Comte, Lewis Le

, a Jesuit of Bourdeaux, was sent to China, as a missionary and mathematician in 1685, and published a book in considerable reputation before that of Du Halde appeared, entitled “Memoires sur la Chine,” 2 vols. 12mo, to which was added a history of the emperor’s edict in favour of Christianity. His “Memoirs” were censured by the faculty of divinity at Paris, because of his uncommon prejudices in favour of the Chinese, whom he equalled to the Jews, and maintained that they had worshipped the true God during two thousand years, and sacrificed to him in the most ample temple of the universe, while the rest of mankind were in a state of corruption. The parliament for the same reason ordered the work to be burnt, by a decree passed in 1762. Le Comte died in 1729. ³