During the 17th and 18th centuries, Europeans manifested an almost unbounded enthusiasm for diaries and informative tomes written by Western merchants, diplomats, missionaries, and travelers concerning the Americas, Africa, Persia, India, China, and "the Indies." As applied in the practical sphere of ethics, the philosophical assumptions of either China or the West could be adapted to permit, in varying degrees, the exercise of free will. China's population had grown to the point where immigration no longer was considered to be beneficial. Nevertheless, the benevolent ruler would take to heart his people's welfare and would strive to avoid war to spare them suffering and possible ruin. Neo-Confucianism appeared to be the ideal prototype for a deistic ethical system espoused by many European intellectuals. The Western humanists made their own choices. They failed to provide nourishment for the inner man, rejecting the only indigenous system—Judeo-Christianity—that, like Confucianism, emphasized inner spirituality.