CHARACTER OF THE ASIATIC NATIONS.--Generalizations covering so wide a field are, of necessity, inexact. As a rule, in the oriental mind, the intuitive powers eclipse the severely rational and logical. Civilization--as, for example, in Egypt and China--attains to a certain grade, and is there petrified. Immobility belongs to the Eastern nations. Revolutions bring a change of masters, but leave character and customs unchanged. The sense of individuality has been less vivid, and freedom less understood or valued. Governments have taken the despotic form. Law has had its seat in the ruler's sovereign will. The ruler has been regarded as clothed with divine authority. Before him the subject prostrates himself with groveling servility. RELIGION IN ASIA.--Asia is the cradle of the principal religions of the world. Here _monotheism_ appears, as in the faith of the Hebrews, and in the Mohammedan revival of it in a less pure form. Here have flourished _polytheistic_ systems, each with its throng of divinities. In the east, _pantheism_, dropping out of the conception of the Deity the element of personality, has found a cherished home. PRIESTHOODS.--Connected with the controlling influence of religion have arisen the priesthoods,--sometimes ruling as an aristocratic caste or class, sometimes dividing power with the reigning despot, to whom sacred attributes are ascribed. LITERATURE AND ART.--The Oriental nature has been mirrored in the literature and art of the East. Its products lack the measure, the grace and symmetry, and the human interest, which characterize the creations of the European mind. In the mechanical arts, invention and discovery push on progress to a certain point, then languish and die out. SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA. CHAPTER I. CHINA. China proper comprises less than half of the present Chinese Empire. It was called the land of Sinae or Seres by the ancients, and in the middle ages bore the name of Cathay. In the north of China are the broad alluvial plains, and in the north-eastern portion of the empire, an immense delta. The rest of the country is hilly and mountainous. The nucleus of the Chinese nation is thought to have been a band of immigrants, who are supposed by some to have started from the region south-east of the Caspian Sea, and to have crossed the head waters of the Oxus. They followed the course of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, having entered the country of their adoption from the north-west; and they planted themselves in the present province of Shan-se. Although nomads, they had some knowledge of astronomy, brought from their earlier homes; and they quickly made for themselves settled abodes. The native tribes by degrees were extirpated or driven out. The new-comers cultivated grain. They raised flax, out of which they wove garments.