The necessary introductory step must be the giving them an alphabet like our own, or of substituting in the room of their language that of the Tartars.  The improvement made in the latter by M. de Lengles, is calculated to introduce this change.  See the Mantchou alphabet, the production of a mind truly learned in the formation of language.

In some parts of Europe, indeed, reason has begun to dawn, but even there, do nations partake of the knowledge of individuals?  Are the talents and genius of governors turned to the benefit of the people?  And those nations which call themselves polished, are they not the same that for the last three centuries have filled the earth with their injustice?  Are they not those who, under the pretext of commerce, have desolated India, depopulated a new continent, and, at present, subject Africa to the most barbarous slavery?  Can liberty be born from the bosom of despots? and shall justice be rendered by the hands of piracy and avarice?  O Genius, I have seen the civilized countries; and the mockery of their wisdom has vanished before my sight.  I saw wealth accumulated in the hands of a few, and the multitude poor and destitute.  I have seen all rights, all powers concentered in certain classes, and the mass of the people passive and dependent.  I have seen families of princes, but no families of the nation.  I have seen government interests, but no public interests or spirit.  I have seen that all the science of government was to oppress prudently; and the refined servitude of polished nations appeared to me only the more irremediable.

One obstacle above all has profoundly struck my mind.  On looking over the world, I have seen it divided into twenty different systems of religion.  Every nation has received, or formed, opposite opinions; and every one ascribing to itself the exclusive possession of the truth, must believe the other to be wrong.  Now if, as must be the fact in this discordance of opinion, the greater part are in error, and are honest in it, then it follows that our mind embraces falsehood as it does truth; and if so, how is it to be enlightened?  When prejudice has once seized the mind, how is it to be dissipated?  How shall we remove the bandage from our eyes, when the first article in every creed, the first dogma in all religion, is the absolute proscription of doubt, the interdiction of examination, and the rejection of our own judgment?  How is truth to make herself known?—­If she resorts to arguments and proofs, the timid man stifles the voice of his own conscience; if she invokes the authority of celestial powers, he opposes it with another authority of the same origin, with which he is preoccupied; and he treats all innovation as blasphemy.  Thus man in his blindness, has riveted his own chains, and surrendered himself forever, without defence, to the sport of his ignorance and his passions.