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Xlbe  ©pen  Court 

A  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE 

S)evote&  to  tbe  Science  ot  IReligion,  tbe  IRelioton  of  Science,  an5  tbe 
Bxtension  ot  tbe  IReliQioiis  parliament  lIDea 


Editor:  Dr,  PAxn-  Carus.  Associates:  \  j^ 


C.  Hegki.f.r. 
Mary  Carus. 


VOL.  XX.   (no.  10.)  OCTOBER,   1906.  NO.  605 

CONTENTS: 

rxGi 

Frontispiece.    The  Japanese  Man  with  the  Hoe, 

Mediumistic  Seances.    Correspondence  with  an  Inquirer.    David  P.  Abbott.  577 

Chinese  Industries  and  Foreign  Relations.     (Ilkistrated.)     Editor 587 

Confucianism  and  Ancestral  Worship.     (Illustrated.)    597 

The  Archangels  of  the  Avesta.    Lawrence  H.  Mills 616 


Yakiimo  Koizumi:  The  Interpreter  of  Japan.     (Illustrated.)     K.  K.  Kawa- 

KAMi 624 

Chinese  Books  Before  the  Invention  of  Paper.    Edouard  Chavannes 633 

Book  Revieivs  and  Notes 639 

CHICAGO 

Zbc  ©pen  Court  publisbinG  Compani? 

LONDON :  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.,  Ltd. 
Per  copy,  lo  cents  (sixpence).    Yearly,  $i.oo  (in  the  U.  P.  U.,  5s.  6d.). 


Copyright,  1906,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.       Entered  at  the  Chicago  Post  OflBce  as  Second  Class  Matter. 


JUST  PUBLISHED 

ON    LIFE   AFTER   DEATH 

BY 

GUSTAV  THEODOR  FECHNER 

TRANSLATED   BY 

DR.  HUGO  WERNEKKE 
Head  Master  of  the  Realgymnasium  at  Weimar. 

Pages,  133.  Cloth,  gilt  top.  i2mo.  Price,  75  cents  net  Postage  8  cents. 
Gustav  Theodor  Fechner  was  a  professor  of  physics,  but  he  took  great  interest  in 
psychology  and  by  combining  the  two  sciences  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  science 
of  "psychophysics,"  based  upon  the  obvious  interrelation  between  sensation  and  nerve- 
activity.  While  he  did  much  creditable  work  in  the  line  of  exact  psychology,  he  devoted 
himself  with  preference  to  those  problems  of  the  soul  which  touch  upon  its  religious  and 
moral  life  and  its  fate  after  death.  His  little  book  On  Life  After  Death  is  his  most  im- 
portant publication  in  this  line. 

Fechner  believes  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  but  his  treatment  is  of  especial 
interest  because  he  uses  a  distinctive  scientific  method  in  dealing  with  the  subject. 
Though  the  thoughtful  reader  may  often  find  the  ideas  expressed  at  variance  with  his 
preconceived  notions  of  the  after  life,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  importance 
and  suggestiveness  of  Professor  Fechner's  thought 


"/  wish  to  congratulate  you  and  the  translator  upon  the  beautiful  translation  of  Fech- 
ner. It  dtd  not  seem  possible  that  such  a  traftslatioti,  breathing  as  it  did  the  entire  spirit 
of  the  original,  could  have  been  made  by  a  German.  I  have  seldom  seen  a  more  successful 
bit  of  translating."— DAVID  EUGENE  SMITH,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Math- 
ematics,  Teachers'  College,  Ne-w   York  City. 

"The  essay  of  -which  this  little  book  is  a  translation  was  first  published  in  German 
in  i8j^.  Its  author  held  that  'the  spirits  of  the  dead  continue  to  exist  as  individuals  in 
the  living,'  and  has  worked  out  this  idea  in  quaint  suggestions  and  meditations  which 
will  interest  many  and  perhaps  will  add  somewhat  of  illumination  to  their  eager  gaze  into 
the  world  beyond  death.  It  is  devout,  hopeful  and  confident  of  a  kitid  of  a  personal 
itnmortalttyr—THE  CONGREGATIONALIST  AND  CHRISTIAN  WORLD. 

"A  voltane  that  will  greatly  interest  if  not  influence  lovers  of  philosophical  writings" 
THE  BURLINGTON  HAWK  EYE. 


THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1322  WABASH  AVENUE,  CHICAGO. 


THE  JAPANESE  MAN  WITH  THE  HOE. 

Frontispiece  to  The  Open   Court. 


The  Open  Court 


A  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE 


Devoted  to  the  Science  of  Religion,  the  Religion  of  Science,  and 
the  Extension  of  the  Religious  Parliament  Idea. 


VOL.  XX.     (No.  10.)  OCTOBER,  1906.  NO.  605. 

lAlEDIUAllSTIC  SEANCES. 
CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    AN    INQUIRER. 

BY  DAVID  P.  ABBOTT. 

LETTER  TO  lAIR.  ABBOTT. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  had  the  pleasure,  some  time  ago,  of  reading  an  article  of  yours 
in  The  Open  Court  on  "Alediumistic  Phenomena."  Of  the  following 
\vhich  I  submit  to  you,  I  feel  that  I  will  be  satisfied  with  the  ex- 
planations you  may  make.  I  am  not  a  spiritualist,  but  while  visit- 
ing some  friends  in  Kansas  City,  recently,  who  are  spiritualists,  I 
was  invited  to  attend  a  "trumpet"  seance  given  at  a  private  house. 
Out  of  curiosity  I  attended.  The  seance  was  held  in  an  unfurnished 
back  room  up  stairs.  All  the  room  contained  was  a  row  of  chairs 
around  the  wall.  In  the  center  on  the  floor  was  a  small  rug  on 
which  stood  a  large  trumpet  and  some  flowers.  A  lady  clairvoyant 
from  Topeka  conducted  the  seance.  In  the  circle  were  believers 
and  unbelievers.  We  were  seated  around  the  room  with  feet  touch- 
ing. Lights  were  put  out  and  we  were  in  black  darkness.  They 
said  the  medium  was  controlled  by  an  Irish  spirit.  Presently  the 
Irish  spirit  spoke  through  the  trumpet  giving  us  a  welcome  oreet- 
ing.  After  this  each  one  in  turn  was  spoken  to  by  supposed  dead 
relatives. 

When  it  came  to  my  turn,  a  sister  who  has  been  dead  many 
years  spoke  her  name  and  talked  to  me.  (No  one  in  the  circle 
knew  anything  about  me  except  a  sister-in-law  who  was  with  me.) 
I  had  not  been  thinking  of  this  sister,  but  of  others  whom  it  mioht 
be  possible  would  appear,  and  my  sister-in-law  said,  she  had  not. 
I  have  no  faith  in  it  all,  but  would  like  your  explanation,  if  you 
will  be  kind  enough  to  favor  me  with  it.     I  would  like  you  to  ex- 


578  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

plain  another  thing".  My  sister-in-law  told  me  she  had  seen  her 
husband,  who  died  about  a  year  ago.  She  said  she  saw  him  as 
plainly  as  she  ever  did  in  life  ;  that  he  came  through  the  front  door, 
went  right  up  to  her,  spoke  a  few  words  and  disappeared.  This 
she  declares  to  be  true. 

I  will  tell  you  of  another  instance.  A  daughter  of  the  sister- 
in-law  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  when  quite  a  little  girl,  saw  my 
mother  who  had  died  some  time  before.  She  went  up-stairs  and  in 
one  of  the  rooms  she  saw  my  mother  sitting  in  a  rocking-chair. 
She  ran  screaming  down-stairs,  almost  frightened  to  death.  At 
another  time  she  saw  her  standing  by  the  stove  in  the  room.  This 
all  seems  very  strange  to  me,  but  T  have  no  reason  to  doubt  their 
word. 

Very  respectfully. 


REPLY. 

Dear  Madam  : 

Your  letter  is  received.  It  is  hard  to  explain  something  some 
one  else  has  seen  ;  when,  to  do  so  correctly,  one  should  have  been 
present  to  personally  observe  all  the  little  details,  for  trickery. 

I  will  say  that  no  one  would  be  more  happy  than  I  were  it  pos- 
sible to  prove  personal  immortality  in  this  manner ;  yet  I  do  not 
wish  to  be  deceived  and  to  believe  that  which  is  not  true.  There- 
fore, I  always  look  for  fraud  or  trickery  in  manifestations  of  this 
nature.  I  will  further  add  that  all  my  life  I  have  been  looking  for 
things  of  this  kind,  and  have  never  yet  been  able  to  see  one  little 
thing  that  was  genuine.  Always,  when  I  have  been  present,  I  have 
found  a  trick. 

I  have  attended  but  one  "Trumpet  Seance,"  which  was  some 
eight  or  ten  years  ago  in  Lincoln,  Nebr.  This  was  given  at  the  home 
of  a  lady  where  the  medium  stopped  ;  and  as  the  family  was  poor, 
the  lady  was  glad  to  have  the  medium's  seances  a  success,  so  that 
she  might  receive  the  proper  financial  remuneration  for  his  board. 

The  room  was  bare  of  furniture,  and  the  guests  were  seated 
around  the  room  on  chairs  holding  each  other's  hands.  The  medium 
sat  in  this  circle,  and  the  trumpet  stood  in  the  center  of  the  circle. 

As  soon  as  the  lights  were  out  the  trumpet  apparently  floated 
into  the  air,  and  from  its  mouth  we  were  greeted  by  an  "Irish 
Spirit."  This  spirit  attempted  to  be  a  comedian  ;  but  his  brogue 
was  unnatural,  and  his  wit  was  so  poor  that  I  felt  ashamed  for  the 


MEDii'Misric  si-:a.\c'i:s.  579 

medium.  It,  however,  seemed  to  satisf_\-  the  majority  of  the  sitters, 
who  appeared  to  be  possessed  of  onl\-  very  orchnary  mental  powers. 

Tests  were  given  to  various  jiersons  ])resent  :  but  as  no  one 
present  knew  an\thing-  about  me,  I,  of  course,  received  no  test. 

I  was  satisfied  that  the  medium  held  the  trumpet  t(~)  his  mouth 
and  did  the  talking.  1  knew  that  1)\'  ])ointing"  it  rapidly  in  dilYerent 
directions,  the  voice  would  appear  to  come  from  the  various  posi- 
tions occupied  by  the  bell  of  the  trumpet ;  and  the  spirit  would  thus 
appear  to  change  places  rapidly  over  our  heads. 

I  felt  certain  that  the  persons  sitting  on  each  side  of  the  me- 
dium were  his  confederates,  and  that  they  held  the  hands  of  the 
ones  next  to  them  ;  but.  of  course,  released  the  medium's  hands  so 
that  he  could  handle  the  trumpet. 

i  was  inclined  to  think  that  there  were  a  goodly  number  of 
confederates  in  the  circle,  who  probably  shared  in  the  proceeds  of 
the  seance ;  for  I  found  the  persons  next  to  me  would  not  let  my 
hands  loose  for  even  an  instant.  I  felt  sure  that  confederates  took 
possession  of  all  strangers,  and  saw  to  it  that  their  hands  were  not 
released :  and  thus  they  prevented  accidents. 

To  me  it  seemed  merely  a  very  cheap  and  poor  trick.  I  have 
never  fancied  any  trick  where  the  lights  had  to  be  put  out.  It  re- 
quires too  little  skill  to  perform  such  tricks.  I  have  always  felt 
that  if  the  spirits  of  the  departed  could  return  to  us  mortals,  they 
would  not  require  a  tin  horn  to  talk  through,  and  the  entire  absence 
of  light-waves  in  the  room.  To  me  this  all  savors  too  much  of 
charlatanism,  and  that  of  the  cheapest  kind. 

Some  time  after  I  attended  this  seance,  I  had  some  financial 
dealings  with  the  daughter  of  the  lady  at  whose  home  this  medium 
had  boarded.  I  told  the  daughter  what  I  had  concluded  in  regard 
to  the  matter,  and  she  confessed  that  I  was  right  in  every  particular. 
I  thus  verified  all  my  suspicions  in  the  case.  This  lady  told  me  that 
there  was  money  in  this  business  and  that  she  intended  going  into 
the  profession.  This  she  did  soon  thereafter,  advertising  as  a  clair- 
voyant and  trance  medium.  I  understand  that  she  has  become  quite 
successful  in  the  business. 

There  is  one  statement  in  your  letter  that  is  entitled  to  con- 
siderable more  consideration  than  ordinary  work  of  this  kind.  This 
is  the  statement  of  the  appearance  of  your  dead  sister's  voice,  when 
no  one  in  the  room  knew  of  this  sister  except  your  sister-in-law  who 
was  with  you.  In  regard  to  this  I  cannot  say  positively  how  the 
medium  obtained  the  necessary  information  in  your  particular  case; 
but  I  do  know  the  methods  employed  in  securing  such  information 


580  THE  OPEN    COURT. 

by  nearly  all  the  first-class  professional  mediums  who  are  traveling 
over  the  country. 

Each  medium  keeps  a  record  of  all  information  obtained  in  a 
book  for  that  purpose.  All  questions  asked  by  any  persons  at  any  of 
the  seances,  are  catalogued  alphabetically  in  this  book  under  the 
names  of  the  persons  asking  them.  Also  the  medium  catalogues 
alphabetically  any  other  information  he  may  be  able  to  obtain  about 
any  of  the  persons  who  attend  spiritualist  meetings.  When  visiting 
with  the  members  and  gossiping  the  medium  quietly  "pumps"  each 
person  about  other  members.  As  soon  as  the  medium  is  alone  all 
this  information  is  catalogued  in  this  book.  Children  are  questioned 
adroitly  about  their  own  relatives,  and  about  those  of  their  neighbors 

and  friends ;  and  all  this  is  added  to  the  store  of  information. 

« 

Graveyards  are  visited  and  the  secrets  of  the  tombs  catalogued. 
Also,  the  old  files  of  the  daily  papers  are  searched  for  information 
relating  to  deaths  and  marriages ;  and,  by  all  these  ways,  in  time  the 
book  contains  many  tests  of  value  to  a  medium.  When  this  medium 
leaves  town,  the  book  (or  a  copy)  is  passed  on  to  the  next  medium, 
who  enters  town  equipped  with  all  the  information  previously  gath- 
ered. Professional  mediums  are  generally  jM'etty  well  known  to 
each  other,  althcnigh  for  obvious  reasons  the}-  pretend  not  to  be. 

Some  of  the  better  grade  of  mediums  have  an  advance  person, 
who,  in  the  guise  of  an  agent  of  some  kind,  visits  the  proper  families. 
During  the  time  he  is  in  each  home,  he  asks  for  a  drink  of  water ; 
and  while  the  lady  is  getting  it.  he  studies  the  family  Bible  and  the 
album,  or  questions  the  children  about  such  matters  as  will  be  of 
use  to  the  medium  who  will  soon  follow.  In  all  of  these  manners 
much  information  is  secured  in  the  course  of  time.  It  is  not  unusual 
for  a  good  medium  to  enter  town  with  over  a  hundred  good  tests 
for  the  citizens  there. 

In  addition  to  the  above  there  are  certain  members  of  each 
spiritualistic  community  who  make  a  business  of  acting  as  confed- 
erates for  mediums.  They  usually  receive  pay  for  their  services. 
You  would  be  surprised  were  you  once  behind  the  scenes,  and  a 
performer,  to  know  how  many  apparently  respectable  persons  at  a 
seance  are  secretly  confederates  of  the  medium.  These  confederates 
make  it  their  business  to  learn  all  they  can  of  the  family  history  of 
their  neighbors,  or  of  any  friends  or  relatives  visiting  their  neigh- 
bors ;  which  information  is  at  once  conveyed  to  the  medium,  and  the 
same  properly  catalogued. 

You  would  think  that  respectable  persons  would  not  take  part 
in  fraud  in  such  matters ;  but  they  get  into  it  gradually,  and  really 


MEDIUMISTIC  SEANCES.  581 

come  to  enjoy  it.  I  am  ])ersonallv  acquainted  witli  a  certain  sleii;lit- 
of-hand  performer  in  this  cit\-,  who  has  for  years  served  as  a  con- 
federate for  most  of  the  mechums  visiting"  this  place.  He  tells  me 
that  he  enjoyed  it  at  first,  but  beinq,'  so  well  versed  in  tricks,  his 
services  were  of  so  much  value  to  mediums  that  they  were  after 
him  to  help  them  out  continually.  This  required  so  much  of  his 
time  that  he  has  of  late  entirely  given  up  this  work  and  now  refuses 
to  attend  seances  at  all. 

In  addition  to  these  methods  of  obtaining  information,  most 
members  are  so  anxious  to  see  some  one  converted,  that  what  in- 
formation they  possess  is  not  guarded  from  the  medium  very  closely. 
In  fact,  they  seem  in  many  cases  to  be  trying  to  help  the  medium 
out.  Thev  are  all  so  anxious  to  see  their  medium  succeed;  and  are 
very  quick  to  feel  proud  of  him.  when  such  tests  are  given. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  information  about  your 
dead  sister  was  obtained  in  some  of  these  manners  from  your 
sister-in-law  or  her  familv.  especially  if  she  has  children.  Xo  doubt 
some  confederate  has  heard  her  mention  your  dead  sister's  name, 
in  some  time  past.  This  ma\"  have  escaped  your  relative's  memory. 
Or,  if  she  is  a  believer,  she  has  undoubtedly  attended  other  seances, 
and  asked  questions,  usually  written  ones.  If  so.  the  mediums  may 
have  been  in  possession  of  the  proper  information  for  some  consid- 
erable time. 

I  feel  certain  that  this  information  was  gained  in  some  such 
manner:  and  while  }ou  may  doubt  this  explanation.  1  feel  that  were 
I  to  go  there  and  begin  o])erating  as  a  medium,  the  confederates 
would  soon  make  themselves  known  to  me  :  and  that  I  could  (juickly 
learn  where  the  medium  got  her  information  in  }our  case. 

You  thought  you  were  a  stranger  ;  but  you  may  rest  assured 
that  vou  were  known  as  soon  as  you  entered  the  room,  and  that  a 
test  was  planned  for  you  that  would  make  a  sensation.  And  they 
probably  hoped  also  to  make  a  convert. 

It  is  probable  that  your  dead  sister  bore  the  same  relation  to 
vour  sister-in-law  that  you  do.  If  this  be  the  case,  and  she  being 
dead,  vour  sister-in-law  would  have  been  almost  certain  at  some 
meeting  some  time,  to  have  asked  some  question,  which,  within  its 
lines,  conveved  the  information  that  there  was  such  a  person  then 
dead. 

It  is  a  great  advantage  to  mediums  to  be  able  to  give  tests  of 
this  character ;  the  effect  being  so  great  on  those  present  and  so  con- 
vincing, it  adds  greatly  to  the  medium's  re])utation.  as  well  as  to 
his  finances,  to  be  able  to  give  such  tests.     As  a  result,  a  medium 


582  THE  OPEN    COURT 

is  always  on  the  lookout  for  srch  information  ;  and  makes  securing  it 
his  principal  employment  when  not  engaged  at  the  regular  work. 
Vou  may  rest  assured  that  a  medium  will  not  hesitate  to  use  such 
information  in  the  manner  you  have  outlined,  no  matter  how  he 
may  have  come  into  possession  of  it. 

Frequently,  when  such  tests  are  given,  the  ones  receiving  them 
are  so  taken  by  surprise  and  so  greatly  impressed,  owing  to  their 
afifection  for  the  departed  and  their  longing  to  feel  that  the  departed 
still  exists  as  an  individual  or  unit,  that  they  imagine  afterwards 
that  they  noticed  a  resemblance  in  the  voice,  to  that  of  their  dear 
one.  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  you  noticed  such  a  resemblance 
to  your  sister's  voice. 

There  are  dealers  who  sell  to  mediums  secrets  which  give  them 
instructions  for  performing  their  work.  I  have  bought  many  such 
secrets  myself,  paying  a  large  price  for  them  ;  and  I  can  assure 
vou  that  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about  in  this  instance. 

The  fact  that  dealers  in  such  secrets  can  follow  the  business 
successfully,  is  proof  that  they  receive  sufficient  patronage  to  sup- 
])ort  it,  and  this  patronage  comes  almost  entirely  from  professional 
mediums. 

I  could  recall  to  you  many  instances  of  fraudulent  mediums, 
had  I  time  and  space  to  do  so.  I  hope  at  a  future  time  to  publish  in 
The  Open  Court  another  article,  describing  the  work  of  some  of  the 
best  mediums.  If  ever  you  come  to  Omaha.  I  should  be  pleased  to 
make  your  acquaintance  ;  and  Ayould  personall\'  illustrate  to  you  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  trickery  in  this  field. 

