and polished
in his conversation with us, said that, as we were his guests, our belief
ought to have the honour of priority. We successively reviewed the
dogmatical and moral truths. To our great astonishment, the Regent did
not seem surprised at anything we said. "Your religion," he incessantly
repeated, "is conformable with ours; the truths are the same: we only
differ in the explanations. Of what you have seen and heard in Tartary
and Thibet, there is, doubtless, much to blame; but you must not forget
that the numerous errors and superstitions you may have observed, were
introduced by ignorant Lamas, and that they are rejected by well-informed
Buddhists." He only admitted, between him and us, two points of
difference--the origin of the world, and the transmigration of souls.
The belief of the Regent, though it here and there seemed to approximate
to the Catholic doctrine, nevertheless resulted in a vast pantheism; but
he affirmed that we also arrived at the same result, and he did his best
to convince us of this.

The Thibetian language, essentially religious and mystic, conveys with
much clearness and precision all the ideas respecting the human soul and
divinity. Unfortunately, we were not sufficiently versed in this
language, and were compelled, in our conversations with the Regent, to
have recourse to the Cashmerian governor to interpret for us; but, as he
himself was not very skilful in rendering metaphysical ideas into
Chinese, it was often difficult to understand each other. One day, the
Regent said to us, "The truth is clear in itself, but if you envelope it
in obscure words, one cannot perceive it. So long as we are obliged to
communicate in Chinese, it will be impossible to make ourselves
intelligible to each other. We shall never be able to discuss the matter
to advantage, till you speak the Thibetian language fluently." We quite
concurred in the justice of this observation. We replied to the Regent,
that the study of the Thibetian tongue was a great object of solicitude
with us, and that we laboured hard at it every day. "If you like," said
he, "I will facilitate your acquisition of it." And thereupon he called
a servant and said to him a few words which we did not understand.

A youth, elegantly dressed, immediately came, and saluted us with much
grace. "This is my nephew," said the Regent; "I present him to you as at
once tutor and pupil; he will pass the whole day with you, and you will