ideas of
perpetual untroubled stability; but a philosophical historian, whom I
shall presently cite, speaks far otherwise of those times when the
intellect was prominently active. China was for many centuries the seat
of a number of petty principalities, which were limited, not despotic;
about 200 years before our era it became one absolute monarchy. Till
then idolatry was unknown, and the doctrines of Confucius were in
honour: the first Emperor ordered a general burning of books, burning at
the same time between 400 and 500 of the followers of Confucius, and
persecuting the men of letters. A rationalist philosophy succeeded, and
this again gave way to the introduction of the religion of Buddha or Fo,
just about the time of our Lord's Crucifixion. At later periods, in the
fifth and in the thirteenth centuries, the country was divided into two
distinct kingdoms, north and south; and such was its state when Marco
Polo visited it. It has been several times conquered by the Tartars, and
it is a remarkable proof of its civilization, that it has ever obliged
them to adopt its manners, laws, and even language. China, then, has a
distinct and peculiar internal history, and has paid to the full the
penalty which, in the course of centuries, goes along with the blessings
of civilization. "The whole history of China, from beginning to end,"
says Frederic Schlegel, "displays one continued series of seditions,
usurpations, anarchy, changes of dynasty, and other violent revolution