As  to  the  apparitions  which  your  sister-in-law  and  her  daughter 
claim  to  have  seen,  there  are  but  three  solutions  possible. 

First :  There  is  the  solution  that  the  statement  is  not  true ;  but 
as  vou  assure  me  you  have  every  confidence  in  their  truth,  I  will 
not  consider  this  solution. 

Second  and  Third :  We  have  the  solutions  either  that  they  did 
see  what  they  claim  to  have  seen  objectively:  or  that  they  imagine 
that  they  did,  but  really  saw  it  subjectively.  There  is  no  professional 
medium  at  work  here,  and  consequently  no  trickery  to  explain. 

If  the  doctrine  of  scientific  men  (as  for  instance  set  forth  in 
Dr.  Carus's  Soul  of  Man)  be  correct,  each  object  viewed  throughout 
life  leaves  an  impression  in  our  brain-structures.  When  such  object 
is  first  viewed,  the  form  of  the  outside  motions  of  the  ether  (light- 
waves) is  transferred  to  the  pro|)er  position  within  the  brain  by  the 
mechanism  of  the  neryous  system.    Here  this  produces  a  commotion 


MEDIUMISTIC  SEANCES.  583 

and  as  a  result  this  comniotion  leaves  a  "trace""  which  is  preserved  in 
the  brain  structure. 

When  such  trace  is  heinj:;'  formed,  the  sul^ject  experiences  sub- 
jectivelx'  a  sensation  wliich  he  identifies  with  the  outside  object  pro- 
ducing" it.  The  fact  is  the  formal  features  of  the  outside  object  have 
been  transferred  to.  or  reproduced  in.  the  sensation.  When  next 
the  same  object  is  viewed,  the  same  nerve  energy  passes  along  the 
same  channels  into  the  same  trace  and  stimulates  or  excites  it  again 
as  was  done  in  the  first  instance.  During  this  process  the  subject 
again  experiences  the  same  sensation  as  was  experienced  in  the 
first  instance.  The  subject  recognizes  the  sensation  to  be  the  same 
as  the  first  one  experienced,  and  naturally  attributes  it  to  the  same 
outside  cause. 

If,  now,  this  particular  trace  in  the  brain  structure  be  artificially 
excited  or  stimulated  by  any  means,  the  subject  will  experience  the 
original  sensation,  and  will  perceive  the  object  that  originally  formed 
such  a  trace.  The  perce])tion  will  be  just  as  real  to  the  subject  as 
was  the  original  perception,  or  as  it  would  be  if  the  exciting  cause 
were  the  original  object  outside.  The  original  object  could  not  pro- 
duce a  perception  more  real  to  the  subject,  because  it  could  only 
excite  or  stimulate  the  same  trace  in  the  same  manner ;  and  the 
subject  would  have  no  means  to  distinguish  between  two  identical 
impressions,  although  produced  by  different  causes. 

It  is  due  to  such  local  excitements  and  stimulations  that  we  see 
objects  in  our  sleep,  just  as  real  as  if  they  existed  objectively  in  the 
positions  in  which  our  ]K'rceptions  picture  them. 

Now,  if,  from  any  cause,  a  highly-strung,  sensitive,  or  nervous 
person,  stimulate  or  excite  any  particular  trace  in  the  brain  structure, 
he  will  see  subjectively  but  as  perfectly  real,  the  original  object  that 
formed  this  trace.  Such  person  is  most  liable  to  excite  in  this  way 
that  portion  of  the  brain  wherein  is  the  image  of  some  dear  one  on 
whom  the  mind  has  been  dwelling  too  intently  ;  and  which  has  thus 
been  overworked,  so  that  the  mecham'sm  of  this  particular  part  of 
the  sentient  substance  has  been  weakened  and  impaired. 

If  we  conclude  that  your  relatives  really  saw  these  dead  per- 
sons objectively,  this  can  only  mean  that  these  dead  persons  were 
really  present  in  this  room.  Now.  if  they  were  clothed  as  in  life, 
we  must  also  conclude  that  the  clothing  of  persons  as  well  as  their 
spiritual  part,  is  immortal.  As  Ingersol  said,  we  must  conclude  that 
clothing  has  ghosts.  Rut  if  we  accept  the  theory  of  a  mere  sub- 
jective apparition  or  illusion,  caused  b}-  a  local  excitement  in  the 


584  THE  OPEN    COURT 

brain  structures,  we  should  naturally  expect  the  images  to  be  clothed 
as  in  life. 

The  question  is,  which  do  you  regard  as  most  probable :  that 
vour  relatives  really  saw  the  spiritual  part  of  two  beings  objectively 
■ — that  is,  the  part  that  is  not  material,  and  that  it  had  this  material 
appearance — or  that  they  saw  a  mere  subjective  apparition  within 
their  own  brains?     I  should  perfer  the  subjective  theory. 

I  remain,  dear  madam,  yours  for  truth. 

David  P.  Abbott. 


ANOTHER   LETTER   OF   MR.   ABBOTT. 

Dear  Madam  : 

Since  writing  my  former  letter,  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to 
come  into  possession  of  a  little  information  that  might  interest  you  ; 
accordingly.  I  write  you  this  second  letter. 

There  recently  arrived  in  Omaha  two  "Celebrated  Occultists." 
They  hired  a  hall  and  some  parlors,  and  began  a  series  of  public 
meetings,  seances,  and  private  readings.  They  had  considerable 
difficulty  in  securing  rooms,  as  the  property  owners  were  afraid  of 
the  reputation  their  property  might  acquire  of  being  "haunted." 
Finally  the  papers  came  out  with  quite  a  sympathetic  article  in  their 
behalf,  with  the  result  that  they  have  started  off  very  prosperously. 
There  is  an  attendance  of  three  or  four  hundred  persons  at  their 
Sunday  night  meetings,  while  they  have  from  thirty  to  forty  at  the 
parlor  seances;  and  during  the  day  they  are  continuall\'  em])loyed 
giving  private  readings. 

I  called  on  these  mediums,  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  the 
principal  medium  was  the  lady  I  formerly  knew  in  Lincoln.  Neb., 
to  whom  I  referred  in  my  former  letter.  She  has  been  regularly 
in  the  profession  for  the  past  nine  or  ten  years,  has  a  good  acquaint- 
ance with  all  the  professional  mediums,  and  comes  here  direct  from 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 

She  recognized  me  at  once,  and  seems  to  intend  making  a  con- 
vert of  me.  She  has  evidently  forgotten  the  little  confession  she 
made  to  me  just  before  entering  the  profession. 

I  had  several  little  confidential  visits  with  her  manager,  and 
incidentally  mentioned  to  him  the  name  of  a  certain  dealer  in  se- 
crets for  the  use  of  mediums,  stating  that  I  was  familiar  with  most 
of  the  effects  of  the  kind,  and  was  a  performer  of  them.  This 
seemed  to  "break  the  ice,"  and  he  was  ready  enough  to  give  me  any 


MEDIUMISTIC  SEANCES.  585 

information  he  possessed  al)t)iit  other  niecHunis  ;  at  the  same  time 
claiming"  that  his  me<hiim   was,  of  course,  genuine. 

I  find  that  tlie  lady  who  gave  the  seance  you  wrote  me  about 
is  an  acquaintance  of  theirs.  They  know  her  well,  and  her  name  is 
Miss  . 

You  will  know  if  this  be  right  and  if  my  information  be  cor- 
rect. He  assured  me  that  her  mediumship  is  fraudulent,  and  in- 
formed me  that  she  has  an  artificial  hand  which  she  frequently  uses 
in  her  "Trumpet  Seances."  This  hand  is  attached  to  the  person, 
and  can  be  bent  into  dififerent  positions.  When  she  sits  with  the 
subject  next  to  her.  she  takes  hold  of  the  subject's  two  hands  with 
her  left  hand,  and,  incidentally,  does  not  let  loose  of  them  during 
the  seance.  This  is  done  after  the  lights  are  out.  Then  she,  with 
her  remaining  hand,  bends  down  the  artificial  hand!  which  has  been 
concealed  in  her  clothing) ,  so  that  its  fingers  clasp  the  arm  of  the 
sitter.  The  subject  can  then  inform  the  spectators  at  all  times  that 
the  medium  has  both  hands  on  his  person.  Meanwhile,  the  medium's 
right  hand  is  free  to  grasp  the  light  aluminum  trunii)et,  and  point 
it  into  dififerent  positions  while  she  talks  through  it.  She  also,  on 
occasions,  uses  a  telescopic  reaching-rod  which  can  be  carried  in 
the  pocket ;  but  when  extended  it  reaches  a  length  of  several  feet, 
and  enables  her  to  float  the  trumpet  on  its  end  around  the  room 
over  the  heads  of  the  spectators,  giving  them  an  occasional  "bump," 
while  her  voice  can  be  heard  in  the  position  where  she  sits.  This 
is  done  in  the  same  manner  that  guitars  and  other  instruments  (fre- 
quently self-playing)  are  sometimes  floated  over  the  heads  of  a 
circle  of  sitters  by  many  mediums.  This  is  done  while  they  ai)par- 
ently  hold  the  hands  of  one  of  the  spectators  at  their  side  of  the 
circle. 

I  asked  the  manager  how  he  considered  that  the  medium  got 
her  information  about  yoiu"  dead  sister.  Tie  replied  that  she  un- 
doubtedly got  it  from  what  is  known  to  certain  members  of  the 
profession  as  the  "I>lue  TxHik."  This  is  the  book  I  referred  to  before 
in  which  the  tests  are  alphabetically  catalogued  for  each  town.  He 
said  that  his  medium  never  uses  the  "Blue  Book"  as  her  mediumship 
is  genuine ;  but,  however,  he  has  in  his  possession  a  similar  book  of 
Kansas  City.  I  asked  if  I  could  find  the  information  about  your 
dead  sister  in  his  book  :  but  he  said  that  possibly  he  did  not  have 
that  particular  item,  although  there  could  be  no  doubt  but  that  it 
was  contained  in  the  book  of  the  lady  or  of  the  noted  medium  Air. 
,  as  these  two  have  worked  together  to  a  consi(leral)le  extent. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  all  the  questions  that  your  rela- 


586  THE  OPEN    COURT. 

tive  ever  asked  the  mediums  in  any  of  the  Kansas  Citv  meetings, 
have  been  preserved  and  catalogued  ;  and  thus  the  information  about 
your  dead  sister  may  have  been  obtained  for  some  considerable 
time.  Although  the  medium  was  a  stranger  to  you,  it  is  quite  cer- 
tain that  you  were  known  to  the  medium  when  the  seance  began. 
This  is  part  of  their  business,  and  the  knowledge  of  a  suitable 
number  of  "tests"  is  a  medium's  stock  in  trade. 
I  remain,  dear  madam. 

Very  truly  yours, 

David  P.  Auuott. 


INQUIRER'S  REPLY  TO  MR.  ABBOTT. 

Dear  Sir: 

Your  comnnmication  which   I  have  just  received  deserves  an 
early  reply. 

The  name  of  the  medium  who  held  the  seance  was  ,  the 

same  as  }ou  mcnti<ined.     I  was  introduced  to  her  but  I  never  heard 
her  given  name.     Of  course,  she  must  be  the  same  one.     I  saw  her 

and  Mr. at  a  Sunday  evening  meeting  at  their  hall,  so  you  are 

on  the  right  track. 

I  do  not  see  how  an}-  one  can  practice  so  much  fraud  in  such 
serious  matters. 

Thanking  you   for  your  kindness, 

I  am  verv  respectfully. 


CHINESE  INDUSTRIES  AND  F(3REIGN  RELA- 
TIONS. 

15Y    THE    EDITOR. 

CHI'NA'S  superiority  over  all  her  neighbors  is  due  to  the  in- 
dustry of  her  people,  and  of  all  the  several  branches  of  labor 
ag-riculture  holds  the  first  i)lace. 

Agriculture  is  honored  by  an  annual  plowing-  ceremony,  which 
is  of  ancient  origin,  and  is  performed  every  April  all  over  China 
with  great  pomp  by  the  highest  state  authorities.  At  Pekin,  the 
emperor  betakes  himself  in  grand  procession  to  the  sacred  field, 
and  lavs  roval  hand  to  the  plow  which,  for  this  especial  purpose, 
is  kept  in  the  Temple  of  Agriculture.  He  turns  over  three  furrows, 
the  princes  five,  and  the  ministers  nine.  The  crop  of  the  field  is 
used  as  show-bread  in  the  temple  service. 

The  Chinese  raise  wheat,  barley,  oats,  millet,  maize,  sesame, 
peas,  beans,  lentils,  etc.  and.  in  the  south,  rice.  In  addition  they 
cultivate  hemp  and  sugar  cane.  Some  peculiarly  Chinese  plants 
are  cultivated  for  their  oil  and  used  for  cookery.  In  addition 
there  is  much  vegetable  gardening,  and  large  tracts  are  covered 
with  tea  plantations,  which  constitute  a  very  considerable  portion 
of  the  wealth  of  the  coimtry. 

The  character  uii,^  "rice."  is  one  of  the  radicals  in  Chinese 
writing,  bearing  the  number  119.  Its  original  form  is  that  of  a 
cross  (like  the  Chinese  character  10- )  having  in  each  corner  a  dot. 
The  four  dots  mean  grains  of  rice,  and  the  cross  is  simply  intended 
as  a  division  line  between  them.  Originally  the  character  mi  re- 
ferred to  grain  of  all  kinds,  but  now  unless  (ttherwise  specified 
always  denotes  grains  of  rice,  just  as  in  continental  lun-()])e  "corn" 
means  first  of  all  wheat,  while  in  the  United  States  it  means  "maize." 

The  rice  plant  called  too.'-'  consists  of  the  radical  "])lant"  and 

'^       'f       'm 


588 


THE  OPEN    COURT. 


two  other  symbols   denoting  "mortar"   and   "hand."     It  means   in 
this  position  a  plant  that  is  intended  to  be  husked  in  a  mortar. 

Tea  and   rice  are   the  most   indispensable   things   in   China  to 


PLOWING   THE   K1CI-:    Ell^.D. 


2326 


both   the   rich   and   the  poor,  the   literati   and   the   common   people, 
the  emperor  and  the  peasant.     It  is  characteristic  of  the  Chinese 


CHINESE   INDUSTRIES   AND   F0RI-:1(;n    RELATIONS. 


589 


that  both  the  chief  ch-ink  and  tlie  chief  food  of  C'liina  have  pecuHar 
names  to  be  used  onh'narily  in  Wic  and  also  in  poetry.  Rice  is 
called  "white  food"  and  tea  "the  servant  of  cream."     The  literary 


^— di=^ 


PLANTING  THE  RICE. 


2267 


or  poetic  name    (zi'eii   miiig)    of  the   former  is   "auspicious  herb," 
and   of  the  latter   "long  waist,"   an   epithet   which   might   be   more 


590 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


freely   translated    as    "tall    beauty"    and    refers   presumably    to    the 
elong-ated  shape  of  a  grain  of  rice. 

The  cultivation   of  the   rice  plant   and   the  various   operations 


Wii      ,^\\v 


m^^^wm     \wi 


HARVESTING. 


necessary  to  prepare  the  grain  for  use  are  well  illustrated  in  our 
pictures.  Rice  culture  is  described  by  Mr.  S.  Wells  Williams  as 
follows : 


CHINKSI'".    UXDUSTKil'-S    .WD    |-()K1':  1  ( ;  .\    Kl'.I.AIION  S. 


59^ 


"An  early  rain  is  nccessar\-  to  the  preparation  of  the  rice-lields, 
except  where  water  can  l)e  tnrned  nptm  tlicm.  l"he  strain  is  first 
soaked,  and  when  it  l)euins  to  swell  is  sown  ver\-  thickU    in  a  small 


l)K^•JN(;  Till':  siif.axks. 


■JSS 


plat  containing  liqnid  mannre.  When  abont  six  inches  high  the 
shoots  are  planted  into  the  fields,  which,  from  being  an  unsightly 
marsh,  are  in  a  few  days  transformed  to  fields  clothed  with  living 


592 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


green.  Holding  the  seedlings  in  one  hand,  the  laborer  wades 
through  the  mud,  at  every  step  sticking  into  it  five  or  six  sprouts, 
which  take  root  without  further  care;  six  men  can  transplant  two 


HUSKING  THE  RICE. 


acres  a  day,  one  or  two  of  whom  are  engaged  in  supplying  the  others 
with  shoots.  The  produce  is  on  an  average  tenfold.  Rent  of  land 
is  usually  paid  according  to  the  amount  of  the  crop,  the  landlord 


CHINESE  INDUSTRIES   AND   FOREIGN    RELATIONS. 


593 


paying-  the  taxes  and  the  tenant  stocking-  the  farm  ;  leases  are  for 
three,  four,  or  seven  years:  the  terms  vary  according  to  the  posi- 
tion and  goodness  of  the  soil." 


PURIFICATION   OF   RICE. 


After  the  rice  harvest  the  sheaves  are  dried  and  the  rice  is 
passed  through  a  husking  drum  whose  machinery  is  turned  by  a 
large  crank  worked  by  hand.    To  purify  it  the  rice  is  then  pounded 


594 


THE  OPEN    COURT. 


in  mortars  by  hammers  which  are  turned  by  a  water  wheel,  after 
which  it  is  finally  sifted. 

While  the  general  welfare  of  China  depends  on  good  crops. 


SIFTING  THE  RICE. 


2266 


as  in  most  countries,  other  industries  are  not  neglected.  In  fact, 
they  are  highly  developed,  and  had  reached  a  state  of  perfection 
when  Europe  was  still  in  a  semi-barbarous  condition.     Silk,  lacquer. 


CHINESE   IXnUSTRIES   AND   FORl^'-ICN'    KI-.t.A  1' IONS. 


595 


porcelain\  ,Qiass,  ivory  carving,  and  textiles  are  mentioned  among 
the  earliest  exports  of  China  and  form  even  to-day  the  staple 
l^roducts  of  the  country.     Weaving  is  still   done  by   hand   on  old- 


5-m' 


A   CHINESE   LOOM. 


J256 


'  The  word  "porcelain"  is  a  Portuguese  name  which  was  given  to  Chniese 
crockery  bv  the  Portuguese,  because  they  were  under  the  impression  that  it 
was  made  of  a  mixture  of  egg  shells,  fish  glue,  and  scales. 


596  THE   OPEN    COURT. 

fashioned  looms,  but  Chinese  fabrics  are  famous  for  their  fineness 
and  elegance,  and  compete  successfully  with  the  best  European 
products.  In  addition,  China  exports  bronzes,  furs,  grass  cloth, 
salt,  and  gems  of  all  kinds. 

The  Chinese  are  good  workers  in  metals  and  have  been  pro- 
ficient in  casting  large  bronze  statues  and  bells  for  many  centuries. 
They  manufactured  paper  and  printed  books  hundreds  of  years  be- 
fore the  paper  industry  and  the  art  of  printing  were  thought  of 
in  Europe.  They  knew  the  mariner's  compass  and  the  use  of  gun 
powder.  In  fact  these  inventions  were  made  in  Europe  after  the 
report  of  them  had  been  spread  by  travelers  who  had  visited  Cathay 
and  startled  the  world  with  their  tales  of  the  flourishing  state  of 
China's  civilization. 

Ancient  China  had  an  extended  trade  with  all  the  world.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  Chinese  bottles  with  classical  Chinese  quotations 
have  been  discovered  in  ancient  tombs  of  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor. 
Professor  Hirth  has  traced  the  intercourse  of  China  with  the  Roman 
empire,  and  considers  it  to  have  been  more  important  than  is  gen- 
erally believed.  The  Mohammedans  of  Western  Asia  continued 
to  trade  with  China  and  left,  as  an  incidental  result,  many  millions 
of  adherents  of  the  Prophet,  whose  religion  in  the  Celestial  Empire 
is  called  hunti-Jizvui-kiao,  literally  "whirl-whirl  doctrine,"  or  more 
explicitly,  "the  faith  of  the  dancing  dervishes." 

There  are  also  Jews  in  China  who,  according  to  their  own 
traditions,  (which  Professor  Williams  considers  quite  probable), 
came  to  the  country  under  the  Han  dynasty  (201  B.  C. — 23  A.  D.). 
They  are  called  from  one  of  their  customs,  tiao-kin-kiao,  i.  e.,  "the 
sect  pulling  out  sinews,"  and  their  main  seat  is  Kaifung,  the  capital 
of  Honan.  At  present  the  Jews  are  fast  disappearing  through 
assimilation  with  the  native  population,  but  neither  the  Moham- 
medans nor  the  Jews  have  ever  been  seriously  molested  in  their 
religious  worship. 

