All the people of the East,
except the Mahometans, believe all religions in themselves indifferent.
They fear the establishment of another religion no otherwise than as a
change in government. Among the Japanese, where there are many sects,
and where the state has had for so long a time an ecclesiastical
superior, they never dispute on religion.
[23]
It is the same with the
people of Siam.
[24]
The Calmucks
[25]
do more; they make it a point of
conscience to tolerate every species of religion; at Calicut it is a
maxim of the state that every religion is good.
[26]
But it does not follow hence, that a religion brought from a far
distant country, and quite different in climate, laws, manners, and
customs, will have all the success to which its holiness might entitle
it. This is more particularly true in great despotic empires: here
strangers are tolerated at first, because there is no attention given to
what does not seem to strike at the authority of the prince. As they are
extremely ignorant, a European may render himself agreeable by the
knowledge he communicates: this is very well in the beginning. But as
soon as he has any success, when disputes arise and when men who have
some interest become informed of it, as their empire, by its very
nature, above all things requires tranquillity, and as the least
disturbance may overturn it, they proscribe the new religion and those
who preach, it: disputes between the preachers breaking out, they begin
to entertain a distaste for a religion on which even those who propose
it are not agreed.
