The status of the Chinese popular mind in its abnormal cravings, may be compared with the physical: condition of a fever patient. Unable, through ignorance, to extend the operations of thought further than the borders of the Iuner Land, and requiring something far beyond the resources of China to satisfy the natural and normal desire, it has peopled the earth, the air, and the sea with all sorts of ghosts, hobgoblins, fairies and dragons. For this lamentable fiot, the Buddhist doctrine of. transmigration is largely responsible. Certain it is, that the people think that animals and reptiles were once men, and men were once animals: and reptiles. Sach being the case, it is no wonder that the ordinary and commonplace occurrences on this planet seem tame and insipid when put alongside the thrilling adventures of their imaginary heroes. The resources and powers of such men as William the Conqueror, Columbus, Cromwell, Napoleon, and others are but feeble when compared with the Albia and Fabhai of this tale, the one of whom could cause the Yangtze River to overflow by magic, and drown the inhabitants of Chinkiang;.and the other, bend down' the Thunder Peak Tower with a word. The nil admirari attitude of the Chinese, that is apparent even to the most casual observer, may be partly accounted for by the fact that in every department of thought and action their traditions contain the deeds of demigods more exceedingly wonderful than any actual sublunary character ever prodaced. The most brilliant exponent. of modern surgery, for instance, would never be " able to take the hearts out of two men and change them the one for the other." And yet Pien Ch'iao did this twenty-five centuries ago! No feat of Japarotomy could equal that of another Chinese physician who "pierced the chest of a patient and introduced food into the interior." "In order to render the ni intellect capable of receiving and assimilating true knowledge, the fever above mentioned must first be reduced. We believe that the plain Gospel of Jesus Christ, with its long train of beneficent effects upon the world and mankind, will clarify the mind of the Chinese, as well as accomplish the farther reaching and more enduring result of saving their souls,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.