The  present  inclination  of  the  Chinese  to  live  in  seclusion  and 
keep  aloof  from  foreigners  is  of  comparatively  modern  date. 

While  at  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  China  was  appar- 
ently more  advanced  in  civilization  than  Europe,  it  has  remained 
stagnant  for  more  than  a  millennium, — a  condition  which  is  espe- 
cially noticeable  in  its  methods  of  government  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  its  courts.  Legal  procedure  is  very  primitive  and  punishments 
are  as  severe,  not  to  say  as  brutal,  as  they  were  in  Europe  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  But  we  have  no  reason  to  look  with  contempt 
upon  China  on  account  of  these  backward  conditions,  for  we  our- 


CHINESE  INDUSTRIES  AND  FOREIGxX    RELATIONS. 


597 


selves  have  only  just  emerg-ed  from  the  same  state  of  savagery 
and  ought  to  consider  that  in  the  eighteenth,  and  even  as  late  as 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  criminals,  especially  traitors, 
still  had  their  bones  broken  on  the  wheel,  while  the  rack  and  other 
instruments  of  torture  were  considered  as  permissible  means  to 
extort  confessions  from  suspects. 


CONFUCIANISM  AND  ANCESTOR  WORSHIP. 

THE  official  religion  of  China  is  Confucianism,  but  Confucian- 
ism, closely  considered,  is  not  so  much  a  religion  as  a  system 
of  ethics.  Confucius  was  a  moral  teacher,  and,  in  questions  of 
religion  and  philosophy  proper,  may  rightly  be  styled  a  reverent 
agnostic.  He  not  only  allows  the  traditional  institutions  of  the 
worship  of  heaven  and  of  ancestors,  but  even  insists  on  them,  leav- 
ing all  details  of  belief  to  personal  conviction.  His  system  of 
ethics  is  based  upon  the  idea  of  filial  piety,  called  in  the  Chinese 
language  by  the  one  word  hsiao.'^ 

Confucius  inculcates  his  ethics  of  hsiao  by  impressing  his  fol- 
lowers with  the  necessity  of  //',-  propriety,  that  is,  rules  of  behavior, 
and,  in  consequence  of  it,  the  Chinese  are  perhaps  the  most  punc- 
tilious people  in  the  world  in  the  observance  of  politeness  and  good 
manners.  Their  prescriptions  are  very  minute  but  would  be  of 
greater  benefit  were  they  not  executed  with  such  rigorous  adhesion 
to  the  letter. 

Confucian  ethics  is  not  satisfied  with  goodness,  nor  with  purity 
of  heart ;  it  demands  in  addition  a  punctilious  observance  of  deco- 
rum, the  behavior  of  a  gentleman  or  a  gentlewoman  according  to 
the  established  laws  of  propriety.  This  is  an  ancient  trait  of  the 
Chinese  ideal,  and  Confucius  has  not  been  its  inventor,  for  it  existed 
long  before  Confucius  whose  main  merit  consists  in  having  been 
most  closely  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  Chinese  nation.  A  poem 
attributed  to  the  Duke  of  Wei  (one  of  the  great  patterns  of  virtuous 
princes)  has  been  preserved  by  Confucius  in  the  Shih  King.  We 
are  informed  that  he  requested  his  statesmen  to  recite  it  to  him 
daily,  for  he  wanted  to  hear  it  in  and  out  of  season,  and  we  extract 
from  it  the  following  stanzas :"' 

^P  ll<Sl 

^  We  follow  mainly  Mr.  William  Jennings's  versification. 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR   WORSHIP.  599 

"Hold,  O  hold  to  strict  decorum ; 

This  is  virtue's  vantage-coign. 
Proverb  has  it  that  e'en  sages 

Now  and  then  the  fools  will  join. 
But  the  folly  of  the  many 

Springs  from  natural  defect, 
While  the  folly  of  the  sages 

Is  the  product  of  neglect. 

"Naught  is  mightier  than  manhood  ; 

The  four  quarters  bow  to  it ; 
The  four  quarters  pay  it  homage. 

And  do  willingly  submit. 
Counsels   deep,  commands  unswerving, 

Plans  far-reaching,  warning  due, 
Reverent  care  for  strict  decorum, — 

Thus  thou  art  a  pattern  true. 

"Let  not  words  go  from  thee  lightly  ; 

Say  not  ever,  'What  care  I  ? 
There  is  naught  my  tongue  to  hinder." 

— Ah,  but  words  can  never  die. 
Naught  is  said  but  finds  its  echo, 

Naught  well  done  but  finds  reward ; 
Treat  thy  subjects  as  thy  children. 

Be  with  friends  in  full  accord  ; 
So  thine  issue  shall  continue. 

And  all  subjects  own  thee  lord. 

"Prince,  be  thine  the  ways  of  virtue; 
Practise  what  is  right  and  good; 
Hold  unblemished  thy  behavior, 
trailing  not  in  rectitude. 


"As  the  wood  that  bends  yet  breaks  not 
With  the  silken  string  is  bound. 
So  the  kindly  and  the  courteous 
Furnish  Virtue's  building-ground. 
"Ah,  my  son  !  I  put  before  thee 
Wisdom  taught  b}'  men  of  yore ; 
Hear  my  counsels,  and  obey  them ; 
Naught  there  will  be  to  deplore! 

"Think  of  history's  great  lessons, 
And  of  Heaven's  unerring  hand ! 
Sorely  shalt  thou  vex  thy  people 
Virtue  if  thou  so  withstand." 

The  virtue  of  filial  piet\-  is  based  upon  the  experience  that 
everywhere  in  the  world  we  have  the  relation  of  superior  to  subject, 
which  ought  to  be  paternal  in  character,  as  exempHfied  in  the  rela- 


6oo 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


tion  nearest  to  man,  that  of  father  and  child.  The  character  Jisiao 
shows  the  symbol  "child"  supporting  an  "old  man,"  and  it  means 
originally   the   child's   love   for  his   father,   but   embraces   also   the 


WORSHIPING   THE    ANCESTOR    OF   THE    FAMILY    ON    HIS    MEMORIAL    DAY. 


responsibility   of   the   father  towards  his   children,   and   appears   in 
five  different  relations  which  are  as  follows:  the  relation  of  sover- 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR   WORSIIU'.  6oi 

cig'ii  to  suliicct.  of  father  to  son,  of  husband  to  wife,  of  elder  brother 
to  younger  brother,  of  friend  to  friend.  In  explanation  of  the 
fourth  relation,  we  would  say  that  aceording  to  the  views  of  feudal 
paternalism,  \\hen  the  father  dies,  the  oldest  son  takes  his  plaee  and 
is  forthwith  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  family.  In  the  fifth  rela- 
tion, that  of  friendship  among  equals,  the  rule  obtains  in  China  that 
juniors  should  always  respect  their  seniors  and  show  them  reverence, 
as  to  elder  brothers. 

Filial  piety  is  not  limited  to  the  living,  to  father  and  grand- 
father, but  extends  to  the  dead  and  finds  expression  in  rituals 
which  are  commonly  called  ancestor  worship.  Ancestor  worshi]) 
is  practised  throughout  China  with  great  fidelit)',  for  every  house 
has  its  altar  erected  to  the  founder  of  the  family,  and  the  days  of 
the  death  of  father  and  mother  and  grandparents  are  kept  as 
sacred  memorial  festivals. 

The  relation  of  heaven  to  earth  is  represented  under  the  simile 
of  sovereign  to  subject,  and  in  this  respect  heaven  is  called  Sliaii;^ 
Ti,*  i.  e..  "the  Lord  on  High,"  or  "the  High  Emperor,"  a  con- 
ception which  finds  its  exact  parallel  in  the  Western  God  idea. 

\\nien  we  come  to  religion  proper,  we  find  China  in  a  state 
that  reminds  us  greatly  of  the  phase  of  Christianity,  which  still 
obtains  in  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  countries.  In  spite  of  the 
fact  that  Sluing  Ti,  the  Lord  on  High,  is  recognized  as  the  God 
of  Gods,  the  supreme  divine  being,  omnipresent  and  omnipotent, 
the  Chinese  are  commonly  believed  to  be  polytheistic.  And  so  they 
are.  if  we  retain  the  translation  "gods"  for  all  their  minor  deities  ; 
but  in  justice  to  them,  we  should  compare  their  minor  gods  to  the 
saints  and  archangels  of  Greek  and  Roman  Catholicism.  The  word 
shciv'  does  not  mean  "god"  in  our  sense,  but  any  spiritual  being, 
and  it  is  our  own  misconception  if  we  forget  that  the  Chinese 
believe  in  one  God  only,  SJiaiig  Ti,  the  Lord  on  High,  who  is 
supreme  ruler  over  the  host  of  all  divinities  and  spirits. 

There  are  as  many  Chinese  divinities  as  there  are  Christian 
saints,  but  certain  gods  are  favorites  and  their  temples  will  be 
found  in  every  village.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  god  K^caii  Ti,''' 
the  lord  of  war.  He  is  a  national  hero  of  China  who  lived  in  the 
second  century  of  the  Christian  era  and  died  219  A.  D.  His  name 
was  Kwan  Yii  or  Kwan  Yiin  Chang,  and  he  was  a  native  of  Kiai 
Chow  in  Shan-Si.  In  his  early  years  he  was  a  seller  of  bean  curds ; 
later  on  he  applied  himself  to  study  until  during  the  war  of  the 


6o2 


THE  OPEN    COURT. 


Three  Kingdoms  he  took  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  Imperial  house 
of  Han  agfainst  the  rebels  of  the  vellow  turban.     He  contributed 


K\VAN-TI    AND    HIS   ATTENDANTS. 

Underneath  are  pictured  the  divining  board,  the  divining  box,  and 
one  of  tiTc  divining  sticks. 

not  a  little  to  the  victor)'  of  the  loyalist  party  and  was  not  only  a 
brave  general  but  also  a  protector  of  the  honor  of  women. 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR    WORSHIP. 


603 


An  incident  of  his  life  made  him  the  pattern  of  chivah-ons  he- 
havior.  Ts'ao  Ts'ao.  an  amljitious  general  of  the  imbecile  em- 
peror Hien-Ti.  wished  to  us'urji  the  imperial  power  and  deprive  the 


A   TEMPLE   OF    KWAX-TI. 


right  fnl    heir    Liu    Pei    of   the    throne.      When    he    recognized    the 
sterling  qualities  of  Kwan  Ti.  he  tried  to  sow  enmity  between  him 


6o4 


THE   OPEN   COURT. 


and  Lin  Pei,  and  with  this  end  in  view  imprisoned  the  latter's  two 
wives,  the  ladies  Kan  and  Mei,  and  cansed  Kwan  Ti  to  be  shnt 
np   with  them  at  night  in  the  same  apartment.     But  the   faithful 


TEMPLE  OF  THE  EARTH  GOO. 


warrior  preserved   his  honor  and  the  reputation   of  the   ladies,   by 
keeping  guard  in  an  antechamber  the  livelong  night  with  a  lighted 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR    WORSTIIP. 


605 


lantern  ;  and  in  allusion  to  the  untarnished  name  of  the  hero,  the 
Chinese   sav   to   this   dav    ""Kwan   Yiin's   lit^hted   candle   lasts   until 


THE    EARTH    LORD    AND    THE    TOWNSHH^    GOD. 


morning."     As  soon  as  Ts'ao  Ts'ao  believed  himself  strong  enough, 
he  rebelled  openly  against  the  emperor.     He  took  Kwan  Yii  pris- 


6o6 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


oner  and  had  him  beheaded.  Lin  Pei  monrned  for  his  faithful 
supporter,  and  when  he  ascended  the  throne  had  him  deified  under 
the  title  "Emperor  Kwan,"  i.  e.,  Kwan  Ti. 


2280 


TEIMPLE   OF 


A  temple  of  Kwan  TI  exists  in  every  village,  and  people  con- 
sult it  in  many  affairs  of  their  lives.  We  find  in  Kwan  Ti  temples 
a  method  of  divination  which  is  highly  esteemed  by  the  illiterate 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR    WORSHIP. 


607 


classes.  A  great  number  of  oracles  are  written  on  wooden  slips 
which  are  attached  to  the  divining-  board  and  marked  with  a  special 
svmbol  for  each.    The  same  svmliols  are  written  on  sticks  and  locked 


THE  TOWN   GOD. 


^305 


up  in  a  box  with  a  hole  in  one  corner.  The  box  is  shaken  until  one 
stick  comes  out.  and  the  oracle  thus  determined  by  the  symbol  of 
the  stick  is  read  off  from  the  divining  board.     Underneath  the  pic- 


6o8 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


ture  of  Kwan  Ti  and  his  attendants  we  have  a  representation  of  the 
divination  board  containing  sticks  of  wood  upon  which  oracles  are 
written.     To  the  rio-ht  of  it  is  the  divination  box  and  one  of  the 


m  m  #1  Fit  M.\m 


2296 


CELEBRATION   OF  THE  TOWN 


divining  sticks.     The  hok"  in  the  box  indicated  by  a  darker  spot 

on  the  left  upper  side  is  scarcely  visible.     (See  picture  on  page  602.) 

Other  divinities  that  are  met  with  in  every  village  of  China 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR   WORSHIP. 


609 


are  the  local  patrons  of  the  place,  the  Earth  Lord  and  the  Townshii-i 
God.  Our  illustration  represents  the  former  in  the  shape  of  a  Taoist 
wearing-  the  priestly  cap  and  gown,  the  latter  as  a  mandarin  with  a 


GOD  IN  THE  OPEN  FIELDS. 


helmet  and  dressed  like  a  magistrate.  Both  hold  in  their  hands  the 
ju-i  or  magic  wand,  the  possession  of  which  ensures  one  to  obtain 
his  desires. 


6lO  THE  OPEN    COURT. 

The  temples  are  surrounded  l)y  two  walls,  and  the  worshiper 
passes  two  gates  before  he  approaches  the  shrine.  In  the  court 
of  the  temple  of  the  Earth  God  we  see  an  artificial  pond  which  is 
spanned  by  an  arched  bridge.  The  same  custom  prevails  in  other 
temples,  and  both  the  pond  and  the  bridge  must  possess  an  ancient 
meaning,  but  our  sources  do  not  give  any  indication  of  its  symbol- 
ism. It  is  possible  that  the  bridge  possesses  the  same  significance 
as  the  drum  bridge  in  the  Shinto  temples  of  Japan,  which,  as  Mr. 
Aston  suggests,  represents  the  rainbow,  which  is  called  "the  float- 
ing bridge"  over  which  Izanagi  and  Izanami  passed  at  the  time  of 
creation.  Or  can  the  pond  be  a  reminiscence  of  a  more  primitive 
age  when  the  deep,  or  the  waters  of  the  ocean,  called  by  the  Baby- 
lonians "Tiamat,"  were  figuratively  represented  in  the  temples, 
which  is  related  not  only  of  Babylonian  temples  but  also  of  the 
temple  of  Solomon  at  Jerusalem? 

The  shrines  of  both  the  Earth  Lord  and  the  Township  God 
are  usually  supported  at  ]iublic  expense,  and  their  festivals  are  ofii- 
cially  celebrated  with  parades  and  joyous  processions  around  the 
fields. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  divinities  of  China  is  a  goddess 
whose  worship  closely  resembles  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
among  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholics,  and  also  the  Buddhist 
Kwan  Yin.  Her  official  name  is  "Heaven's  Queen  and  Holy 
Mother,"  and  in  our  picture  she  is  represented  as  accompanied  by 
female  attendants  while  two  warriors  serve  as  guardians. 

The  original  title  of  this  popular  goddess  was  "Holy  Mother," 
but  Emperor  K'ang-Hi  bestowed  upon  her  the  high  dignity  of 
T'ieii  Hon,  i.  e..  Heaven's  Ruler,"  translated  either  "Heavenly 
Queen"  or  "Empress." 

As  is  customary  in  the  mythology  of  China,  the  Queen  of 
Heaven  also  took  up  her  abode  upon  earth  for  a  time,  and  during 
the  period  of  her  incarnation  she  was  Miss  Ling,  the  daughter  of 
a  respectable  man  and  sister  of  four  brothers.  While  her  brothers 
were  at  sea.  she  fell  into  a  deep  trance  from  which  her  parents 
who  thought  her  dead  awakened  her  with  shouts  of  lamentation 
and  cries  of  grief.  Soon  afterwards  her  youngest  brother  returned 
and  told  how  in  a  terrible  storm  he  had  been  saved  by  the  appari- 
tion of  his  sister,  but  the  three  other  brothers  were  drowned  be- 
cause she  had  been' called  back  too  soon  from  the  scene  of  the  dis- 
aster when  her  parents  awakened  her  from  her  trance.  Thus  her 
power  to  help  travelers  was  practically  proved  through  this  tale 
which  is  firmlv  believed  by  her  devotees. 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR    WORSHIP. 


6ll 


Miss  Lino's  father  was  allerwanls  drowiu'd  in  the  sea,  and 
she  in  her  tihal  devotion  was  S(^  mnch  oricved  that  she  threw  hersell 
into  the  ocean  and  foUowed  him  in  death.     She  has  remained,  how- 


r)UEKN  OF  IIFAVFN,  THE  IIOT.V  MOTHER. 


ever,  the  guarchan  of  seafarincj  people  in  distress,  and  many  stories 
are  told  of  how  she  appears  to  the  shipwrecked  and  gnides  them  to 
places  of  safety. 


6l2 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


Two  festivals,  one  in  the  spring  and  one  in  the  autumn,  are 
celebrated  with  great  rejoicing  as  official  holidays  in  honor  of  the 
"Oueen  of  Heaven."     They  are  announced  by  large  placards  bear- 


2271 


CELEBRATION  OF  ONE  OF  THE 


ing  official  proclamation  such  as  those  in  our  illustration,  with  the 
inscription  "Heavenly  Queen  and  Holy  Mother"  on  the  right,  and 
on  the  left  in  small  characters  on   top,   "By  order"  and   in  large 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR   WORSHIP. 


613 


characters.  "Spring  and  Autnnin  Festivals."  The  sacrificial  ani- 
mals for  this  occasion  are  as  nsnal  three  in  nuniher,  the  pig,  the  ox, 
and  the  sheep. 


FESTIVALS  OF  THE  QUEEN  OF  HEAVEN. 


2278 


It  is  perhaps  redundant  to  state  that  the  Queen  of  Heaven 
as  a  deity  has  no  connection  with  the  religious  conception  t'ien, 
"heaven,"   which  plays   so  prominent  a  part   in   the   religious  and 


6i4 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


philosophical  life  of  China  in  exactly  the  same  sense  as  that  in 
which  the  word  "Heaven"  is  used  among-  Western  people  where  it 
serves  as  a  synonym  for  God  or  divine  providence.     The  Chinese 


PROCLAMATION  OF  TIIR  FKSTI\'ALS  OF  THE  QUEEN  OF  HEAVEN.   2300 


possess  a  number  of  proverbs  on  heaven  which  show  a  remarkable 
analogy  between  Western  and  Eastern  thought.  Here  arc  some 
instances  after  Paul  Perny's  Provcrhes  Chinois: 


CONFUCIANISM    AND   ANCESTOR    WORSHIP.  615 

"Plans  are  made  b\'  man  but  their  accomi)lishment  rests  with 
Heaven.  ' 

This  Chinese  saying'  corres])()ncls  exaetly  to  our  j)roverb.  "Man 
proposes;  (iod  (Hsposes."  or  in  I'reneh,  "L'liomme  propose,  le  Ciel 
dispose." 

"If  man  does  not  see  yon.  Heaven  does." 

"Man's  most  secret  words  resound  to  Heaven  as  loudly  as 
thunder,  and  his  most  secret  actions  are  seen  as  plain  as  lightning."' 

"Heaven's  eyes  are  ver}-  bright.  Heaven  recompenses  every 
one  according"  to  his  deserts." 

"Calamities  come  from  Heaven,  but  we  should  probe  our  hearts 
lest  we  be  blameworthy.'' 

"In  doing  good  we  honor  God,  in  doing  evil  we  provoke  the 
punishment  of  Heaven." 

"]vlan   depends   on   Heaven,   the   ship   on   the   pilot." 

"We  ma}'  cure  a  disease,  but  we  can  not  change  the  decrees 
of  Heaven." 

"Life  and  death  are  our  fate,  but  nobilitv  and  wealth  are  gifts 
of  Heaven." 

"Man  sees  only  the  present;  but  Heaven  beholds  the  distant 
future." 

"The  evils  prepared  b}-  man  are  not  dangerous;  1)ut  the  evils 
sent  by  Heaven  are  such." 

