Tae Art of War in Chins is, as may be expected, based upon principles fully as moral as those which are supposed to underlie the arts of government and all social relationships whatever. But just as the provincial administration of the Empire is as corrupt as it can well be, in spite of the moral platitudes which every Chinese official has imbibed with his mother's milk, so do we find a similarly wide departure in the methods employed in warfare from the admire able principles which are laid down by Chinese writers on the subject, Of these we will select the works of General Sze Ma, otherwise called Jong Kin, who flourished during the reign of Kang Hsi, as a fair specimen of their class, His essay is divided into Five Articles, dealing severally with Humanity at large, the Daties of the Son of Heaven, the Duties of those in Command, the Dignity of Troops, and a General Idea of how soldiers are to be employed. There is of course much that is very prolix in the remarks of the worthy General, who, like many modern military authors, seems to have been an excellent though somewhat prosy theorist on the art of War. For instance, he spends mach time in urging the theory that soldiers should be equipped neither too lightly nor too heavily, and that their arms should be neither too long nor too short. In case these requisitions should appear vexatious or obscure, the General proceeds to point out, with considerable care, that if a weapon is too long, it is difficalt to wield, while if it is too short, its usefulness is correspondingly curtailed. But, fearing lest this pro position should yet not be quite clear, the General adds that too great length is prejudicial by reason of the embarrassment it causes to the combatant, while too much economy of material renders the weapon useless, He goca on to show that if a soldier is too heavily equipped, he won't have strength enough to fight, and if too lightly, be will be without means to resist the at. tacks of the enemy; arriving at last at the grand conclusion that the most advantageous method is that which enables the soldier to attack his foe while defending himself against the blows that are being aimed at bim, We should not like to accuse so excel lent a writer as Moliere of plagiary still it isa very suspicious circumstance
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.