Asiatic Society was held on Wednesday evening. In the absence of Sir Pelham Warren, x.c." @., President, Dr. J. Ferguson, Vice-President, was in the chair. A scholarly and entertaining paper on the authorship of Tao Teh-ching bad been prepared for the meeting by Mr. perich not having retarned froma Sacer, Gipperich of Tientsin. Mr. Gip-
the paper was read by the Secretary, Dr..F. E. Hinckley, As an introduction, the reader referred to the controversy between Dr. Legge, who held thst the author of these societ sayings was, in fact, as the historian Ssu Ma-chien bad stated sod as tradition had affirmed, a philosopher of the sixth century before ('christ, and Professor Giles, that the work was composite, representing traditional proverbs and philosophy collected and commented upon by numerous writers, Special reference was made to the views of Thomas W. Kingsmill, " distiog ed member of the Society, recently deceased, which accorded with the views of Professer Giles, Reference was also made to the Tao Teh-ct an a cot peridium of traditional ideas of virtue snd happiness, all natare being seen through this aadiam, as recently stow by a paper, recently appearing in the Ostasiatische Lloyd," by Mr. R. Wilhelm, of Tsingtan, member of the Buciety.
Mr. Gipperich's paper showed that the historian Sea Ma-chien bad not made the statement in positive terms that Lao-tse, presumed oather this remarkable book, prized by the Chinese for well over 2,500 years, was a certain historic individosl. The word Lao means ancient, snd the word Tse means philosopher. The occurrence of this phrase Lao-tse-yao, at the beginning of most of the chapters with ite normal translation the ancient philosophers ssid suggests composite authorship. Namerous instances of internal evidence were given showing that more than one person must have contributed to the book.
The very contra-position of Lao ai Tee suggests ancient as contrasted wi the modern, and implies traditional. The formalism of the philosophy aod the staid versification suggest derivation through an infinite namber of repetitions from teacher to papil in numerous generations, therefore concluded by Mr, Gipperich that sales showed 475 the fondly-held tradition of the Chinese that a real personage, Lao tee wrote the Tso Teh-cbiag, must be abandoned; that the work is really the canon of proverbs on the right way of the pre-Confucian philosophers on the right way of life, and that the assumption of authorship by an individual dates from the literary renaissance of the Han dynasty.
Tu commenting on the paper Dr, Ferguson very clearly stated the essentials of the Legge-Giles contro-very and showed the great value of Sen Ma-chien's book, evidence of the existence of a real person, Lao-tee, a8 compared with the evidence contra, The finding of similar proverbs in the philosophy of, Tadeo brought out by a but asa resalt of regarded as no proof different civilizations in their primeval stages of development.
At the meeting of the Council of the Bociety, preceding the pablic meeting, the following were admitted to mem
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.