"This  life  is  full  of  doul)t  and  misery  ;  Heaven  alone  is  ])urc  and 
true.'' 

"Alan  has  good  intentions,  but  they  are  inspired  by  Heaven." 

"A  bad  man  may  hurt  his  neighbor  but  not  Heaven  ;  a  good 
man  may  be  misjudged  by  his  neighbor,  but  not  by  Heaven." 

"We  lean  on  Heaven  when  eatinc'  our  rice." 


THE  ARCHANGELS  OF  THE  AVESTA. 


BY    LAWRENCE    H.    MILLS. 

MEN  of  the  day  do  not  care  so  much  for  winged  messengers 
from  God,  be  these  supposed  existing  objects  great,  medium, 
or  little. 

Forced  at  a  rapid  pace  to  deal  with  matters  of  life  and  death, 
and  sometimes  with  things  of  more  than  either,  we  are  thankful 
enough  to  have  our  way  to  Heaven  clear  and  wide  with  no  encum- 
bering forms  to  intervene  or  help  us.  And  we  may  well  grudge  one 
of  our  crowded  moments  to  consider  such  a  thing  as  the  nature  of 
conjectural  Archangels,  even  of  the  most  distinguished  calibre,  past 
or  present. 

Yet  elsewhere  these  fine  concepts  live  on  in  the  minds  of  men, 
and  are  taken  seriously  beyond  all  (juestion  )et,  and  they  excite  no 
little  sentiment. 

And  of  all  Archangels,  or  Angels,  as  I  suppose  we  know,  the 
most  important,  judged  by  persons  from  without  and  thoroughly 
unprejudiced,  are  those  of  our  sister  Faith, — the  Lore  of  ancient 
Persia,  with  that  of  Cyrus  and  Darius  "who  brought  the  people 
back." 

We  should  all  be  glad  indeed  to  see  these  forms  on  canvas, 
in  marble,  or  in  poems ;  there  they  would  be  most  efifective,  as  we 
all  admit;  yet  could  they,  each  and  every  one  of  them,  be  reduced 
to  reason,  we  should  be  better  pleased. 

We  have  all  doubtless  heard  their  well-known  name,  the  Ame- 
shaspends, — at  least  those  of  us  who  read  our  Bibles — with  some 
comments,  for  in  every  serious  explanation  of  the  exilic  Books  and 
of  Tobit,  they  must  be  mentioned. 

Tobit  for  instance  seems  a  tale  centering  in  the  very  Zoroas- 
trian  city,  Ragha  near  modern  Teheran. 

This  was  so  thoroughly  an  Avesta  city  that  the  name  Zara- 


THE   ARCHANGELS   OF   THE   AVESTA.  617 

thiishtra  bocanie  identified  with  its  civic  officers,  losing  its  strict 
application  to  a  family  :  st^  much  so  that  it  was  used  artificially,  in 
the  plural  and  even  in  the  superlative  degree. 

The  leading-  Mayor  or  Governor  was  called  "Most  Zarathush- 
tra"  ;  and  so  in  Tohit.  to  correspond,  we  have  the  Seven  Spirits  in 
conspicuous  form  with  a  chief  Gathic  demon  to  keep  them  company, 
while  the  town  itself  is  mentioned  more  than  once.  The  Seven 
Ameshaspends  —  Amshaspands  some  would  call  them^ — are  "the 
August  Immortals" ;  others  venture  fully  on  "Holy."  "The  Holy 
Immortals." 

They  seem  from  what  T  shall  say  below  to  have  had  almost 
more  sway  over  admirations,  h(ipes  and  fears  than  any  others  of 
the  kind  throughcnit  all  history ;  for  the  Gods  of  Greece  and  Rome 
were  dififerent.  They,  the  Amesha,  ruled  in  the  wide  Persian  realm 
even  so  late  as  between  226  A.  D.  till  the  Arab  Conquest ;  and  how 
much  earlier?  Above  Teheran  they  ruled  two  centuries  still  later 
on,  see  below.  They  named  the  very  months  and  days  in  the  later 
periods,  even  in  the  late  Avesta,  perhaps  in  the  earlier  times  as  well, 
while  the  words  entered  into  the  etymology  of  many  a  proper  name. 

The  chief  objects  of  the  Creation  were  closely  linked  with  them, 
sometimes  too  much  so.  Asha  ruled  the  Fire  in  later  times  doubt- 
less from  the  sight  of  the  abounding  Altars,  where  Fire  was  sacra- 
mental. Its  own  name  included  Ritual,  Asha.  better  Arsha,  equal- 
ling Rita  of  the  Yc&d  ;  Bahnian.  or  Vohumanah  represented  man 
and  the  living  creatures: — Why?  Khshathra  ruled  the  metals,  so  by 
a  mere  accident  of  terms  and  in  false  inference  from  a  Gatha  pas- 
sage ;  Aramaiti  was  very  often,  even  as  in  the  Veda,  "Earth." 

Haurvatat  guarded  Water  and  gave  it  her  name  at  times ;  Ame- 
retatat  presided  over  plants  and  named  them  ;  and  the  two  Haur- 
vatat and  Ameretatat  occur  in  the  characteristic  dual  form,  linked 
as  it  were  together  as  "wood  and  moisture."  Curious.  Not  one 
of  these  late  ideas  was  original  in  the  meanings  of  the  distinguished 
words.  A  man  could  not  drink  even  out  of  a  bronze  fountain  with- 
out the  name  of  the  Archangel  as  the  god  of  metals ; — "Khshathra- 
vairya"  he  was  called  there  always  with  his  adjective  "vairya," 
which  was  taken  from  the  Gathas ;  but  it  means  "the  kingdom  to 
be  desired"  (sic),  and  had  no  other  sense;  nor  could  he  think  of 
"holy  Earth"  without  Aramaiti,  here  also  with  her  added  epithet 
the  "spenta,"  "spenta-armaiti,"  for  short  "Spendarmad."  She  was 
so  sacred  as  the  earth,  that  one  couldn't  trail  a  corpse  upon  her,  nor 
bury  in  her  ;  the  first  hints  at  sanitation  these,  and  they  had  their  use. 
But  the  words  describe  the  Divine  Activity,  the  ara-mind,  of  God, 


6l8  THE  OPEN    COURT. 

— no  thought  of  mould  or  clay  save  in  the  remote  root  meaning  of 
a  "plough"  ;  ara  to  "aratrum." 

This  was  all  late,  but  still  genuine  Avesta. 

Then  of  the  two  last  Archangels  the  one  who  represented  the 
Water  made  it  so  sacred,  that  one  could  not  cast  saliva  into  it.  nor 
could  Ambassadors  come  over  Sea  to  Rome,  nor  armies  use  sea- 
transport  ; — while  the  last  watched  over  j^lants,  presumably  with 
much  the  same  effect ; — but  neither  of  them  meant  internally  anv 
conceivable  thing  whatsover  of  the  sort. 

Fancy  one  priest  saying  to  another:  "Pour  some  Divine  Com- 
pleteness, that  was  Haurvatat.-  into  this  caldron,  and  put  some 
Immortality,  that  was  Ameretatat,  upon  the  Fire."  And  this,  as  I 
say,  even  in  the  late  but  still  genuine  Avesta,  not  to  speak  of  the 
later  Zoroastrianism  which  was  quite  a  different  thing. 

Even  in  the  Gatha  \^ohuman,  A'ohumanah,  clearly,  though  sub- 
limely refers  to  "man,"  while  in  the  late  Avesta  he  is  so  identified 
that  Vohu  manah.  as  the  discreet  citizen,  could  even  be  "defiled" 
by  some  bad  touch.  P»ut  it  meant  the  Good  Mind,  as  I  say,  and  first 
of  all  of  Deity.  These  Ameshaspends  went  everywhere,  as  I  have 
implied  above,  as  Ahura's  messengers  and  representatives;  but  just 
as  inevitably  they  sometimes  lost  their  first  meanings  in  the  way 
I  show.  Not  always,  and  we  may  be  thankful  for  it,  not  even  in  the 
later  but  still  genuine  Avesta,  nor  in  the  later  Zoroastrianism.  In 
times  so  late  even  as  the  C(jmmentaries  to  the  Yasna,  and  it  is  as 
singular  as  it  is  pleasing  to  observe  it,  everywhere  the  first  ideas 
maintain  themselves.  Indeed  the  two  phases  above  described  showed 
themselves  contemporaneously  and  even  side  by  side,  if  not  exactlv 
from  first  to  last,  then  at  least  from  the  second  stage  on  indefinitely. 
Asha  is  seldom  fire  there  in  the  comments,  for  Fire  has  its  place 
apart,  a  high  one:  he  was  even  "Mazda's  Son."  and  has  hymns  to 
himself,  though  he  is  never  an  Amesha ;  he  would  be  too  "pagan" 
among  the  Seven.  Asha  is  simply  "Holiness"  in  the  translations, 
with  only  occasional  reference  to  the  sense  of  "fire." 

Vohuman  means  for  the  most  part  exactly  what  it  is  in  the  trans- 
lations, though  the  comments  Pahlavi,  Sanskrit  and  Persian,  some- 
times bring  in  his  guardianship  of  men  and  animals,  chiefly  in 
Yasna  I. 

Khshathra  seldom  recalls  the  metals,  while  Aramaiti  is  broadly 
and  distinctly  the  "perfect  mind,"  a  most  noteworthy  particular, 
with  no  regular  allusions  whatever  to  the  "earth":  this  in  the 
Commentaries,  late  or  early;  we  seldom  think  of  water,  or  trees 
there  with  Haurvatat  or  Ameretatat.     1die  Waters,  like  the  Fire, 


THE   ARCHANGELS   OF   THE    ANESTA.  6l() 

were  indeed  most  sacred,  and  have  giowinj^'  ^'ashls ;  some  of  the 
finest  pieces  in  the  Books  are  to  their  glory  :  and  so  of  the  last ;  and 
this  even  in  the  late  commentaries  from  the  fifth  to  the  ninth  cen- 
tnrv  and  on.  for  the  Pahlavi  was  forever  being-  written  over  at  the 
end  of  sentences,  page  by  page. 

And  in  this  last  sense  the  Ang-elology  becomes  indeed  impres- 
sive thronghout  the  periods. 

Asha,  as  the  Angel  of  the  Holy  Law,  is  the  Holy  Truth  per- 
sonified ; — Bahman  or  Vohnmanah  is  the  Angel  of  Benevolence ; — 
Khshathra  is  that  of  God's  Sovereign  Power.  His  Authority  ; —  Ara- 
maiti  is  that  of  His  Activity  in  female  form.  His  Daughter ; — Haur- 
vatat  is  that  of  His  Completeness  ; — Ameretatat  that  of  His  Eternity. 
^^'here  is  their  like  in  a  refined  literature;  where  at  their  date? 

Our  Semitic  term  "who  like  God?"  Mi-cha-cl,  is  but  a  ques- 
tion ;  fine  indeed,  but  still  a  question.  So  Gabriel.  "God's  hero." 
has  a  manlv  ring;  l)ut  in  high  worship  we  need  close  help,  with 
more  particulars. 

AA'e  wish  to  know  what  the  God  \vhom  we  worship  really  is  ; 
and  our  Persian  Angels  answer  us  in  terms  magnificent — Asha  is 
the  Holy  Truth  enthroned  and  made  illustrious,  the  Good  Mind  is 
similarly  exalted,"  while  as  against  Raphael,  Uriel  and  the  like,  we 
have  the  rest,  Khshathra,  God's  Sovereign  Power,  declared  as  no 
Angel  elsewhere  is,  and  His  "ara"-mind.  His  working  inspiration, 
is  held  up  for  all  mankind  to  see  and  feel,  while  the  last  two  show 
us  almost  points  in  our  philosophy,  for  God's  Completeness  is  a 
formulated  consideration,  while  His  Deathlessness  declares  His  per- 
manence ;  and  this  last  as  we  may  note  in  passing,  is  actually  ident- 
ical with  "Immortality."  for  ainereta  is  Anwrto,  i.  e..  immorta-.  the 
suffix  only  differing ;  this  too  might  be  related. 

Surely  no  thinker  in  a  professor's  study  will  be  constructively 
indififerent  to  this.  Here  are  six  Attributes  of  God.  constructively 
including  everything  which  a  Supreme  Being  can  possess  or  be. 
the  first  principles  of  a  moral  Universe. — an  incisive  thing ;  and 
the  plan  it  signifies  is  better  than  any  other  grouping  of  believed-in 
Spiritual  Beings  which  may  ever  have  preceded  it.  And  as  such 
these  concepts  ruled  over  vast  territories  from  Afghanistan  at  least 
half  across  wide  Asia  to  a  province  named  from  the  Altar  fires  Ad- 
harbhagan. — Adhar  being  Fire. 

]\Ii-cha-el  never  held  sway  like  that  in  the  older  days,  nor  did 
Gabriel  nor  Uriel  nor  Raphael. 

We  scarcely  hear  of  the  four  except  in  art. — while  Gabriel 
swept  Europe  through  the  tender  tales  of  Christmas.     A\'hat  sphere 


620  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

then  had  the  Jewish  Angels  in  comparison  with  the  Iranian?  What 
populations  by  tlie  milHon  did  they  influence  outside  their  settle- 
ments? Where  especially  before  the  Exile,  is  there  even  any  trace 
of  suchlike  names?  But  Vohumanah  ruled  from  India  to  Egypt, 
and  from  the  Ocean  to  the  Sea,  on  the  wide  Tableland  of  Iran ;  and 
so  did  Asha,  Khshathra  and  the  rest,  and  this  in  the  first  fresh 
meanings  of  the  names  as  ideas  personified.  Even  the  Greeks  knew 
what  they  meant  so  long  ago  as  Theopompus  B.  C.  300,  or  at  least 
as  Plutarch.  Even  then  Asha  still  meant  aletheia,  i.  e.,  truth;  see 
Plutarch — with  not  a  thought  of  fire;  Vohuman  was  "goodwill," 
citnoia,  wdth  not  a  hint  of  men  or  cattle ;  Khshathra  was  "good  law," 
cunomia — no  word  of  metals; — Aramaiti  was  sopheia,  i.  e.,  "wis- 
dom," near  enough,  from  -maiti  to  the  root  "man,"  "to  think"; 
Haurvatat  was  ploiiton,  God  of  Wealth,  not  so  very  distant ;  while 
Ameretatat  was  rather  free,  "our  pleasure  in  things  beautiful"  ;  no 
water  was  seen  in  that,  no  plants  in  this. 

Do  we  think  all  this  a  trifling  matter  because  it  is  so  simple? 
Its  simplicity  is  its  very  passport, — its  patent  of  nobility  ;  if  it  were 
not  simple,  it  would  be  all  contemjjtible.  What  is  so  simple  as  the 
Gospel  ?  Truth  is  never  mixed.  Or  do  we  underrate  it  because  its 
documents  are  scant?  What  is  so  scant  as  the  fragments  of  Hera- 
clitus?  Or  because  it  is  not  modern?  Why,  our  whole  Religion 
is  "Antiquity."  We  live  and  breathe  in  Genesis  ;  and  the  world's 
commerce  rolls  on  with  the  Prophets  and  New  Testament. 

Some  religious  friend  once  wrote:  "We  know  nothing  of  the 
( )rient ; — we  are  not  schc^lars  in  it!"  Every  preacher  who  can  read 
his  Hebrew  is  a  specialist  in  Orient ; — and  all  the  children  in  our 
schools  are  half  the  same.  If  we  live  and  breathe  in  Daniel,  the 
Gospels  and  the  Apocalypse,  surely  we  can  spare  an  odd  half  hour 
for  the  "Anointed"  Cyrus  and  his  faith.  The  Reigns  of  Darius, 
Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes  date  our  later  Bibles,  and  should  we  pass 
them  lightly  over  when  their  chief  significance  is  their  Religion? 

To  resume, — these  things  are  keen,  not  dull  when  our  attention 
is  fully  aroused  to  them  ; — Plato  himself  is  dull  to  dullards.  But 
I  have  something  finer  still  to  ofifer,  a  veritable  curiosity  of  our 
literature,  and  one  pre-eminent, — though  subtle.  Some  of  my  read- 
ers may  respond  to  it,  and  I  must  push  it  with  all  the  point  I  can. 
Perhaps  we  do  not  like  Archangels ;  and  here  are  some  which  turn 
out  to  be  God's  attributes,  though  beyond  a  doubt  personified ;  and 
they  are  also  "created"  almost  in  the  sense  of  Plutarch  ;  but  we  have 
something  deeper  yet,  the  actual  things  themselves^  the  ideas  pure 


THE   ARCHANGELS   OF   THE   AVESTA.  621 

and  unadulterated  in  the  GCttlni  lines,  clear  of  anything  lehatsoever 
which  can  make  them  personal. 

They  are  first  clothed  in  the  forms  of  rhetoric,  speech-figure, 
rhetorical  impersonation,  like:  "Grave!  where  is  thy  victory,  O 
Death !  where  is  thy  sting" ;  which  does  not  at  all  destroy  their  ideal 
character ;  they  are  here  as  pure  as  anywhere ;  but  I  do  not  need  to 
cite  them  so.  We  have  them  clear  of  all  figure  whatsoever ;  efifectual 
and  beautiful  as  this  figure  is.  It  is  actually  the  fact  that  the  so- 
called  Archangels  of  the  Gathas  are  at  times  the  strictest  principles 
of  righteousness,  for  they  are  used  in  the  common  forms  of  gram- 
mar as  mere  nouns  in  the  adverbial  instrumental  case,  in  the  sim- 
plest forms  of  speech.  God  speaks  "asha,"  in  no  sense  at  all  here  mean- 
ing with  his  Archangel  or  helped  on  by  him,  but  "with  His  Truth," 
"veraciously" ; — He  wishes  "Vohumananha,"  not  with  the  Great 
Ameshaspend,  but  "with  His  direct  Benevolence" ;  —  He  rules 
"Khshathra,"  not  with  the  Arm  of  His  splendid  Creature,  but  "with 
His  Divine  Authority"  ; — He  moves  constructively  "Aramaiti",  i.  e., 
"with  His  Inspiration,"  and  not  as  encouraged  by  His  daughter. 
He  possesses  "Haurvatat,"  Completeness,  and  Ameretatat,  i.  e.. 
Eternity,  by  implication,  and  in  the  passages  here  meant  never  as 
living  beings. 

Here  the  very  mental  things  themselves  are  uttered,  and  have 
their  course  with  no  help  or  hindrance  whatsoever  from  any  one 
of  the  impersonations.  Tlie  August  Immortals  arc  the  common 
terms  of  language,  with  the  other  uses  however  at  the  next  breath 
or  sentence.  It  is  hard  to  believe  it,  but  read  the  passages ;  they 
are  few.  The  documents  themselves  are  scant,  though  so  weighty 
in  the  sense  of  higher  thought.  I  have  collected  the  special  places 
in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  Vol.  20.  Where 
does  the  like  appear?  The  personifications,  as  I  say,  occur,  and  this 
is  the  chief  marvel  of  it,  side  by  side  with  their  linguistic  uses,  such 
as  we  ourselves  might  follow  every  moment,  close  beside  them, 
alternated  with  them,  and  parallel ;  almost  interwoven  with  them, 
as  one  might  say  ; — so  much  so  that  it  is  often  quite  difficult,  if  not 
next  to  impossible  to  tell  when  Zarathushtra  meant  asha  "truly" 
in  the  common  meaning  of  the  noun — Asha  rhetorically  as  the  figure 
"with  His  truth,"  or  Asha  as  the  veritable  Archangel  of  the  Law. 
Nowhere  in  any  literature  do  I  remember  such  a  thing.  The  ideas 
are  positively,  almost  inextricably,  interwoven  in  many  a  place, 
though  the  original  force  of  them  is  never  lost,  either  in  the  figure 
or  the  believed-in  persons, — not  in  the  Gathas.  Strange,  and  yet 
not  strange  to  say,  this  very  circumstance  helps  on  my  contention  : 


622  THE  OPEN    COURT. 

(perhaps  my  friends  can  see  it,  too.  Of  course  it  shows  a  gross 
blunder  in  Zaratliushtra's  diction, — this  g'reat  confusion  in  the  sen- 
tences :  in  fact  it  is  tlie  crux  of  the  Gathic  ])oint,  and  long-  since  so 
recognized,  while  it  contains  the  secret  of  the  theme.  The  ideas 
so  filled  the  mintl  of  the  impassioned  prophet,  who  had  culled  them 
out  of  the  earlier  lore,  (see,  too,  the  \"eda,)  that  he  could  not  keep 
them  out  of  anything  he  wrote  on  a  kindred  subject;  least  of  all  out 
of  these  things  personified.  His  ardor  for  justice  especially  carried 
the  idea  through  every  lineament  and  fibre  of  the  form  of  Asha  as 
the  Angel,  nor  is  it  ever  really  lost  sight  of  in  many  of  the  later 
reproductions  of  it  through  every  age,  as  witness  Plutarch.  Nor 
does  Zarathushtra  ever  name  a  single  one  of  the  other  Five  Beings 
without  bearing  in  mind  the  things  the\'  s\'mbolize, — so  that  at 
times  we  cannot  tell  whether  he  really  means  the  Angel  or  the  prin- 
ciple. 

