China Coast Tales by Lise Boehw. Kelly and Walsh, Limited Shanghai, 1892, Ture fact that the first two essays in fiction by this talented authoress, published in China, Formosa, and Peter Wony's Kecenge, Appeared in our columns makes it a delicate niatter For us to criticise che little volume whose title is given above, which has just been issued by vur leading firm of publishers. In the two tales it contains, Dobson's Duuyhter, und Of the Noble Army, the wutheres continues her study of life in China, As he tells us in the Nota Bene! which takes the place of the eustomary preface, The confiding reader is expected to believe:—That the aim of these Tales is to illustrate life at the various Treaty Porta which have been opened, oyster-like, by the bayonet ducing the past tilty years: That no. attempt. has been made to caricature individuals, but rather to portray types of ordinary occurrence That while the vehicle of these Tales is fiction, their essence is fact."
That in these two tales the authoress has produced very careful and striking studies of foreign life in China, there ea be no question; but we are happy to think that they are very partial studies, Tt is the worst sile of hi in China attracted jetty in Chinn at the being' all euch object: peuple xs Mrs. Curtis, the Cunsul's wife, and Mrs, Bradley, the wife of the Commissioner of Customs, in Dobson's Daughter; wor are the missionaries in China represented fairly—they ure indeed almost caricature the figures that people the second tale, No doubt every incident in the two stories ight have recurred, hus perhaps occurred jut for all that the tales they make up are not truthful sketches of life at the outports, and the characters are not, we are glad to believe, types of ordinary occurrence, We should be sorry fur our fellow residents if they were.
If the reader remembers th unnecessary to impress it on the reader in China, he will greatly enjoy Lise Boehm' tales. Her characters are well and_ con sistently draw incident iv these stories than in her earlier "nes, white the descriptions of the scenes in which these little dramas take place are strictly true: even if it were not named Yungkiang, no r in Chins could fail to recognise the scene of the second tale, We have gest but that in the are to follow this, a little of the brighter side of our life in China, and will not find it necessary to kill off all her heroes.
PBRE. Tao-teh-ching: The Course of Nature, or the Way of Heaen, The dusio work of Taotze, translated by the Rev. Dr. Legge, 1891.
The prolific pen of our esteemed friend and well-known Chinese scholar has added another volume to its manifold productions, in the above work. and following it the translation of the writings of Chuangtze, a famous Taoist philosopher.—Special notice may well be taken of both these, works, from the reputation they have in 1s, the peculiarity of their style and, character, the difficulty of their translation in consequence, and the manner in which our author has'xccomplished it. We confine ourselves at present to the work noted above.
Io is n treatise containing 5,000 characters, and stands at the head of called Taoist philosophy, though it wise represents the present aspect of that system in the current forms of Tavist faith and practice. Its subject is well nigh inexplicable the name it bears and the disquis at follows, There variety of opinion on the meaning of the title of the book, and there is no less uncertainty as to the import of the work, its object, worth and use, We have at tached a tame to it, not as the translation of the Chinese characters, but us express of the general treatment of the subject, and yet there are ideas contained in the work in explanation of the terms employed, which are hard to be understood, and to which the name we have given will hardly apply. There is profound mysticism in the whole matter, and the language and illustrations used are so metaphorical, paradoxical, as to be unintelligible in a great degree. Altogether the style and Sentiments of the original work are so peculiar that we do not wonder at the well known estimate that Confucius formed of the author, as one far beyond him, and who had no sympathy with him. ' The fact is that the venerated sage of China was of too practical a turn for him, and while the teachings of the former' have determined the aspect and' character of Chinese life amd manners, those of the latter are continued to a comparatively few scholars, wha are Attrncted by the beauty and brevity of the style, while they widely for as to the meaning and application of the book.
But what are we to understand by the work at all? The term Tao would seem to denote something mysterious and sublime existing in the transcendental exceptions of the writer, or in the economy of the universe, altogether of an impersonal kind, and yet after whose model or by whose operation everything took place, alike in the grand, universal, order of things "ud in the conduct and character of individual men, The idea is must suggestive as to all-controlling power in the en and things, while the author insisting on a course of conformity to Tao and its practical influence, unhappily fails discerning what it really consists of, and how it may beat tained, Oneis reminded by the speculations here described of the archi-typal or eternal ideas of Plate and other western: philosophers in ancient times, They strove after x knowledge of the Great Supreme, the primal cause of things, and often used striking language to give expression to their speculations on the subject, though compelled to confess their inability to "find out God," while external nature on the one hand,' and reason or conscience on the other, prompted them seek after him, if haply they could tind him. We have no hesitation in das our author, Lantze, among this el men, and tead various passages of hiv writings as only verifying the painful fact. How different the clear and definite revelation of the Old Testament in the ease of such men as Jub in his description of wisdom, und in the Proverbs, Keclesinstes and the Apocrypha, wherein God is pro-sented under that form in the course and constitution of nature, and in the moral obligations of huamnit Whit then are we called to learn from this book? What as to the history of the author and his sources of learning? And how has the teauslator accomplished. his arduous work 1.—We awe in this book the speculations of an earnest mind in days long gone by, and on subjects fur transcending the ordinary reach of thought, Many of hia remark' appear trivial and commonplace, but the underlying idea is profound and far-reaching, The author is aiming at the highest order of trath and doctrine, yet confessedly fails to attain the knowledge in quest what mystical ideas gives expression to, what paradoxical Innguage ho employs in endeavouring to uocount for the origin and course of things How different from the standpoint we huve attained to! The book has a high value if it impresses us with this ides, which of the greatest consequence.
the condition of even the moat thoughtful minds, in ancient and modern times, apart from the revelation of Divine truth it is oura to possess, 2.—The closing history unknown, He retired from public life and completed his work far away from the bustle of his contemporaries. It is supposed he became acquainted with Babylon inn teachings and Hindu philosophy, but we have we certainty of this, and it hardly seems to us as if these sources of learning would account for the speculations and ideas contained in this book, They appear rather to be the natural emanation of a contemplative mind, constituted, it true, in @ peculiar manner, but not without many parallels in the history of the world, on the part of men whether living in solitude or in the midst of public and social life.
—We cannot withhold our hearty tri-of commendation to the translator of had many difficulties to contend agai in the condensed style and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.