Tue extraordinary fondness Chinese for moral maxims (whic! cynical observer would declare, is only equalled by their pertinacity in ignoring them) has encouraged the growth of many score of Martin Tuppers in this Land of Culture. One such flourished at the close of the ig or the begis ing of the Ching ty.—quite a modern philosopher, it will be observed, but very popular for all that. His name was Chu Pai-lu, and he is best known to the general Chinese public by his Family Aphorisms, which we have no scruple in pronouncing to be the best book of the kind it has been our fortune to peruse, For one thing, a very important thing this, it is out and away the shortest. The form in which it generally appears is that of a microscopic volume of six pages, each some two and a half inches by three, and it may be purchased, even by a foreigner, for a few cash. But the wealth of wisdom contained in this small compass might be watered down into half a dozen Proverbial Philosophies and leave them still sufficiently nutritive. Nowadays nobody wades through Tupper's dreary stilted twaddle, but Chu Pai-lu is sought after as much as ever. In all fairness it must be said that he is not bought to study, but because he abounds in the most excellent material for ¢uitzas,—the parallel scrolls that more than take the place of a New Englander's illuminated texts.
The first thing that strikes a western student of our duodecimo philosopher is the curious importance he attaches to cleanliness. "Rise before dawn," he begins, "sprinkle and sweep the compound; let all within and without be perfectly clean." " An earthen platter that is clean is better than silver plate, and well-washed vegetables than dainty Yet he has inspired none of his innumerable admirers with a determination to carry the precept into practice, and in all probability was himself as guiltless of soap and water as the rowsiest of them. Still, that he should bring this virtue to the front may well be counted to him for righteousness. He was a careful and a prudent man, and under happier circumstances might have been a Scotchman. He falls, however, behind both the hospitality and the dignity of the Land o'Cakes when he observes, "ask a guest to dinner but do not press him to stay," and, "don't drink wore than you can carry." It is not that he is stingy; far from it. Indeed, he declares that "a house founded in meanness never re-wains prosperous for long." And here is another precept of his that, sorely as it is needed by his own countrymen, might have a useful career abroad: " do not beat down the prices of a man whose whole stock is carried on his shoulder." Or this, "if you see a neighbour in warty or distress, it is your duty to have pity on him often."
He must surely have been a married man, for so only could he have had suitable opportunities for judgments such as these: " where maidservants are beautiful and handmaids comely, there is no happiness in the women's apartments," and "don't employ a handsome servant, and beware of finery in wife or handwaid." He sums up the whole duty of a married son thus:—"To listen to a wife abusing your flesh and blood, is that being a husband?" Yet how many Chinese husbands take up, in such circumstances, the cudgels with which Jaw and philosophy provide them Most of them, we suspect, abandon the unequal contest, or call in the powerful aid of their mothers.
Our philosopher is canny (and here his countrymen do follow him): "in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.