I  will  go  one  step  further  on  beyond  my  colleagues  and  say, 
after  all  my  studies,  that  Zarathushtra  himself  could  not  have  al- 
wavs  at  a  sudden  sight  of  them  have  made  clear  his  own  inter- 
twining thoughts,  not  even  to  himself.  Had  he  laid  his  strophes  by, 
forgotten  them  for  the  moment  in  his  rush  of  cares,  let  them  get 
"cold."  as  we  might  say  of  it,  and  then  come  suddenly  upon  them  ; 
he,  Zarathushtra  himself,  I  veritably  believe,  could  not  himself  have 
always  told  at  his  first  new  glance  at  them  which  new  thought  was 
uppermost  in  the  tangled  sentences,  the  thought  itself  in  its  pure 
reason,  or  the  supposed  living  Being,  the  spiritual  Archangel  who 
rpheld  the  thought :  that  is  to  say,  he  could  not  have  told  this  al- 
ways. 

T  call  this  wonderful  from  my  present  point  of  view  and  also 
valuable,  and  I  think  that  historians  of  religion  will  agree  with  me. 
Here  is  the  first  systematic  grouping  of  such  abstracts  in  the  world's 
religious  literature,  and  they  are  each  and  all  of  signal  character.* 
I  call  it  wonderful,  for  it  shows  how  deeply  the  man  was  possessed 
with  his  noble  purpose  :  and  his  followers  agreed  ;■ — the  hymns  them- 
selves were  worshii)ed  doubtless  for  this  reason,  and  it  is  a  good 
one. 

What  eft'ects  these  h}nins  must  have  had  on  millions  and 
throughout  centuries !  for  "Truth"  was  held  up  in  such  a  way 
as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  far-off  Greeks,  and  give  it  strong 
influence.  How  can  engineering,  for  example,  thrive  in  a  land 
with  all  things  shuffled?     Even  the  Tay  Bridge  broke  down,  they 

*Think  what  fame  Jonathan  Edwards  reaped  in  the  History  of  Philosophy 
from  that  one  great  thought  of  his  upon  the  human  will. 


THE   AKCIIANGKLS   OF    Till':    A\1':SIA.  623 

sav.  for  want  of  tcstiiit;-; — and  then  as  to  jiuliinuMil  ami  llio  Law; — ■ 
will  anv  man,  gifted  with  one  iota  of  sai;acit\-  here  needed,  donht 
for  a  moment  that  this  ereed  had  inlluence  imi  jnstiee  and  its  ad- 
mii>istration. 

Even  the  Greeks  attain  rejiorted  this  Persian  aspiration  to  speak 
truth  with  the  kindred  manly  instincts. 

The  Persians  led  the  world  as  horsemen,  and  the  Roman  le^^'ions 
never  felt  their  chances  even  till  the  Persian  archers  had  shot  all 
their  shafts.  Xo  more  virile  figure  existed  upon  Earth  than  Cyrus  : 
— and  look  at  Darius"s  point  on  Behistan.  He  goes  straight  at  all 
his  objects,  and  the  tablets  ring  with  curses  on  the  Lie.  Periods 
of  degeneration  of  course  ensued  as  they  do  everywhere, — l)ut  even 
the  last  Persian  king  made  an  astonishing  struggle  for  existence. 
I  call  it  wonderful  indeed  as  the  enthronement  of  the  best  instincts 
of  our  race. 

In  Veda  we  have  the  same  ideas,  often  also  not  personified  : 
and  with  a  throng  beside  them  left  too  in  their  simple  state,  but 
there  thev  are  loosely  scattered,  neglected  as  it  were.  Here  they  are 
compacted,  selected,  guarded  and  protected,  focused,  so  to  express 
it,  made  dominant,  effective,  consecrated  :  and  above  all,  as  the  seal 
of  them,  made  sacrosanct,  for  they  are  sacrificed,  t(^o,  at  times  in 
the  Yasna  service  as  the  most  sacred  objects  in  its  course.  Surely 
this  lifts  the  Gathas  out  of  and  above  all  such  like  competing 
schemes. 

\Miere  elsewhere,  let  me  repeat  the  question,  have  we  the  like 
in  literature  save  in  its  daughter  systems?  God.  the  Life — Spirit- 
Lord,  Ahura,  one  of  the  noblest  names  well  possible, — Mazda,  the 
Great  Creator,  or  as  others  say,  "the  Wise  One" — and — with  His 
character!  JVJiaf  would  He  be  withcwt  it?* — though  divided  in  six 
attributes  ;  and  this  at  a  time  when  Jupiter  was  beating  Llis  annewing 
spouse,  and  Indra  hiccoughing  from  too  much  Soma !  We  do  not 
worship  God  because  Lie  is  a  person;  but  because  He  is  Supreme 
in  Truth,  with  Love  and  Power,  Eternal,  Active  and  Complete. 


YAKUMO  KOIZUMI:   THE  INTERPRETER  OF 

JAPAN. 

BY   K.    K.   KAWAKAMI. 

"Yakumo  fafsu; 
Izumo  yaye-gaki; 
Tsuina  gome  ni 

Yaye-gaki  tsukuru : 
Sono  yaye-gaki  wo." 
"Many  clouds  appear : 

Eightfold  clouds   a  barrier   raise 
Round  the  wedded  pair, 

Manifold  the  clouds  stand  guard; 
Oh,   that  eightfold  barrier-ward." 

IN  Iznmo,  the  Land  of  the  Issuing  of  Clouds,  Susa-no-wo-no-mi- 
koto,  in  the  ages  of  the  gods,  built  a  bridal  palace.  Clouds  rose  up 
thence,  and  the  god-bridegroom  sang  the  august  song  of  "Eightfold 
Clouds."  Here  it  was  that  Japanese  history  first  gleamed  through 
the  mist  of  mythology.  Attracted  by  its  enchantment,  an  imagin- 
ative soul  started  on  a  pilgrimage  from  the  far  West — from  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic,  unto  this  Land  of  the  Issuing  of  Clouds,  a 
land  of  awesoine  ghost-stories,  of  marvelous  traditions,  of  grotesque 
yet  charming  folklore.  Short  in  stature,  the  pilgrim  had  but  one 
eye,  carrying  about  him  a  weird  and  unearthly  air.  His  poetic 
temperament  was  so  captivated  by  the  unspeakable  charm  of  the 
land  that  he  renounced  his  Christian  name,  adopting  the  Japanese 
name  "Yakumo,"  the  very  first  word  of  the  sacred  song,  "Eightfold 
Clouds."  Touched  with  the  rare  picturesqueness  and  graceful  sim- 
plicity of  Japanese  life,  he  married  a  daughter  of  a  samurai,  whose 
family  name,  Koizumi,  he  then  assumed.     • 

Ere  long,  Yakumo  Koizumi  converted  himself  into  a  subject  of 
the  Mikado,  determined  to  devote  his  maturer  years  to  those  inti- 
mate delineations  and  charming  pictures  of  Oriental  life  that  were 
destined  to  give  the  Western  nations  a  new  conception  of  the  Eastern 
spirit,  revealing  noble  ciualities,  and  inspiring  ideals  either  unde- 


YAKUMO   KOIZUMI:   THE   INTERPRETER  OF  JAPAN. 


62  q 


veloped  by  Occidental  civilization  or  overshadowed  by  its  com- 
mercialism. 

It  was  in  the  fifth  month  of  the  twenty-third  year  of  Meiji 
(1890)  that  this  strange  pilgrim,  whose  original  name  was  Lafcadio 
Hearn,  first  set  his  foot  in  Japan.  His  first  day  in  Tokyo  was  one 
of  those  Japanese  spring-days  of  divine  beauty,  converting  the  land- 
scape into  a  bland  expanse  of  soft  lucidity  under  the  wide  canopy 
of  a  speckless  azure  sky.  Thither  he  arrived  as  correspondent  of 
some  American  newspaper  syndicate,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he 
severed  his  connections  with  the  syndicate,  deciding  to  remain  in- 
definitely in  this  fascinating  land. 

Soon  he  wended  his  way  to  the  Land  of  the  Issuing  of  Clouds, 
and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  vear  we  find  Hearn  teaching  a  hieh- 


MATSUYE    IN    THE    LAND   OF    THE    ISSUING   OF    CLOUDS. 


school  in  Matsuye,  the  metropolitan  city  of  this  historic  province. 
Here  he  made  a  little  Japanese  home  with  his  Japanese  bride,  win- 
ning and  dainty,  yet  with  all  the  noble  qualities  fostered  by  a  Spar- 
tan training  of  old.  The  view  from  this  home  was  superb.  Before 
his  tiny  paper  windows  glimmer  the  broad,  placid  waters  of  the 
grand  Shinji  Lake,  framed  in  a  dreamy  dim  gray  of  hills  and  peaks, 
while,  skirting  his  garden,  the  grand  Ohashi  River  glides  slowly 
and  majestically  toward  the  lake,  tremulously  mirroring  the  trees 
and  houses  upon  its  further  side.  It  was  here  that  Hearn  wrote  the 
most  of  the  chapters  in  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan — his  first  book 
written  in  Japan. 

In  the  Matsuye  high-school  Hearn  was  required  to  teach  Eng- 


626  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

lish  composition,  conversation,  and  pronunciation.  The  work  would 
have  been  a  tiresome  routine,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that,  through 
the  medium  of  compositions  and  conversations  in  the  class-room 
he  strove  to  unearth  the  hidden  treasures  of  legends  and  traditions, 
to  coax  out  the  psychological  peculiarities  of  his  strange  pupils,  to 
enter  into  the  emotional  life  of  a  race  much  read  of,  yet  all  unknown. 
Thus,  he  took  a  profound  interest  in  the  naive,  often  unintelligible, 
writings  of  his  youthful  students  which  he  scanned  with  the  eyes 
of  a  keen  critic. 

Hearn's  stay  in  Matsuye  did  not  last  longer  than  a  year.  The 
harshness  of  the  elements  and  the  winter  blast  sweeping  the  northern 
coast,  told  upon  his  constitution  so  harshly  that  before  a  second 
winter  had  set  in  he  was  forced  to  leave  this  historic  town,  with  all 
its  endearing  surroundings.  Accompanied  by  his  dutiful  Japanese 
spouse,  Hearn  journeyed  thence  to  the  city  of  Kumamoto  to  accept 
a  position  in  a  higher  middle  school,  a  counterpart  of  the  German 
gyiiiiiasium.  The  metropolis  of  an  island  stretching  in  a  southerly 
direction  from  the  outlet  of  the  world-famous  Inland  Sea,  Kuma- 
moto enjoys  the  mild  climate  which  was  essential  to  the  health  of 
the  litterateur  long  accustomed  to  semi-tropical  climes.  Here  his 
work  was  of  more  advanced  nature  than  in  Matsuye,  and  included 
English  rhetoric,  conversation,  history  of  English  literature,  and 
Latin. 

These  six  years  in  Kumamoto  were  the  most  fruitful  period  of 
his  literary  career.  His  crowning  works  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar 
Japan  (1894),  Out  of  the  East  (1895),  Kokoro  (1896),  and  Glean- 
ings in  Buddha  Fields  (1897),  all  appeared  in  this  period. 

The  pervading  subtlety  and  exquisite  delicacy  of  his  style  and 
workmanship  are  perhaps  yet  further  enhanced  in  his  later  writings, 
but  by  far  the  most  serious  of  his  thoughts, — his  exposition  of  the 
Japanese  spirit, — his  critical  study  of  Japanese  estheticism, — his  phil- 
osophical examination  of  Buddhist  philosophy  and  Shinto  cult,^ — his 
attempt,  in  short,  to  interpret  Oriental  life  and  ideals  in  the  light 
of  modern  theory  of  evolution  as  expounded  by  Spencer,  Huxley, 
and  others,  are  all  clearly  set  forth  in  these  four  books.  The  first. 
Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan,  though  essentially  descriptive,  is  yet 
replete  with  those  thought-provoking  observations,  which  bespeak 
a  man  of  rare  imaginative  reach  and  extraordinary  insight.  In  those 
early  years,  devoted  to  the  production  of  this  book,  Hearn  was  no 
doubt  bewildered  with  the  maze  of  this  strange  world  which  must 
have  appeared  to  him  a  marvelous  fairy-land  full  of  baffling  enig- 
mas.     But  after  a   sojourn   of   four  years   our  pilgrim   sees  Japan 


YAKUMO    KOIZUMI:   THE   INTERPRETER   OF   JAPAN.  627 

without  its  giamor.  Thus,  in  the  three  books,  foHowing-  (jli)iipses 
of  Unfauuliar  Japaii,  we  find  the  most  admirable  expositions  of  the 
inner  springs  of  Japanese  hfe,  which  have  so  far  issued  from  the 
pen  of  foreign  writers.  In  Kokoro,  in  Out  of  the  East,  in  Gleanings 
in  Buddha  Fields,  he  has  infused  a  unicjuc  spirit  into  English  litera- 
ture in  his  delicately  chiseled  style  reflecting-  what  his  critic,  Mr. 
Paul  E.  More,  aptly  terms  "the  meeting-  of  three  ways,"^ — a  fusion 
into  one  compound  of  Hindu  philosoph}-,  the  esthetic  sense  of 
Tapan  and  the  \\'cstern  theory  of  evolution.  In  soft  reverberating 
elociuence.  the  true  significance  of  Karma  and  Nirvana  is  unfolded 
in  the  light  of  empiric  philosophy,  and  in  terms  of  evolutional  psy- 
chology we  are  apprised  that  the  tiny  mortuary  tablet  in  the  house- 
hold sanctuary  and  the  miniature  lamplet  nightly  kindled  before  it 
are  the  emblem,  indeed  the  fountain  of  the  strong  national  spirit 
inherent  in  the  Japanese.  Even  his  later  Japan:  An  Attempt  at 
hitevpretation,  regarded  by  many  as  his  monumental  work,  possesses 
perhaps  no  greater  merit  than  these  early  works,  save  that  it  system- 
atizes what  was  there  set  forth,  linking  them  together  into  one  thread 
of  historical  discourses. 

But  to  come  back  to  Kumamoto.  Here  Hearn  continued  his 
Japanese  life,  declining  the  ofifer  of  an  official  residence  built  after 
the  Western  fasliion.  His  paper-screened  home,  his  dainty  futon. 
liis  picturesque  kimono,  his  tiny  smoking-pipes,  his  artistic  land- 
scape garden — these  and  many  other  things  touched  with  the  simple 
serene  taste  of  his  Japanese  wife,  were  adapted  to  realize  a  genuine 
Japanese  home.  As  Hearn  deeply  loved  everything  Japanese,  so 
intensely  did  he  dislike  those  ugly  foreign  things  so  common  in 
new  Japan.  His  antipathy  towards  the  Christian  missionaries  and 
churches  was  trulv  invulnerable.  In  fact,  he  had  vow'ed  never  to 
permit  a  church  to  appear  in  his  sight,  and  avoided  all  intercourse 
with  his  missionary  colleague  in  the  Kumamoto  school.  His  convic- 
tion was  that  in  the  practice  of  virtue,  in  purity  of  life  and  outward 
devotion,  the  Japanese  quite  outdo  the  Christians  and  have  nothing 
whatever  to  gain  bv  conversion  to  Christianity,  morally  or  other- 
wise. "Old  Japan  came  nearer,"  says  Hearn,  "to  the  achievement 
of  the  highest  moral  ideal  than  our  far  more  evolved  societies  can 
hope  to  do  for  many  a  hundred  years."  To  him,  those  simple, 
happy  beliefs  of  the  natives  were  far  preferable  to  the  Western 
fancies  of  "an  unforgiving  God  and  an  everlasting  hell."  Even 
the  commonest  superstitions  of  the  simple-minded  people  were,  to 
him,  of  rarest  value  as  fragments  of  the  unwritten  literature  of  their 
primitive  efforts  to  find   solutions   for  the   riddle  of  the  Linscen — 


628 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 


some  of  which  are  even  comparable  for  beauty  of  fancy  to  thost 
Greek  myths  which  still  furnish  an  inexhaustible  source  of  inspira- 
tion for  the  noblest  of  our  Western  poets.  He  was  not  blind  to  the 
darker  side  of  Japanese  life,  but  believed  it  compared  very  favorably 
with  the  reversed  side  of  Western  civilization.  To  be  brief,  his 
attitude  towards  Japanese  life  is  summed  up  in  this  single  sentence, 
"It  has  its  foibles,  its  follies,  its  vices,  its  cruelties ;  yet  the  more  one 
sees  of  it,  the  more  one  marvels  at  its  extraordinary  goodness,  its 
miraculous  patience,  its  never-failing  courtesy,  its  simplicity  of  heart, 
its  intuitive  charity." 

Six  summers  had  passed  before  Hearn  resigned  his  position  in 
the  Kumamoto  higher  middle  school  to  assume  the  chair  of  English 
literature  at  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokyo.     In  the  University, 


sou 


KAZUWO. 
Hearn's  oldest  son. 


suzu.  ■™"' 

Hearn'sfourth  child  and  only  daughter. 


he  was  an  inspiring  teacher,  sparing  no  effort  to  encourage  his  stu- 
dents. He  had  come  to  understand  that  to  be  a  teacher  in  the 
full  Oriental  sense  it  was  not  enough  to  lecture  skilfully, — not 
enough,  indeed,  to  impart  his  knowledge  or  his  art  as  a  trader  sells 
his  merchandise  for  a  certain  price.  No,  he  must  do  something 
more,  something  nobler  than  that.  In  days  of  old  the  Japanese 
teacher  was  expected  to  take  a  parental  interest  in  his  students,  to 
look  after  their  welfare  with  fond  sympathy  even  at  the  sacrifice  of 
his  own  happiness  and  comfort.  To  his  pupils,  he  was  an  instructor, 
a  guardian,  a  confidant,  a  wise  and  affectionate  adviser.  A  precious 
bequest  of  a  vanishing  world,  this  beautiful  relation  between  the 
teacher  and  his  students  has  not  yet  wholly  disappeared  before  the 


YAKUMO   KOIZUMI  :   THE   INTERPRETER  OF  JAPAN. 


629 


devastating  onslaught  of  Western  commercialism.  This  the  foreign 
teacher  must  understand  first  of  all,  or  else  he  will  surely  toil  in 
vain,  and  this  in  spite  of  his  utmost  endeavors  to  come  into  touch 
with  the  emotional  life  of  his  students,  or  to  evoke  that  interest  in 
certain  studies  which  renders  possible  an  intellectual  tie.  In  fact, 
many  a  foreign  professor,  long  resident  in  Japan,  often  wonders 
why  he  is  so  utterly  unable  t(^  come  into  close  contact  with  his 
students,  why  they  so  persistently  maintain  an  attitude  of  apparent 
indifiference  towards  his  efforts,  finding  himself,  as  our  author  ob- 
serves, "in  the  state  of  Antarctic  explorers,  seeking,  month  after 
month,  to  no  purpose,  some  inlet  through  endless  clififs  of  everlasting 
tie."  In  Lafcadio  Hearn  we  find  a  gratifying  exception.  His  stu- 
dents, both  in  Kumamoto  and  Tokyo,  looked  upon  him  with  fond 


IWAWO. 
Hearn's  second  son. 


KIYOSHI. 
Hearn's  third  son. 


esteem,  referring  to  him  with  the  touching  honorific  sensei,  expres- 
sive of  profound  Oriental  reverence  toward  the  teacher.  When  the 
Imperial  University  decided  to  discontinue  Hearn's  chair,  all  his 
students  rose  in  strong  protest  against  this  decision  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Their  protest  proved  unavailing,  and  Hearn's  connection  witli 
the  university  was  severed  in  the  spring  of  1904,  never  to  be  re- 
sumed. Upon  his  death,  a  literary  magazine  under  the  auspices  of 
the  university  published  a  memorial  number  devoting  its  entire  pages 
to  the  life  and  reminiscences  of  the  deceased  scholar. 

