39th and 40th volumes are examples of Wnoist books by Dr. Legge, who has translated the ''no-teh-ching, Chuangtze, and the Kan-ying- These books here take their place with the Vedas, the Zendavesta, the Books of Confucius, the Laws of Mann and the sacred writings of the Buddhists and Mahommedans. Dr. Legue is content to be a faithful translator and by general consent the credit of faithful translation has been awarded: him, His industry is unwearied and his collection of authorities large and valuable. He is fond of study and warks early and late. Ordinarily he is safe in his translations because he reads extensively in Chinese conmentaries in order to be accurate. It is in this way that he has attained a general correctness, yet if a translation is to suit the modern spirit and make the sacred books of the Chinese attractive, much more than this is required. Comparative philosophy is essential and so alois the stady of comparative religion, and without comparison of one system with another full light cannot be thrown on the pages of China's old philosophers. his attractive field our translator has left to others. He has occupied himself a good deal with Balfour and Giles, and the readers of the Sacred Books of the East will Jearn not a little about the excellences and faults of their translations, But cui loro? This is not exactly what Europe desires to know! about the old religions of China, In and Persia, Is Europe anxious about} diversities of rendering here and there by Giles.and Chalmers in the sacred books of these countries? Is not Europe rather anxious to learn how Laotze came to think and write as he did? What was his training? Why did China two thousand five hundred years ago renovate her old religion in Shantung, and originate a new one in Honan? How came the book of Five Thousand Words to be so influential Now it seems to us a matter of extreme interest to know what the Taoists think of the book. his is what Mr. Balfour felt to be a want and undertook to give us, He very properly gave the public the opportunity to judge by limiting himself to the religious comment. His literary rivals, instead of expressing full appreciation of the idea that to know the Koran you should study Mahommedan commentators, have attacked Mr. Balfour one after another, telling us the comment he made a version of is spurious and ridiculous. Now to say it is spurious really means nothing, because every uew Taoist book since about the 4th century is always ascribed to one of the genii who rides down on a phoenix into the studio of the would-be author of a new book, and writes the book on a sanded table leaving it to be deciphered by the fortunate man to who the manifestation has been vouchsafed. The comment translated by Mr. Balfour professes to have been obtained from one of the chief genii of the Taoists in this way. 'I'his is all that the word spurious means in this connection. 'I'he new books of the Kin-tan sect, which has jast been in arms against the government, and of all imilar sects are all declared to be inspired by some celebrated rider the phoenix in the same mauner. Nor can the charge that 'l'avist comments are ridiculous be sustained. In fact the Book of Reason and Virtue sobers a reader at once and carries him out of the range of comedy. If any one wishes amusement do not let him read the Tao-teh-ching. Of all Chinese treatises it is the most soberly suggestive, the most laconic, the most thoughtful. But perhaps Mr. Balfour's critics mean that the Taoist commentators: make the text express what the author never thought of. This is true, but we may desire to know also what the disciples thought of the master's teaching, in order to understand the effect of the book on the religionists who value it as the most sacred of their productions. his still remains Mr. Balfonr's merit, that he alone las attempted to render the mysterious old book in a religious sense, while all the other translators—three English, two French, one Latin, and two Germau—have aimed to give what may be called the correct critical sense.
In regard to the teaching of the book it is a Chinese reflection of Hindu philosophy. That is to say, the Chinese were in Laotze's day receptive of outside influences as they are now and at the same time conservative enough to elaborate what they borrowed asit it were the fruit of their own thought. The Book of Hills and Seas comes down from those times and is largely ocoupied with foreign geography. 'The'poetry of Chu-yuen has in' it currents of fore thought. The same is true of the medical and astrological books of the time, which are brimful of ideas which the Chinese never. invented for themselves. They simply received and: transmitted them. We know what the Chinese are at the present day. hey. merely transmit ancient thought. They do not originate. The real position occupied by Laotze was this. He held that there is a metaphysical basis for the physical universe. There is something on which the world rests, Let us call it dagos. This is an idea imported from Western Asia, for it has been a favourite dogma of philosophy eversincephilosophy was born, This logos becomes a duality and the, duality a trinity. "This also is a dogma of Laotze and of western philosophy. It is found in Babylonian and Hindu philosophy. Laotze holds thata retired life is good. Beand Chuangtzewroteinfavour of an ascetic life, The Buddhists came to China later and taught the same thing. So did the teachers of Brahmanism before Buddhism. Laotze learned about the ascetic doctrine just as Chinese observers of the stars heard about western astrology. Lavtze selected from the foreign knowledge then coming into China the metaphysical and ascetic portion and worked it up into system, The very elaborate astrology of China was derived from foreign materials in the same way. So with medical doctrines, Demoniacal possession causing sickness is not a doctrine held by China -independently of other countries in Asia, hey all hold it, and beliefs of this kind pass from one country to another as water finds its way through the pores of a sheet of paper. There is nothing therefore irrational in the reference of the new philosophical dogmas in the Book of Five Thousand Words to a Hindu_ origin. he Hindus are familiar with the, inguiry how the Universe will come from monad and how the law of evolution of the world may take a dual and trial form. They have not only thought upon this, but they early founded an ascetic mode of Jife in order that they might give themselves up to this sort of contemplation. In their view the greatest effects flow from mere contemplation. Laotze borrowed these ideas and applied them to politics. When Dr. Legge makes the statement that Zao is a phenomenon, a mode of being, he does not meet the student's wants, What the student should be told is that Zao is the underlying principle of the Universe, and that the knowledge of it is reached by quiet contemplation just as Buddha attained to the knowledge of Bodhi. Buddha left the world and aimed to renovate it as a teacher from a higher plane. Laotze undertook to point out how efficiency in governing the State and universal happiness may be attained. Let the activity of the ruler cease, and let the law of nature have its way. Activity is petty, but Zao is eternal,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.