are rain, sunshine, heat, cold, wind, and seasonableness. When the five come, all complete, and each in its proper order, even the various plants will be richly luxuriant. Should any one of them be either excessively abundant or excessively deficient, there will be evil.

"There are the favorable verifications:12 namely, of gravity, which is emblemed by seasonable rain; of orderliness, emblemed by seasonable sunshine; of wisdom, emblemed by seasonable heat; of deliberation, emblemed by seasonable cold; and of sageness, emblemed by seasonable wind. There are also the unfavorable verifications: namely, of recklessness, emblemed by constant rain; of assumption, emblemed by constant sunshine; of indolence, emblemed by constant heat, of hastiness, emblemed by constant cold; and of stupidity, emblemed by constant wind."

He went on to say, "The king should examine the character of the whole year; the high ministers and officers that

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sons; what is here said supposes - I know not what physical speculation of those times. It is needless to bring to bear on the text the interpretation of the later Chinese, for they are full of false ideas on the subject of physics. It may be also that the count of Chi wanted to play the physicist on points which he did not know." There seems to underlie the words of the count that feeling of the harmony between the natural and spiritual worlds, which occurs at times to most men, and strongly affects minds under deep religious thought or on the wings of poetic rapture, but the way in which he endeavors to give the subject a practical application can only be characterized as grotesque. 12 Compare with this what is said above on the second division of the Plan, the five personal matters." It is observed here by Tshai Chan, the disciple of Chu Hsi, and whose commentary on the Shu has, of all others, the greatest authority: "To say that on occasion of such and such a personal matter being realized, there will be the favorable verification corresponding to it, or that, on occasion of the failure of such realization, there will be the corresponding unfavorable verification, i would betray a pertinacious obtuseness, and show that the speaker was not a man to be talked with on the mysterious operations of nature. It is not easy to describe the reciprocal meeting of Heaven and men. The hidden springs touched by failure and success, and the minute influences that respond to them: who can know these but the man that has apprehended all truth?" This is in effect admitting that the statements in the text can be of no practical use. And the same thing is admitted by the latest imperial editors of the Shu on the use which the text goes on to make of the thoughtful use of the verifications by the king and others.

VOL. XI.-7.

of the month; and the inferior officers that of the day. If, throughout the year, the month, the day, there be an unchanging seasonableness, all the grains will be matured; the measures of government will be wise; heroic men will stand forth distinguished; and in the families of the people there will be peace and prosperity. If, throughout the year, the month, the day, the seasonableness be interrupted, the various kinds. of grain will not be matured; the measures of government will be dark and unwise; heroic men will be kept in obscurity; and in the families of the people there will be an absence of repose.

"By the common people the stars should be examined. Some stars love wind, and some love rain. The courses of the sun and moon give winter and summer. The way in which the moon follows the stars gives wind and rain."

ix. "Ninthly, of the five sources of happiness.13 - The first is long life; the second, riches; the third, soundness of body and serenity of mind; the fourth, the love of virtue; and the fifth, fulfilling to the end the will of Heaven. Of the six extreme evils, the first is misfortune shortening the life; the second sickness; the third, distress of mind; the fourth, poverty; the fifth, wickedness; the sixth, weakness." 14

1. After the conquest of Shang, the way being open to the nine tribes of the I and the eight of the Man,2 the west

13 It is hardly possible to see how this division enters into the scheme of the Great Plan.

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Wickedness " is, probably, boldness in what is evil, and "weakness," feebleness of will in what is good.

1 Lu was the name of one of the rude tribes of the west, lying beyond the provinces of Chau. Its situation can not be more exactly defined. Its people in compliment to King Wu, and impressed by a sense of his growing power, sent to him some of their hounds, and he having received them, or intimated that he would do so, the Grand-Guardian remonstrated with him.

2 By "the nine I and eight Man we are to understand generally the barbarous tribes lying round the China of Chau. Those tribes are variously enumerated in the ancient books. Generally the I are assigned to the east, the Tsung to the west, the Ti to the north, and the Man to the south.

ern tribe of Lu sent as tribute some of its hounds, on which the Grand-Guardian made "the Hounds of Lu," by way of instruction to the king.

2. He said, "Oh! the intelligent kings paid careful attention to their virtue, and the wild tribes on every side acknowledged subjection to them. The nearer and the more remote all presented the productions of their countries-in robes, food, and vessels for use. The kings then displayed the things thus drawn forth by their virtue, distributing them to the princes of the States of different surnames from their own, to encourage them not to neglect their duties. The more precious things and pieces of jade they distributed among their uncles in charge of States, thereby increasing their attachment to the throne. The recipients did not despise the things, but saw in them the power of virtue.

"Complete virtue allows no contemptuous familiarity. When a ruler treats superior men with such familiarity, he can not get them to give him all their hearts; when he so treats inferior men, he can not get them to put forth for him all their strength. Let him keep from being in bondage to his ears and eyes, and strive to be correct in all his measures. By trifling intercourse with men, he ruins his virtue; by finding his amusement in things of mere pleasure, he ruins his aims. His aims should repose in what is right; he should listen to words also in their relation to what is right.

"When he does not do what is unprofitable to the injury of what is profitable, his merit can be completed. When he does not value strange things to the contemning things that are useful, his people will be able to supply all that he needs. Even dogs and horses that are not native to his country he will not keep. Fine birds and strange animals he will not nourish in his State. When he does not look on foreign things as precious, foreigners will come to him; when it is real worth that is precious to him, his own people near at hand will be in a state of repose.

"Oh! early and late, never be but earnest. If you do not attend zealously to your small actions, the result will be to affect your virtue in great matters; in raising a mound of