During  his  seven  years  in  the  Imperial  University,  Hearn  pub- 
lished six  -works,  Shadomings  (1900),  A  Japanese  Miscellany  (1901), 
Kotto  (1902),  Exotics  and  Retrospectives  (1898),  Ghostly  Japan 
(1899),  and  Kzvaidan  (1904).    The  greater  portion  of  his  last  book 


630  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

Japan:  An  Attempt  at  Interpretation  (1904),  was  also  written  in 
this  period.  All  these  books,  excepting  the  last  one,  are  largely 
made  up  of  short  stories,  legends,  folk-lore,  and  popular  songs 
common  in  Japan,  which  the  author  interprets  with  his  imaginative 
sense  of  the  weird  and  picturesque  coupled  with  the  Spencerian 
philosophy.  Entertaining,  and  at  the  same  time  instructive,  and 
with  all  the  delicacy  of  mellowed  workmanship,  they  can  hardly  be 
compared  in  depth  of  thought  to  his  earlier  works  already  noted. 
Japan:  An  Attempt  at  Interpretation  contains  doubtless  many  sug- 
gestive ideas,  but  only  after  making  great  concessions  could  we 
call  it  an  authoritative  work.  It  is  easy  to  point  out  many  a  sweep- 
ing conclusion  which  is  scarcely  warrantable  from  a  sound  Japanese 
point  of  view.  Nevertheless,  it  constitutes  an  invaluable  contribu- 
tion to  the  critical  study  of  Japanese  history  still  deplorably  neglected 
by  native  scholars.  In  this  book,  as  in  others,  Hearn  looks  back 
with  reluctant  eyes  towards  a  disappearing  world  governed  by  the 
simple  code  of  Samurai  whose  moral  precepts  were  welded  together 
by  the  Shinto  cult  and  the  teachings  of  Buddha  and  Confucius. 
"Where  Japan  has  remained,"  says  he,  "true  to  her  old  moral  ideals, 
she  has  done  nobly  and  well ;  where  she  has  needlessly  departed 
from  them,  sorrow  and  trouble  have  been  the  natural  consequences." 
But  was  it  possible  for  Japan  to  plunge  into  the  whirl  of  economic 
competition — and  she  was  bound  so  to  do  if  the  basis  of  her  new 
departure  was  to  remain  solid — without  at  the  same  time  radically 
changing  her  moral  conceptions?  Is  it  not  unreasonable  to  expect 
the  nation  to  retain  the  graceful  simplicity,  the  amiability  of  man- 
ners, the  daintiness  of  habits,  the  delicate  tact  displayed  in  pleasure- 
giving,  the  bright  smile  and  courteous  bow  at  once  so  artless  and  so 
faultless— to  retain  all  these  and  other  charming  old  customs  and 
ideas,  when  her  green  valleys  are  murked  by  the  sooty  breath  of 
countless  factory  chimneys  and  her  sunny  towns  and  picturesque 
villages  are  startled  by  the  busy  tumult  of  the  spinning  jenny,  the 
power-loom  weaving,  the  steam-hammer,  and  the  locomotive  engine  ? 
Does  not  the  introduction  of  the  factory  system,  the  advent  of 
a  constitutional  government  inevitably  spell  the  dissolution  of 
those  ideas,  however  winsome,  which  are  the  fruitage  of  a  paternal- 
istic conception  of  society?  And  is  not  the  knell  of  the  old  regime 
an  invocation  withal  for  a  new  spirit,  on  the  whole  more  salutary 
than  the  old?  Verily,  in  the  same  breath  lamenting  the  passing 
away  of  the  old  Japan,  Hearn  unmistakably  admits  that  without 
individualism  no  modern  nation  can  grow  prosperous,  that  the  fu- 
ture Japan  must   rely  upon  the  efficacy  of  this  new  principle   for 


YAKUMO    KOIZUMI:   THE    1  .\  TKKl'KF.TER   OF   JAPAN.  631 

success  in  the  universal  struij^ile  for  predominance,  political  and 
economic. 

Hearn  was  essentially  an  ascetic  soul,  restricting  his  acquaint- 
ances into  a  very  narrow  circle.  Many  a  foreigner,  attracted  by 
his  literary  fame,  wended  his  way  to  the  suburban  home  at  Tokyo 
only  to  meet  with  a  blunt  rebuff  at  his  portal.  At  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity he  seldom  participated  in  the  conversation  in  the  private 
chamber  where  the  j^rofessors  retired  between  hours,  but  alone  would 
direct  his  steps  to  the  campus,  strolling  among  the  trees  or  poring 
upon  the  face  of  the  pond.  In  later  years  he  completely  withdrew 
from  societ}',  even  denying  himself  the  comradeship  of  old  and  tried 
friends,  even  of  those  to  whom  he  had  in  an  earlier  period  dedicated 
his  works.  It  is  not  perhaps  altogether  just  to  liken  I  learn,  as  does 
an  Atuerican  critic,  to  a  sensitive  plant  which  can  not  l)ear  a  breath 
of  rudeness.  His  asceticism  was  the  asceticism  of  man\-  original 
thinkers  whose  preoccupation  permitted  no  leisure  for  relaxation 
of  society.  When  some  of  his  former  students  undertook  to  organ- 
ize a  society  for  the  stud\"  of  English  literature,  Hearn  addressed  to 
them  a  touching  letter,  earnestlv  o]:)])osing  their  undertaking.  "The 
study  of  literature  or  art,"  wrote  he,  "is  never  accomplished  by  so- 
cieties of  this  kind.  The  study  of  literature  and  art  requires  and 
depends  upon  individual  effort,  and  original  thinking.  The  great 
Japanese  who  wrote  famous  books  and  painted  famous  pictures  did 
not  need  societies  to  help  them.  They  worked  in  solitude  and  si- 
lence. No  good  literary  work  can  come  ou.t  of  a  society — no  original 
work,  at  least.  Social  organization  is  essentially  opposed  to  original 
effort,  to  individual  effort,  to  original  thinking,  to  original  feeling. 
A  society  for  the  study  of  literature  means  a  society  organized  so 
as  to  render  the  study  of  literature,  or  the  production  of  literature 
absolutely  impossible." 

Not  only  did  Hearn  object  to  the  (Organization  of  a  literary 
society,  but  he  did  not  encourage  the  students  to  choose  literature 
or  philosophy  as  a  special  study,  believing  that  Japan  for  at  least 
fiftv  A'ears  to  come  must  bend  all  her  energies  to  practical  matters. 
Writing  to  one  of  his  students  in  Matsu^e  high  school,  he  once  ex- 
pressed the  same  opinion  as  follows : 

"I  think  you  ought  not  to  stud}'  what  would  not  be  of  practical 
use  to  you  in  after-life.  I  am  always  glad  to  hear  of  a  student 
studving  engineering,  architecture,  medicine — or  any  branch  of  ap- 
plied sciences.  I  do  not  like  to  see  all  the  fine  boys  turning  to  the 
study  of  law  instead  of  to  the  study  of  science  or  technology.  Hun- 
dreds of  students  leave  the  University  without  any  practical  ability 


632  THE  OPEN   COURT, 

to  make  themselves  useful — their  whole  education  has  been  of  no 
use  to  them,  because  it  has  not  been  practical.  Men  can  succeed 
in  life  only  by  their  ability  to  do  something,  and  three-fourths  of  the 
university  students  can  do  nothing." 

Hearn  was  probably  led  to  this  belief  by  the  disappointing 
career  in  after  life  of  most  of  the  Japanese  students  of  literature  or 
metaphysics  or  psychology,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  conspicuous 
success  of  the  scholars  of  applied  science.  In  a  comparatively  brief 
period,  Japan  has  achieved  signal  progress  in  the  field  of  medical 
and  military,  and  engineering  and  physical,  sciences,  and  even  prac- 
tical law  and  administration.  In  the  case  of  literature  and  philos- 
ophy it  has  been  otherwise.  That  the  Japanese  mind  lacks  idealism, 
taking  but  little  interest  in  philosophical  problems,  Hearn  does  not 
believe,  as  does  many  a  cursory  observer  of  Japan ;  but  he  points 
out  that  the  young  Japan,  like  the  United  States  of  some  forty  years 
ago,  is  impelled  and  ought  to  absorbingly  engage  herself  in  prac- 
tical undertakings. 

Hearn  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  but  a  few  months  after  his 
withdrawal  from  the  Imperial  University,  leaving  four  children  with 
his  Japanese  wife.  His  funeral  ceremony  was  conducted  in  strict 
observance  of  the  Buddhist  rites  at  the  Buddhist  monastery,  Jishoin, 
Tokyo.  In  the  register  of  the  monastery,  you  search  in  vain  for 
the  name  of  "Lafcadio  Hearn,"  but  an  acolyte  apprises  you  that 
a  foreigner  by  the  Cjuaint  name  of  "Yakumo  Koizumi"  lies  interred 
here,  leading  you  presently  into  the  inner  sanctuary  where  stands 
a  tiny  lacquered  tablet  bearing  in  gold  the  "spirit-name"  of  the 
deceased  parishioner  in  artistic  Chinese  ideographs.  The  acolyte 
then  curiously  remarks,  "I  wonder  what  his  original  nationality  is ; 
he  seems  to  have  come  from  everywhere- — some  say  he  was  a  Greek, 
some  a  Frenchman,  some  an  Englishman,  but  many  believe  he  was 
an  American."  Verily,  Yakumo  Koizumi  was  a  citizen  of  the  world 
— this  devout  herald  of  Japanese  culture  to  the  Occidental  nations. 


CHINESE  BOOKS  BEFORE  THE  INVENTION  OF 

PAPER.* 

I5Y   EDOUARD  CHAVANNES. 

IT  is  known  that  the  Chinese  are  the  inventors  of  paper.  The  idea 
occurred  to  a  certain  Ts'ai  Llin  in  the  year  105  of  our  era,  to 
manufacture  out  of  waste  materials  a  substance  both  hght  and 
economical  which  could  replace  with  advantage  those  that  had  been 
used  for  writing  purposes  previous  to  that  time.  The  passage  of 
the  Hon  Han  SIni  (XYIII)  which  relates  this  memorable  discov- 
ery tells  also  of  the  methods  to  which  the  people  had  recourse  be- 
fore the  existence  of  paper: 

"Since  antiquity,  written  documents  consisted  mostly  of  bun- 
dles of  bamboo  strips ;  when  silk  tissues  were  used  instead,  the  name 
cliih  was  given  to  them.  The  silk  was  expensive  and  the  bamboo 
strips  were  heavy ;  both  were  inconvenient.  So  Ts'ai  Liin  conceived 
the  idea  of  utilizing  the  bark  of  trees  and  hemp,  as  well  as  old  rags 
and  fishing-nets  to  make  cJiili.  The  first  year  of  Ynan-hing  (105 
A.  D.)  he  offered  his  invention  to  the  Emperor,  who  praised  his 
cleverness.  From  that  time  every  one  adopted  the  use  of  his  paper, 
and  that  is  why  all  over  the  empire  it  was  called  the  'chih  of  the 
honorable  Ts'ai.'  " 

The  expression  "bamboo  and  silk"  meaning  "writings,"  con- 
firms the  evidence  of  the  Hon  Han  Shu  that  those  two  materials 
were  both  used  before  the  invention  of  paper.  Tung-Fang  So,  in 
a  literary  work  which  he  wrote  in  the  year  100  B.  C,  says  that 
innumerable  dissertations  of  his  contemporaries  "are  displayed  on 
bamboo  and  on  silk." 

*  Translated  from  the  French  by  Amelie  Serafon.  For  a  more  detailed 
account,  and  for  quotations  in  the  original  Chinese,  see  the  author's  mono- 
graph "Les  livres  chinois  avant  I'invention  du  papier,"  republished  from  the 
Journal  asiatique,  Jan. -Feb.,  1905. 


634  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

WRITINGS   ON   SILK. 

Of  the  two  materials  bamboo  was  more  frequently  used.  Silk, 
on  account  of  its  costliness,  was  rarely  made  use  of  and  only  at  a 
later  period.  My  impression  is,  that  it  was  not  employed  until 
after  the  invention  of  paint  brushes  in  the  time  of  Ts'in  Shih-Huang- 
Ti  (220-210  B.  C.)  ;  at  least  I  have  not  found  any  text  that  alludes 
to  writings  on  silk  before  that  date. 

According  to  Text  No.  i  we  might  conclude  that  the  word 
chill  which  nowadays  means  paper,  was  formerly  applied  to  the 
silk  material  on  which  they  wrote.  Paper  was  first  known  under 
the  name  of  "the  chih  of  the  honorable  Ts'ai,"  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  real  silk.  chih.  I  believe,  however,  that  the  Hon  Han  Shu 
text  is  not  rigorously  exact,  and  that  a  distinction  should  be  made 
between  the  chih  which,  before  Ts'ai  Liin,  was  real  paper  made  our 
of  silk  refuse,  and  po  which  was  a  silk  fabric. 

The  refuse  from  the  cocoons  was  beaten  in  water  until  it  was 
reduced  to  a  paste,  and  the  cruder  parts  floating  on  the  surface  of 
the  water  were  eliminated.  Then  they  used  a  mat  to  separate  the 
purer  silk  which  clung  to  its  surface,  and  which  after  being  dried 
formed  a  sheet  of  paper.  So,  according  to  the  texts,  it  seems  that 
Ts-ai  Liin,  like  most  inventors,  only  improved  upon  former  pro- 
cesses. His  chief  merit  appears  to  have  consisted  in  substituting 
for  the  expensive  silk  refuse,  materials  of  no  value  which  at  the 
same  time  gave  better  results  ;  for  even  before  his  time  the  prin- 
ciples of  manufacturing  paper  had  been  known. 

Concerning  the  silk  papers  previous  to  Ts'ai  Liin's,  we  have 
no  documents ;  it  is  thought,  however,  a  similar  paper  may  be 
recognized  as  referred  to  in  a  writing  on  hsi-t'i  mentioned  in  the 
Ch'ien  Han  Shii,  in  the  year  12  B.  C. 

If  the  existence  of  silk  paper  is  proved  by  the  Shuo  JVen,  we 
must  not  identify  it  (as  is  done  in  Text  No.  i)  with  the  silk  fabric 
which  was  used  for  writing.  In  119  B.  C,  when  the  imposter 
Shao-Wang  pretended  that  a  wonderful  manuscript  would  be  mirac- 
ulously found  in  the  abdomen  of  an  ox,  he  had  first  made  the 
animal  swallow  a  writing  on  silk  ;  considering  the  vicissitudes  to 
which  such  a  writing  would  be  exposed,  we  must  suppose  that  it 
had  been  traced  on  silk  fabric,  and  not  on  paper,  which  would  have 
been  reduced  to  a  pulp. 

In  82  B.  C.  a  Chinese  envoy  to  the  Hsiung  Nu  invented  a 
stratagem  in  order  to  have  the  ambassador  Su  Wu  whom  he  knew 
to  be  living,  restored  to  him,  in  spite  of  the  denials  of  the  barbarous 


CHINESE    BOOKS    BEFORE   THE   INVENTION    OF   PAPER.  635 

sovereign.  He  told  how  the  Emperor,  while  hunting,  had  captured 
a  wild  duck,  to  the  foot  of  which  was  tied  a  writing  on  silk  in 
which  Su  Wu  indicated  exactly  the  spot  where  he  was.  Here  again, 
the  writing  on  silk  (which  moreover  was  imaginary)  could  onl\- 
have  been  a  strip  of  cloth. 

We  mav  feel  sure,  then,  that  when  they  tell  us  of  writings  on 
silk,  writings  on  silk  cloth  are  meant  in  the  majority  of  cases.  As 
to  the  writings  on  silk  paper,  they  are  hardl}-  ever  mentioned,  so 
we  are  led  to  suppose  that  such  a  material  had  but  a  very  short 
existence  before  Ts'ai  Liin's  invention. 

The  use  of  silk,  which  could  be  rolled  up,  seems  to  be  the 
origin  of  the  word  "roll"  as  applied  to  books  or  writings.  It  is 
bv  a  similar  meta])hor  that  the  T.atin  word  I'ohiinoi  acquired  the 
meaning  of  "book"  or  "volume."  The  word  "roll"  continued  to 
have  the  same  meaning  after  the  use  of  paper  had  become  general, 
for,  until  printing  became  common,  that  is,  until  the  tenth  century 
of  our  era.  books  written  on  paper  were  rolled,  as  the  manuscripts 
on  silk  had  formerly  been. 

WOODEN    TABLETS. 

Let  us  consider  now  the  processes  employed  by  the  ancient 
Chinese  even  before  they  used  silk.  Most  of  the  texts  were  written 
on  bamboo  strips,  but  reliable  evidence  reveals  to  us  the  existence 
of  wooden  tablets  dififering  wddely  from  the  former  both  in  form  and 
use. 

With  regard  to  the  messages  that  mandarins  sent  to  each  other 
the  Yi  Li  states:  "[When  a  message]  had  more  than  a  hundred 
words  it  was  written  on  a  ts' c  [a  bunch  of  bamboo  strips]  ;  when  it 
had  less  than  a  hundred  words  it  was  written  on  a  fang  [wooden 
tablet]." 

A  later  commentator  of  ancient  texts  says  that  the  fang  was 
very  like  the  prayer-tablets  of  the  period  of  the  T'ang  dynasty. 
This  is  very  instructive  to  us,  as  the  prayer-tablets  alluded  to  are 
still  to  be  found.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  two  of  them 
fifteen  years  ago  in  Peking.  They  belonged  to  Dr.  Dudgeon  who 
received  them  from  a  court  eunuch  who  had  been  one  of  his  patients. 
One  of  the  tablets  was  painted  red  and  the  other  blue,  and  the 
prayer  was  written  in  the  jNIanchu  language.  The  tablets  were  in- 
tended to  be  burned  with  the  sacrifice  so  that  the  prayer  might 
rise  to  heaven.  It  is  very  likely  that  this  comparison  is  quite  accu- 
rate since  religion  in  every  country  is  a  principle  which  is  preserva- 
tive of  ancient  customs. 


636  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

Since  only  texts  not  exceeding  one  hundred  words  could  be 
written  on  a  tablet,  and  since  it  was  not  the  custom  to  fasten  two 
or  more  together,  it  is  evident  that  they  could  not  take  the  place 
of  books.  Only  short  documents,  such  as  royal  messages  and  offi- 
cial prayers,  could  be  written  on  them,  as  we  have  previously  seen. 
Tn  fact  it  seems  that  these  slabs  were  reserved  for  acts  of  public 
authority.  In  the  Li'in  Yu  we  read  that  when  Confucius  was  on  his 
chariot,  he  bowed  as  a  sign  of  respect  when  he  passed  by  a  man 
carrying  the  tablets.  "The  man  who  carried  the  tablets,"  says  the 
Cheng  Hsuan  (122-200),  "held  in  his  hands  the  official  acts  of  the 
principality." 

THE  BAMBOO   STRIPS. 

In  order  to  know  how  a  Chinese  book  was  usually  made  before 
the  invention  of  paper,  we  must  study  the  bamboo  strips,  the  im- 
portance of  which  has  been  already  revealed  to  us  by  the  Hon  Han 
Shu  text  concerning  Ts'ai  Liin   (No.   i). 

The  question  is:  What  were  the  dimensions  of  these  strips? 
The  length  appears  to  vary  according  to  the  period  in  which  they 
were  written  and  also  to  the  importance  and  dignity  of  the  writings. 
According  to  the  records  they  varied  from  one  to  three  feet.  The 
great  classics  were  written  on  strips  two  feet  and  four  inches  long, 
whereas  works  of  lesser  importance  were  entitled  to  strips  only  half 
the  size.  The  laws  seem  to  have  been  indited  on  strips  two  feet 
four  inches  long,  with  exception  of  the  penal  code  for  which  strips 
three  feet  long  were  used.  There  is  no  exact  evidence  as  to  the 
length  of  those  feet  and  inches  compared  to  a  modern  measure — 
what  we  assert  is  only  conjectural. 

The  width  of  the  strips  must  have  varied  from  one  eighth  to 
one  sixth  of  an  inch  (English  measure)  and  was  usually  filled  by 
one  line  of  characters,  but  in  some  texts  strips  bearing  a  double 
line  are  mentioned.  As  only  one  side  of  the  strip  was  written  on, 
we  may  conclude  that,  even  in  the  exceptional  cases  when  two  rows 
of  characters  were  painted  side  by  side,  a  considerable  number  of 
strips  must  have  been  required  for  a  complete  work,  thirty  words 
being  the  utmost  one  strip  could  hold. 

Books  written  on  bamboo  strips  fastened  together  with  silk 
or  leather  were  exposed  to  many  causes  of  destruction.  But  very 
few  have  been  handed  down  from  antiquity.  Among  those  still 
in  existence  we  must  mention  those  which  have  been  buried  in  the 
sands  of  Turkestan  since  the  third  century  of  our  era  and  were 


CHINESE   BOOKS   BEFORE   THE   INVENTION   OF   PAPER.  637 

dug'  up  only  quite  recently,  some  by  M,  A.  Stein,  some  by  Sven 
Hedin. 

Since  the  strips  are  narrow  some  may  very  easily  have  been 
lost, — or  their  order  may  have  been  changed  in  case  the  tie  which 
held  them  together  broke.  In  controversies  of  textual  criticism 
this  fact  should  never  be  lost  sight  of. 

Another  disadvantage  of  the  bamboo  books  was  their  weight. 
In  212  B.  C.  two  men  summing  up  their  complaints  against  the 
Emperor  Ts'in  Shih  Huang  Ti,  say  that  he  carried  the  love  of  per- 
sonal authority  to  such  a  degree  that  he  gave  himself  the  task  of 
examining  a  sliiJi  (120  pounds)  of  writings  every  day. 

CONTRACTS  BY  MEANS  OF  NOTCHES. 

How  did  they  write  on  strips  of  bamboo  and  wooden  tablets? 
Before  answering  this  question  let  us  say  a  few  words  about  more 
ancient  methods  of  notations.  The  Hi  Ts'u  appendix  of  the  Yih 
King  says :  "In  remote  antiquity  business  was  carried  on  by  means 
of  knotted  cords  for  which  later  generations  substituted  written  con- 
tracts." The  great  preface  of  the  Shu  King  attributes  this  inno- 
vation to  the  mythical  sovereign  FuJi  Hi.  There  is  no  doubt  what- 
ever as  to  the  knotted  cords, — a  similar  mode  of  record  has  been 
found  among  the  Peruvians  whose  qiiippos  are  well  known.  ■  In 
the  south  of  China,  among  native  tribes  the  use  of  knotted  cords 
lasted  till  the  twelfth  century.  Chu-Hi  (i  130-1200)  informs  us 
that  "as  to  the  knotted  cords,  the  various  barbarian  tribes  Ch'i 
T'ung  still  have  this  custom  nowadays,  while  others  make  notches 
in  boards.  All  that  which  concerns  dates  in  years,  months  and  days, 
as  well  as  numbers  of  men.  horses,  grain,  forage,  is  set  down  by 
means  of  notches  cut  in  boards  and  there  is  no  confusion  whatever." 

So  we  may  wonder  whether  Hi  Tz'u  does  not  omit  to  mention 
an  intermediate  system,  which  would  be  the  notches  still  in  use 
among  the  Ch'i  T'ung  when  he  tells  about  written  contracts  being 
substituted  for  knotted  strings. 

Even  after  writing  had  come  into  general  use  contracts  by 
means  of  notches  were  still  made  in  very  simple  transactions.  Those 
contracts  were  made  on  two  boards,  the  creditor  keeping  the  left 
and  the  debtor  the  right. 

A  special  knife  was  used  for  this :  it  was  a  foot  long  and  an 
inch  wide ;  its  shape  was  bent  so  that  six  of  them  could  form  a 
circle  called  hsiao.  At  a  later  period  this  knife  was  used  as  an 
eraser.  Hence  the  expression  "officer  of  the  pi  (brush)  and  hsiao" 
used  in  the  time  of  the  Han  dvnastv  to  designate  a  scribe. 


638  THE  OPEN   COURT 

The  invention  of  the  brush  is  attributed  to  Meng  T'ien  who  died 
about  210  B.  C.  Still  in  texts  dating  further  back  we  find  the 
word  pi  mentioned,  and  some  Chinese  scholars  assert  that  before  the 
brush,  a  wooden  stick  or  small  bamboo,  also  called  pi,  was  dipped 
in  ink  or  varnish  and  u.sed  to  trace  characters  with. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

BOOK    R1<:VIEWS  AND   NOTES. 

Richard  H.  Geoghegan,  author  of  a  learned  article  on  comparative  folk- 
lore in  the  current  number  of  TJic  Monist  (Oct.  1906),  in  which  he  traces 
similarities  between  the  Chinese  and  the  Mayan  calendars,  has  made  an  ex- 
tended visit  to  the  Aleuts,  and  writes  as  follows  concerning  their  language : 

"The  Aleutian  speech  interests  me  much,  and  I  am  surprised  that  it  has 
not  been  more  closely  investigated  by  English-speaking  students;  the  tongue 
of  the  people  who  form  a  connecting  link  between  the  new  and  the  old  worlds 
surely  merits  consideration.  While  usually  classed  by  linguists  as  an  offshoot 
of  the  Eskimo,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  only  two  words  (father,  water)  in  the 
language  bear  any  resemblance  to  the  corresponding  Eskimo  terms.  In  com- 
mon with  the  Malay,  Polynesian  and  Malagasi,  it  makes  use  of  denominative 
\'erbs  (to  be  good,  to  lie  a  man,  not  to  have  a  father)  instead  of  predicative 
substantives  and  adjectives.  In  contradistinction  to  the  Polynesian,  but  in 
exact  conformity  with  the  Malay,  it  has  an  extensive  system  of  infixes;  and 
ihc  majority  of  its  primitive  words  arc  dis.syllables,  like  the  Malayan.  Tt 
makes  use  of  possessive  suffixes  in  ])lace  of  separate  possessi\e  pronouns,  just 
as  the  Malay,  Philippine  and  certain  Melanesian  and  Micronesian  tongues 
do,  and  like  these  prefers  a  circumlocution  (there  is  to  me)  rather  than 
direct  use  of  a  verb  'to  have.'  " 


In  our  frontispiece  we  reproduce  from  the  Japanese  art  periodical,  Bijutsti 
Galio,  (The  Magazine  of  .^rt)  for  October  20,  1905,  an  illustration  of  a 
bronze  group  called  "The  Old  Farmer  and  his  Family."  We  prefer  to  call 
it  in  our  reproduction  "The  Japanese  Man  with  the  Hoe,"  and  we  think  that 
this  Oriental  conception  of  the  man  with  the  hoe  is  by  far  superior  to  the 
same  figure  in  Western  civilization.  We  can  see  that  the  Japanese  laborer 
is  hard  worked,  and  inured  to  toil,  but  what  a  ray  of  light  shines  in  the  faces 
of  these  poor  parents  when  the  child  on  his  mother's  knee  stretches  out  his 
hand  to  the  dear  father  who  earns  a  living  for  his  little  family  by  the  sweat 
of  his  brow ! 

(The  Bijiitsu  Galw  is  published  twice  every  month  for  5.40  yen  per  year 
by  Gahosha,  Tokyo,  Japan.) 


The  Laurel  Music  Re.xder.    Edited  by  IVm.  L.  To)nliiis.    Boston;  Birchard, 
1906. 
The  present  volume  supplements  a  Laurel  Song  Bonk,  which  has  become 
justly   famous,   and   tlic   public    is   justified   in    expecting   a    rare   collection    of 


640  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

songs  for  young  people  when  W.  L.  Tomlins  gives  the  result  of  his  wide  ex- 
perience in  editing  a  "Music-Reader"  for  the  use  of  schools. 

Careful  consideration  has  been  given  to  the  best  interest  of  the  voices 
of  growing  girls  and  boys, — especially  the  latter  at  the  critical  period  when 
their  voices  change,  and  in  a  few  "Suggestions"  placed  opposite  the  first  page, 
teachers  of  young  choruses  are  urged  to  bear  these  special  needs  in  mind  in 
a  wise  choice  of  selections  and  alternating  assignment  of  parts  such  that  all 
the  natural  tones  of  the  voice  shall  receive  continuous  and  systematic  exer- 
cise. 

One  consideration  that  the  editor  rightly  thinks  important  in  a  study 
which  trains  the  child  to  the  best  self-expression,  is  that  of  the  relation  of 
text  and  music.  He  has  therefore  undertaken  to  make  the  choice  of  good 
literature  one  of  the  essential  qualifications,  as  the  opening  with  "Pippa's 
Song"  will  testify.  Many  of  the  most  beautiful  lyrics  of  our  language  are 
incorporated  from  Shelley,  Southey,  Wordsworth,  Keats,  Shakespeare,  Brown- 
ing, Whittier,  Longfellow,  Riley,  Field,  Emerson,  Poe,  Wm.  Watson,  Steven- 
son, besides  many  operatic  selections  and  the  simplest  folk  songs.  Because 
man's  nature  finds  most  complete  expression  in  music,  "it  follows  that  any 
collection  of  songs,  to  be  superior  must  be  characterized  by  a  many-sided 
content,  and  therefore  the  editor  has  so  compiled  this  work  as  to  give  voice 
therein  to  all  the  emotions  of  hope,  love,  worship  and  joy,  and  to  all  the  im- 
memorial thoughts  and  feelings  of  home,  fatherland,  religion  and  beauty  in 
which  our  humanity  finds  its  best  and  truest  ideals."  The  result  is  that  we 
find  between  the  same  covers,  "Old  Black  Joe"  and  Handel's  "Largo,"  the 
"Pilgrims'  Chorus"  from  Tannhauser  and  "When  First  I  Saw  My  Peggy," 
"Lead  Kindly  Light"  and  "Dixie's  Land." 


Buddhist  Texts  in  John.  Buddhist  Texts  Quoted  as  Scriptures  by  the  Gos- 
pel of  John.  By  Albert  J.  Edniniids.  Philadelphia,  1906. 
Since  sending  the  manuscript  of  his  Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels  to 
the  Tokyo  publishing  house,  Mr.  Edmunds  has  continued  to  find  parallels  be- 
tween the  two  religions,  and  is  struck  with  the  fact  that  in  two  passages  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel  (John  vii.  38;  xii.  34)  the  evangelist  quotes  as  Scripture 
phrases  which  it  has  not  been  possible  to  trace  to  any  source  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture, and  which  now  can  be  clearly  identified  as  portions  from  Buddhist 
writings,  though  in  one  case  from  a  distinctly  apochryphal  work.  The  cita- 
tions in  John  "as  the  Scripture  hath  said,"  and  "We  have  heard  out  of  the 
law,"  have  puzzled  many  exegetists  who  tried  in  vain  to  find  the  original  in 
Jewish,  Greek  or  Roman  literature.  Mr.  Edmunds  makes  the  noteworthy 
comment,  that  "while  one  case  of  the  mysterious  Fourth  Evangelist  quoting 
a  Buddhist  text  as  Scripture  would  be  remarkable,  two  such  cases  are  sig- 
nificant, and  almost  certainly  imply  historical  connection,  especially  when 
taken  together  with  the  fact  that  other  parts  of  the  Gospels  present  verbal 
agreements  with  Pali  texts." 


We  learn  through  Mr.  C.  O.  Boring,  of  Chicago,  that  the  annual  con- 
vention of  the  World's  New  Thought  Federation  will  meet  in  that  city  on 
the  twenty-third  of  October. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  LAY  CHURCH 

What  is  the  reason  that  so  many  people,  and  sometimes  the  very  best  ones, 
those  who  think,  stay  at  home  on  Sunday  and  do  not  attend  church?  Is  it  because 
our  clergymen  preach  antiquated  dogmas  and  the  people  are  tired  of  listening  to 
them  ;  or  is  it  because  the  Churches  themselves  are  antiquated  and  their  methods 
have  become  obsolete  ?  To  many  these  reasons  may  seem  a  sufficient  explanation, 
but  I  believe  there  are  other  reasons,  and  even  if  in  many  places  and  for  various 
reasons  religious  life  is  flagging,  we  ought  to  revive,  and  modernize,  and  sustain 
church  life ;  we  ought  to  favor  the  ideals  of  religious  organizations ;  we  ought  to 
create  opportunities  for  the  busy  world  to  ponder  from  time  to  time  on  the  ulti- 
mate questions  of  life,  the  problems  of  death,  of  eternity,  of  the  interrelation  of 
all  mankind,  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  of  international  justice,  of  universal 
righteousness,  and  other  matters  of  conscience,  etc. 

The  Churches  have,  at  least  to  a  great  extent,  ceased  to  be  the  guides  of  the 
people,  and  among  many  other  reasons  there  is  one  quite  obvious  which  has 
nothing  to  do  with  religion  and  dogma.  In  former  times  the  clergyman  was 
sometimes  the  only  educated  and  scholarly  person  in  his  congregation,  and  he  was 
naturally  the  leader  of  his  flock.  But  education  has  spread.  Thinking  is  no 
longer  a  clerical  prerogative,  and  there  are  more  men  than  our  ministers  worthv 
of  hearing  in  matters  of  a  religious  import.  In  other  words,  formerly  the  pulpit 
vras  naturally  the  ruler  in  matters  ecclesiastic,  but  now  the  pews  begin  to  have 
lights  too. 

Wherever  the  Churches  prosper,  let  them  continue  their  work  ;  but  for  the 
sake  of  the  people  over  whom  the  Churches  have  lost  their  influence  the  following 
proposition  would  be  in  order,  which  will  best  and  most  concisely  be  expressed 
in  the  shape  of  a  ready-made 

PROGRAM  FOR  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A  LAY  CHURCH. 

GENERAL  PRINCIPLE. 

It  is  proposed  to  form  a  congregation  whose  bond  of  union,  instead  of  a  fixed 
creed,  shall  be  the  common  purpose  of  ascertaining  religious  truth,  which  shall 
be  accomplished,  not  under  the  guidance  of  one  and  the  same  man  in  the  pulpit, 
but  by  the  communal  effort  of  its  members  in  the  pews. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  LAY  CHURCH.     (Continued.) 

NAME  AND  FURTHER  PARTICULARS. 

This  congregation  shall  be  known  by  the  name  of  The  Lay  Church,  or  what- 
ever name  may  be  deemed  suitable  in  our  different  communities,  and  a  character- 
istic feature  of  it  shall  be  that  it  will  have  no  minister,  but  the  preaching  will  be 
.   done  by  its  own  members  or  invited  speakers. 

Far  from  antagonizing  the  religious  life  of  any  Church,  The  Lay  Church  pro- 
poses to  bring  to  life  religious  forces  that  now  lie  dormant.  Religious  aspirations 
have  as  many  aspects  as  there  are  pursuits  in  life,  and  it  is  the  object  of  The  Lay 
Church  to  have  representatives  of  the  several  professions,  of  business,  the  sciences, 
the  arts,  and  the  trades,  express  their  religious  convictions  upon  the  moral,  polit- 
ical, and  social  questions  of  the  day.  ■ 

The  Lay  Church  will  establish  a  free  platform  for  diverse  religious  views, 
not  excluding  the  faiths  of  the  established  Churches :  provided  the  statements  are 
made  with  sincerity  and  reverence. 

Since  The  Lay  Church  as  such  will,  on  the  one  hand,  not  be  held  responsible 
for  the  opinions  expressed  by  its  speakers,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  not  be  indiffer- 
ent to  errors  and  aberrations,  monthly  meetings  shall  be  held  for  a  discussion  of 
the  current  Sunday  addresses. 

The  man  of  definite  conviction  will  find  in  The  Lay  Church  a  platform  for 
propaganda,  provided  it  be  carried  on  with  propriety  and  with  the  necessary 
regard  for  the  belief  of  others:  while  the  searcher  for  truth  will  have  the  problems 
on  which  he  has  not  yet  been  able  to  form  an  opinion  of  his  own  ventilated  from 
different  standpoints. 

It  is  the  nature  of  this  Church  that  its  patrons  may  at  the  same  time  belong 
to  other  Churches  or  to  no  Church.  And  membership  does  not  imply  the  severing 
of  old  ties  or  the  surrendering  of  former  beliefs. 

The  spirit  of  the  organization  shall  be  the  same  as  that  which  pervaded  the 
Religious  Parliament  of  1893.  Every  one  to  whom  the  privilege  of  the  platform 
is  granted  is  expected  to  present  the  best  he  can  offer,  expounding  his  own  views 
without  disparaging  others.  And  the  common  ground  will  be  the  usual  methods 
of  argument  such  as  are  vindicated  by  universal  experience,  normally  applied  to 
all  enterprises  in  practical  life,  and  approved  of  by  the  universal  standards  of 
truth — commonly  called  science. 

(Reprinted  from  The  Open  Court  for  January,  1903.) 


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Second  Edition   tfioronghlij  Corrected 
and  Revised,  with  Portrait. 

Species  and  Varieties: 

Their  Origin  by  Mutation 
Bi/  Hugo  de  Vries 

Professor    of    Botany    in    the    University     of    Amsterdam 

Edited  by  Daniel  Trembly  MacDougal,  Assistant 

Director    of  the  New  York  Botanical   Garden 

xxiii  +  830  pages 

^HE  belief  has  prevailed  for  more  than  half 
a  century  that  species  are  changed  into  new 
types  very  slowly  and  that  thousands  of 
years  were  necessary  for  the  development 
of  a  new  type  of  animal  or  plant.  After 
twenty  years  of  arduous  investigation  Professor  de  Vries 
has  announced  that  he  has  found  that  new  species  originat- 
ed suddenly  by  jumps,  or  by  "mutations,"  and  in  conjunc- 
tion with  this  discovery  he  offers  an  explanation  of  the 
qualities  of  living  organisms  on  the  basis  of  the  concep- 
tion of  unit-characters.  Important  modifications  are  also 
proposed  as  to  the  conceptions  of  species  and  varieties  as 
well  as  of  variability,  inheritance,  atavism,  selection  and 
descent  in  general. 

The  announcement  of  the  results  in  question  has  excited 
more  interest  among  naturalists  than  any  publication 
since  the  appearance  of  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species,  and 
marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
evolution.  Professor  de  Vries  was  invited  to  deliver  a  series 
of  lectures  upon  the  subject  at  the  University  of  California 
during  the  summer  of  1904,  and  these  lectures  are  offered 
to  a  public  now  thoroughly  interested  in  modern  ideas  of 
evolution. 

The  contents  of  the  book  include  a  readable  and  orderly 
recital  of  the  facts  and  details  which  furnish  the  basis  for 
the  mutation-theory  of  the  origin  of  species.  All  of  the 
more  important  phases  of  heredity  and  descent  come  in 
for  a  clarifying  treatment  that  renders  the  volume 
extremely  readable  to  the  amateur  as  well  as  to  the  trained 
biologist.     The  more  reliable  historical  data  are  cited  and 


the  results  obtained  by  Professor  de  Vries  in  the  Botanical 
Garden  at  Amsterdam  during  twenty  years  of  observations 
are  described. 

Not  the  least  important  service  rendered  by  Professor 
de  Vries  in  the  preparation  of  these  lectures  consists  in  the 
indication  of  definite  specific  problems  that  need  investi- 
gation, many  of  which  may  be  profitably  taken  up  by  any- 
one in  a  small  garden.  He  has  rescued  the  subject  of 
evolution  from  the  thrall  of  polemics  and  brought  it  once 
more  within  reach  of  the  great  mass  of  naturalists,  any  one 
of  whom  may  reasonably  hope  to  contribute  something 
to  its  advancement  by  orderly  observations. 

The  text  of  the  lectures  has  been  revised  and  rendered 
into  a  form  suitable  for  permanent  record  by  Dr.  D.  T. 
MacDougal  who  has  been  engaged  in  researches  upon  the 
subject  for  several  years,  and  who  has  furnished  substan- 
tial proof  of  the  mutation  theory  of  the  origin  of  species  by 
his  experimental  investigations  carried  on  in  the  New 
York  Botanical  Gardens. 


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THE  WORLD'S  DESIRES 


EDGAR  A.  ASHCROFT 

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41  *  * 

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FRIEDRICH  SCHILLER 

A  Sketch  of  his  life  and  an 
Appreciation  of  his  Poetry 

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"The  historical  outline  of  the  events  of  his  life  is  presented  in  this  book,  illustrated 
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Devoted  to  the  Science  of  Religion,  The  Religion  of  Science 
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Science  is  slowly  but  surely  transforming  the  world. 

Science  is  knowledge  verified ;  it  is  Truth  proved  ;  and  Truth  will  always 
conquer  in  the  end. 

The  power  of  Science  is  irresistible. 

Science  is  the  still  small  voice  ;  it  is  not  profane,  it  is  sacred  ;  it  is  not  human, 
it  is  superhuman ;  Science  is  a  divine  revelation. 

Convinced  of  the  religious  significance  of  Science,  The  Open  Court  believes 
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significance  either  by  scientists  or  religious  leaders.  The  scientific  spirit,  if  it 
but  be  a  genuine  devotion  to  Truth,  contains  a  remedy  for  many  ills ;  it  leads  the 
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that  Science  can  work  out  a  reform  within  the  Churches  that  will  preserve  of 
religion  all  that  is  true,  and  good,  and  wholesome. 

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THE  MONIST 

T//e  Mom's f  is  a.  Qu3.rter\y  Magazine,  devoted  to  the  Philosophy  of  Science, 
Each  copy  contains  160  pages ;  original  articles,  correspondence  from  foreign 
countries,  discussions,  and  book  reviews. 

Tl\e  Monist  Advocates  tl\e 
PKilosopliy    of  Science    j^ 

which  is  an  application  of  the  scientific  method  to  philosophy. 

The  old  philosophical  systems  were  mere  air-castles  (constructions  of  abstract 
theories,)  built  in  the  realm  of  pure  thought.  The  Philosophy  of  Science  is  a 
systematisation  of  positive  facts  ;  it  takes  experience  as  its  foundation,  and  uses 
the  systematised  formal  relations  of  experience  (mathematics,  logic,  etc.)  as  its 
method.  It  is  opposed  on  the  one  hand  to  the  dogmatism  of  groundless  a  priori 
assumptions,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  the  scepticism  of  negation  which  finds 
expression  in  the  agnostic  tendencies  of  to-day. 

Monism  Means  a   Unitary  "World-Conception 

There  may  be  different  aspects  and  even  contrasts,  diverse  views  and  oppo- 
site standpoints,  but  there  can  never  be  contradiction  in  truth. 

Monism  is  not  a  one-substance  theor>',  be  it  materialistic  or  spiritualistic  or 
agnostic ;  it  means  simply  and  solely  consistency. 

All  truths  form  one  consistent  system,  and  any  dualism  of  irreconcilable 
statements  indicates  that  there  is  a  problem  to  be  solved ;  there  must  be  fault 
somewhere  either  in  our  reasoning  or  in  our  knowledge  of  facts.  Science  always 
implies  Monism,  i.  e.,  a  unitary  world  conception. 

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A  Portfolio  of  Portraits  of  Eminent 
Mathematicians 

Edited  by  PROFESSOR  DAVID  EUGENE  SMITH,  Ph.  D. 

Professor  of  Mathematics  in  Teachers  College 
Columbia  University,  N.  Y.  City 


IN  response  to  a  wide-spread  demand  from  tnose  interested  in 
mathematics  and  the  history  of  education,  Professor  Smith  has 
edited   a  series  of  portraits  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  of 
the  world's  contributors  to  the  mathematical  sciences. 

Accompanying  each  portrait  is  a  brief  biographical  sketch, 
with  occasional  notes  of  interest  concerning  the  artists  represented. 

The  pictures  are  of  a  size  that  allows  for  framing,  it  being  the 
hope  that  a  new  interest  in  mathematics  may  be  aroused  through 
the  decoration  of  class-rooms  by  the  portraits  of  those  who 
helped  to  create  the  science. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  editor  and  the  publishers  to  follow 
this  Portfolio  by  others,  in  case  the  demand  is  sufficient  to 
warrant  the  expense.  In  this  way  there  can  be  placed  before 
students  of  mathematics,  for  a  moderate  sum,  the  results  of  many 
years  of  collecting  and  of  a  large  expenditure  of  time  and  money. 

The  first  installment  consists  of  twelve  great  mathematicians 
down  to  1700  A.  D.  and  includes  Thales,  Pythagoras,  Euclid, 
Archimedes,  Leonardo  of  Pisa,  Cardan,  Vieta,  Fermat,  Descartes, 
Leibnitz,  Newton,  Napier. 

Twelve  Portraits    ou    Imperial   Japanese    Vellum,    11x14,  $5.0O 
Twelve  Portraits  on  the  best  American  Plate  Paper,  11x14,  *3.00 

"J  think  that  portraits  of  famous  mathematicians  when  hung  in  a 
Common  R00711  or  Lecture  Room  are  not  only  in  themselves  an  ornament, 
but  often  excite  the  interest  of  students.  No  doubt,  also,  the  presence  of 
such  portraits  promotes  the  introduction  in  the  teaching  of  the  subject  of 
historical  notes  on  its  development,  which  I  believe  to  be  a  valuable  feature 
in  recent  teaching.  I  hope  the  response  of  the  public  will  justify  you 
in  continuing  the  series.''— W.  W.  ROUSE  BALL„Cambridge,  England. 

"The  issue  of  this  fine  collection  is  equally  creditable  to  the  expert 
knowledge  and  discriminating  taste  of  the  Editor,  Professor  David  Eugene 
Smith,  and  to  the  liberality  and  artistic  resources  of  The  Open  Court  Pub- 
lishing Co."—F.  N.  COLE,  Editor  American  Mathematical  Bulletin,  New  York. 

"■'The  selection  is  well  made,  the  reproduction  is  handsomely  executed, 
and  the  brief  account  which  accompanies  each  portrait  is  of  interest.  Prof. 
Smith  has  rendered  a  valuable  ser-vice  to  all  who  have  interest  in  math- 
ematics, by  editing  this  collection.  Wherever  mathematics  is  taught,  these 
portraits  should  adorn  the  walls."— WILLIAM F.  OSGOOD,  Cambridge,  Mass. 


The  Open  Court  Pub.  Co.,  1322  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 


To  be  Published  in  the  Aiiturrm 

Scientific  Confirmations  of 
Old  Testament  History 

A  New  Volume  by 

George  Frederick  Wright,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  the  Harmony  of  Science  and  Revelation  in  Oberlin  College 

This  volume  is  in  substance  the  Stone  Lectures  delivered  in 
Princeton  in  190i,  and  embodies  the  results  of  Dr.  Wright's 
extensive    geological    investigations,    shedding    light    upon 

The  Noachian  Deluge 
The  Destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
The  Crossing  of  the  Red  Sea  and  of  the  Jordan 
The  Years  of  Plenty  and  Famine  in  Egypt,  etc. 

12mo.    400  pp.    Twenty-five  Maps  and  Illustrations,  and  a  Complete  Index,  .S'2.00 

Oberlin,  Ohio :   Bibliotheca  Sacra  Company 
For  a  limited  period,  25  per  cent  discount  on  advcmce  orders 


Date- — 

Bibliotheca  Sacra  Company, 

Oberlin,  Ohio,  U.  S.  A. 

Please    send    me    Wright's   Scientific  Confirmations  of  Old   Testament 
History,  for  which  I  agree  to  pay  $1.60,  on  receipt  of  the  volume  postpaid. 


Name^ — — 

Street 

p.  O. - State- 


Just  Published 

To  Jerusalem  Through 
the  Lands  of  Islam 

Among  Jews,  Christians  and  Moslems 

By  Madame  Hyacinthe  Loyson 
Preface  by  Prince  de  Polignac 

Pages  viii,    375,    cloth,  gilt  top,   8vo.,  profusely  illustrated,  $2.50 

THIS  remarkable  bock,  the  work  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of  our 
time,  the  joint  work  rather  of  a  remarkable  woman  and  a  remarkable  man, — 
for  Pere  Hyacinthe  is  joint-author  of  it  from  cover  to  cover  though  he  is  not 
the  writer  of  it, — this  remarkable  book  is  beyond  the  skill  of  the  reviewer.  It  would 
be  easy  to  blame  it.  Men  in  a  hurry  for  copy,  or  in  a  hate  at  Pere  Hyacinthe,  will 
fill  their  columns  with  quite  plausible  matter  for  blame,  and  salt  it  well  with 
superiority.  But  when  the  most  is  said  this  is  what  it  will  come  to,  that  Madame 
Hyacinthe  Loyson  remembers  the  words,  *'He  that  is  not  against  us  is  on  our  part," 
and  remembers  that  they  are  the  words  of  her  dear  Lord.  He  who  should  say  that 
she  exalts  the  Koran  above  the  Bible^  that  she  sees  only  the  good  in  Islam,  only  the 
evil  in  Christendom,  gives  himself  into  her  hands.  For  she  writes  donni  what  her  own 
eyes  have  seen;  and  though  she  has  many  examples  of  Christian  prejudice  and  many  of 
Muslim  charity  to  record^  she  never  for  one  moment  finds  Muhammad  standing  in  her 
thoughts  beside  Christ.  All  that  it  comes  to  in  the  end  is  this,  that  Christians  are 
rarely  true  to  Christ,  Muslims  are  often  much  better  than  Muhammad. — Expository 
Times,  London. 

This  is  one  of  the  handsomest  books  of  oriental  travel  which  we  know.  The  book  pays  special 
attention  to  the  religious  conditions  of  the  Copts,  Jews  and  Moslems  of  the  East.  It  presents  a 
tremendous  indictment  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  Malta  and  elsewheie.  The  white  man's  vices  are  the 
greatest  obstruction  to  the  mission  work  xn  thcnon-Christian  world. — Methodist  Ilagazine  and  Review. 

She  has  woven  in  much  of  general  archaeological  and  anthropological  information — Records  ofthePast. 

Mme.  Loyson,  despite  her  excessive  iteration  of  rather  explosive  comments,  is  a  woman  who 
cannot  help  being  interesting,  so  her  descriptions  of  places  and  account  of  personal  experiences  in 
Egypt  and  Jerusalem  and  elsewhere  are  immensely  interesting,  and  make  the  reader  seem  to  see 
it  all. — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

Her  notes  of  social  visits  give  interesting  pictures  of  Arab  manners.  The  Arabs  she  pronounces 
"the  best  behaved  and  most  forbearing  people  in  the  world,"  and  not  unhke  "the  best  type  of 
our  New  Englanders."  .^hfc  evidently  moved  in  the  best  society,  but  even  among  the  common 
people  she  noted  points  ir  vvnich  Christians  might  learn  of  Mohammedans.  Polygamy,  however, 
is  noted  as  the  black  spot  on  the  brow  of  Islam.  Evidently  the  tour  of  the  Loysons  accomplished 
good.  It  were  well  if  all  missionaries  were  animated  by  their  spirit.  The  volume  is  handsomely 
printed  and  illustrated. — The  Outlook, 

The  Open  Court  Pub.  Co.,  1222  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 

London:    Messrs.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Trubner  S^  Co. ,   Ltd. 


The 


Gods  of  the  Egyptians 

OR 

Studies  in  Egyptian  Mythology 


BY 


E.  A.  WALLIS  BUDGE,  M.  A.,  Litt.  D.,  D.  Lit. 

KEEPER    OF    THE    EGYPTIAN    AND    ASSYRIAN    ANTIQUITIES 
IN    THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM 


A  Description  of  the  Egyptian  Pantheon  based  upon  original  research;  method 
ical,  thorough,  and  up-to-date  in  every  respect. 

It  is  unique,  and  the  probability  is  that  the  work  will  soon  become  rare. 

The  original  edition  consisted  of  1500  copies,  but  a  disastrous  fire  in  the  bindery 
destroyed  500  of  them,  thus  limiting  the  edition  to  1000  copies.  As  the  color  plates 
were  printed  at  great  cost  by  lithographic  process,  and  the  drawings  on  the  stones 
immediately  after  destroyed,  there  is  scarcely  any  probability  of  replacing  the  lost 
copies  by  a  new  edition. 

It  is  published  in  two  volumes,  containing,  988  pages,  (Volume  I,  548  pages; 
Volume  II,  440  pages),  and  is  richlj'  illustrated  with  98  colored  plates,  averaging 
eight  impressions  each,  and  131  specially  prepared  illtistrations  in  the  text. 

Two  Volumes,  Royal  Octavo,  Library  Binding,  Price  $20.00  Net. 

The  author  discusses  the  worship  of  spirits,  demons,  gods  and  other  supernatural 
beings  in  Egypt  from  the  Predynastic  Period  to  the  time  of  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  into  the  country.  Full  use  has  been  made  of  the  results  of  recent  in- 
vestigations and  discoveries,  whereby  it  has  been  found  possible  to  ekicidate  a  large 
number  of  fundamental  facts  connected  with  the  various  stages  of  religious  thought 
in  ancient  Egypt,  and  to  assign  to  them  their  true  position  chronologically.  The 
ancient  Libyan  cult  of  the  man-god  Osiris,  with  its  doctrines  of  resurrection  and 
immortality,  is  described  at  length,  and  the  solar  cults,  i.  e.,  those  of  Rtl,  Amen, 
Xten,  etc.,  are  fully  treated;  an  interesting  feature  of  the  book  will  be  the  Chapters 
on  the  Egyptian  Underworld  and  its  inhabitants. 


The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 

1322-28  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 


Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels 

Now  first  compared  from  the  originals.  Being  Gospel 
parallels  from  Pali  texts.  Reprinted,  with  additions  by 
Albert  J.  Edmunds. 

Third  and  complete  edition.  Edited,  with  parallels  and 
notes  from  the  Chinese  Buddhist  Tripitaka,  by  M.  Anesaki, 
Professor  of  Religious  Science,  Imperial  University  of  Japan. 

Pages,  230,  xviii.     Price,  $1.50. 

This  book  is  the  first  attempt  to  compare  the  two  religions 
from  the  actual  texts.  The  first  attempt  at  comparison,  at 
least  in  English,  was  a  Christian  polemic  by  a  learned  Wes- 
leyan  missionary  in  Ceylon,  Robert  Spence  Hardy  (1874), 
He  quotes  but  little  from  the  texts,  to  which  he  had  access, 
however,  through  an  ex-monk,  his  aim  being  to  condemn 
Buddhism.  Subsequent  attempts  at  comparison  have  been 
made  in  England  and  Germany,  notably  by  Rudolf  Seydel 
(1882  and  1884).  But  none  of  these  authors  knew  Pali,  and 
had,  therefore,  at  their  command  only  the  small  fraction  of 
the  Buddhist  scriptures  which  had  been  translated.  Even 
today,  though  more  has  been  done,  in  English,  French  and 
German,  the  two  great  collections  of  Buddha's  Dialogues, 
known  as  the  classified  and  the  numerical,  can  be  read  only  in 
Pali,  Chinese  and  Thibetan. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  Edmunds'  work  is  the  fact 
that  all  his  translations  from  the  Pali  have  been  comparer"  by 
his  Japanese  editor,  with  Chinese  versions  of  the  early  Cnris- 
tian  centuries.  As  Anesaki  says  in  his  preface,  this  brings  to- 
gether two  literatures  which  have  been  kept  apart  for  a  thou- 
sand years,  one  in  the  south  of  Asia  and  the  other  in  the  north. 

The  work  aims  at  scientific  impartiality  in  comparing  the 
two  faiths.  While  the  author  thinks  it  probable  that  one 
Evangelist — Luke — made  use  of  Buddhist  legends  in  his  own 
poetical  introduction,  yet  he  fully  admits  the  independence 
and  originality  of  the  Christian  Gospels  in  the  main. 

The  work  abounds  in  misprints,  because  the  publishers 
could  not  keep  the  type  standing  seven  weeks,  while  the  mails 
came  and  went  between  Tokyo  and  Philadelphia.  But  a  list 
of  errata  may  be  had  on  application. 

The  book  contains  eighty-eight  parallels  from  the  canonical 
Scriptures  and  an  appendix  of  uncanonical  parallels,  such  as 
the  Wandering  Jew.  Four  parallels  are  verbal  agreements, 
the  majority  being  in  ideas  alone. 

Printed  in  large  octavo,  clear  type,  good  paper;  bound  in 
limp  board,  with  paper  wrapper,  printed  in  two  colors. 

The  Open  Court  Pub.  Co.,  1322  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 


"Giv$  me  not,  O  God,  that  blind,  fool  faith  in  my  friend,  that  sees  no  evil  vh«rt 
evil  is,  but  give  me,  O  Ood,  that  sublime  bdief,  that  seeing  evil  I  yet  have  faith." 


My  Little  Book  of  Prayer 

BY  MURIEL    STRODE 

If  you  want  to  know  the  greatness  of  a  soul  and  the  true  mastery  of  life,  apply 
to  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company  for  a  shp  of  a  book  by  Muriel  Strode 
entitled  simply  "  My  Little  Book  of  Prayer.  "  The  modem  progress  of 
sovereign  mind  and  inner  divinity  from  the  -narrow  cell  of  the  ascetic  to  the 
open  heaven  of  man,  made  in  God's  own  image,  is  triumphantly  shown  in  it, 
yet  a  self-abnegation  and  sacrifice  beyond  anything  that  a  St.  Francis  or  a 
Thomas  a'Kempis  ever  dreamed  of  glorifies  the  path.  To  attempt  to  tell  what 
a  treasure-trove  for  the  strugghng  soul  is  in  this  little  volume  would  be  im- 
possible without  giving  it  complete,  for  every  paragraph  marks  a  milestone  on 
the  higher  way.  That  the  best  of  all  modem  thought  and  reUgion  is  garnered 
in  it,  its  very  creed  proclaims: 

Not  one  holy  day  but  seven; 
Worshiping,  not  at  the  call  of  a  bell,  but  at  the  call  of  my  soul; 
Singing,  not  at  the  baton's  sway,  but  to  the  rhythm  in  my  heart; 

Loving  because  I  must; 

Doing  for  the  joy  of  it. 

Some  one  who  has  "entered  in"  sends  back  to  us  this  inspiring  prayer  book, 
and  to  seize  its  spirit  and  walk  in  the  light  of  it  would  still  the  moan  and 
bitterness  of  human  hves,  as  the  bay  wreath  ends  the  toUsome  struggle  in 
the  hero's  path.  Measure  the  height  attained  in  this  one  reflection  for  the 
weary  army  of  the  unsuccessful:  "He  is  to  rejoice  with  exceeding  great  joy 
who  plucks  the  fruit  of  his  planting,  but  his  the  divine  anointing  who  watched 
and  waited,  and  toUed,  and  prayed,  and  failed — and  can  yet  be  glad."  Or 
this,  in  exchange  for  the  piping  cries  of  the  unfortunate:  "I  do  not  bemoan 
misfortune.  To  me  there  is  no  misfortune.  I  welcome  whatever  comes;  I  go 
out  gladly  to  meet  it."  Cover  all  misfortune,  too,  with  this  master  prayer: 
*  O  God,  whatever  befaU,  spare  me  that  supreme  calamity — let  no  after- 
bitterness  settle  down  with  me.  Misfortune  is  not  mine  untU  that  hour." 
Here,  too,  is  the  triumph  of  the  unconquerable  mind:  "The  earth  shaU  yet 
surrender  to  him  and  the  fates  shall  do  his  will  who  marches  on,  though  the 
promised  land  proved  to  be  but  a  mirage  and  the  day  of  deUverance  was 
canceled.  The  gods  shall  yet  anoint  him  and  the  morning  stars  shall  sing." 
And  this  the  true  prayer  for  the  battlefield:  "I  never  doubt  my  etrength  to 
bear  whatever  fate  may  bring,  but,  oh!  that  I  may  not  go  down  before  that 
which  I  bring  myself." 

Nuggets  of  pure  gold  like  these  abound  in  this  mine  of  the  mind  which  the 
victorious  author  has  opened  for  us.  To  seek  it  out  swiftly  and  resolve  its 
great  wealth  for  himself  should  be  the  glad  purpose  of  the  elect.  And  who 
are  not  the  elect  in  the  light  of  its  large  teaching?  To  claim  them  in  spite  of 
themselves  is  its  crowning  lesson.  *'It  is  but  common  to  believe  in  liim  who 
believes  in  himself,  but,  oh!  if  you  would  do  aught  uncommon,  beheve  in  him 
who  does  not  believe  in  himself— -restore  the  faith  to  him." — St  Louis  Olob»- 
Democrat,  March  5. 

Printed  on  Strathmore  Japan  Paper,  Gilt  Top,  Cloth,  $1.  Alexis  Paper,  Bda.  50o  Postpaid 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.,  1322  Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago 


■S^^BK^EI 


Latest  "Open  Court"  Publications 


T'AI-SHANG  KAN-YING  P'lEN,  Treatise  of  the  Exalted  One  on  Response 
and  Retribution.  Translated  from  the  Chinese  by  Teitaro  Suzuki  and  Dr. 
Paul  Carus.  Containing  Chinese  Text,  Verbatim  Translation,  Explanatory 
Notes  and  Moral  Tales.  Edited  by  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  i6  plates.  Pages  135. 
1906.    Boards,  75c.  net. 

YIN  CHIH  WEN,  The  Tract  of  the  Quiet  Way.  With  Extracts  from  the 
Chinese  commentary.  Translated  by  Teitaro  Suzuki  and  Dr.  Paul  Carus. 
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ESSAY  ON  THE  CREATIVE  IMAGINATION,  by  Prof.  Th.  Ribot, 
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ZARATHUSHTRA,    PHILO,   THE    ACHAEMENIDS   AND   ISRAEL, 

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