binds the present to the past, and ramifying in every direction it brings the whole of human conduct within the sphere of its sway. So well did he and his disciples recommend it that every dynasty has adopted it as the best guarantee for social and political stability.

While Rome had in her legendary history one Pius Æneas, and among her emperors one Antoninus Pius, in China the emperors are nearly all pious, at least in their posthumous titles, and the present dynasty professes to govern by Filial Piety, i-hsiao chih tien-hsia (XT).

Like all that is best in religion and morals Filial Piety easily degenerates into cant and hypocrisy. If it offers a barrier to revolution it also opposes changes for the better. It is easy to ridicule the absurdity of the examples by which it is taught and to expose the extravagance of some of its manifestations, yet I cannot resist the conviction that Christian nations have much to learn from the manner in which the Chinese observe the "first commandment with promise."

Sir C. Alabaster says on this subject: "The best summary left of the present teaching on the subject of Filial Piety is that given in what is generally spoken of as the Sacred Edict, where it is laid down that the possessor of this virtue will be careful as to his personal conduct, loyal to his lord, devoted to his country, trusty towards his friends, and brave when called to buckle on his armour. And if that teaching be accepted and carried out there is little difficulty in answering the question. Certainly, as so taught and practised, Filial Piety is productive of good.

But where, and in many cases it is so, the measuring of Filial Piety is held to be a slavish reverence for one's great grandfathers, and the practice is confined to refusal to depart from their ways and a strict conformity to the ritual laid down whenever one of your eldest dies, the teaching and practice bring the present generation. into conflict with the spirit of the time, and must so far be held to be injurious."

II. How far is Infanticide practised in China?

Of the prevalence of infanticide in China there is unhappily no room for doubt. The question is set at rest by the testimony of the people themselves.

Among their moral tracts dissuading from vice and crime a conspicuous place is filled by a class called "Dissuasives from Drowning Daughters.' Official proclamations may often be seen posted on gates and walls forbidding the practice. The people of

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one district are ever ready to charge it on those of another; families will sometimes hint that it is practised by their neighbours, and occasionally individuals are found who confess to its perpetration within their own gates, pleading poverty in extenuation, and further justifying the offence by alleging that the act was performed by the hand of a stranger.

Finally, (not to speak of the "baby tower," an object more sad in its suggestions than the Parsee "tower of silence") foundling hospitals present themselves rather as witnesses to the evil than as remedies for it. At Peking, and perhaps in other localities, the kindred crime of nipping human life in the bud before it comes to the stage of conscious being takes the place of infanticide properly so called.

That infanticide should prevail among a people noted for the strength of their family ties as well as for the predominance of moral sentiment in their form of civilisation is a melancholy fact that merits alike the attention of philosopher and philanthropist. To refer it vaguely to the combined influence of population and poverty is no sufficient explanation, as there are many countries with population equally dense and equally poor where this crime. against humanity is almost unknown. Other influences must cooperate to bring it about, such as:

1st. The constitution of the Chinese family, in which the offshoots, banyan-like, take root in the shadow of the parent stem instead of separating and establishing new centres of life and activity.

2nd. The disparagement of daughters, as unable to transmit the family name, and destined to become the virtual property of others.

3rd. The worship of ancestors, which makes it a religious duty for every man, poor or rich, to raise up offspring to offer incense on the family altar; and

4th. The pernicious system of early and universal marriage. For the unhealthy stimulus thus given to population Mencius is largely responsible, he having laid down the dictum: that "of the three offences against Filial Piety the greatest is to be childless."*

In conclusion there is no hope of extirpating this great evil except by a reconstruction of Chinese society, bringing about such a change of sentiment as to restore woman to her proper place and to set the seal of sacredness on human life in every form. This can only be effected by the spread of Christianity.

C. F. R. Allen, Esq., H. B. M.'s Consul, Pakhoi, says on this subject: "The moral conscience of the Chinese and the human precepts

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of the Buddhist religion have alike proved insufficient to deter the Chinese from this horrible practice. Proclamations are issued by the authorities, and tracts and placards are circulated by benevolent individuals, but considerations of political economy alone have any power. Infanticide in China varies directly with the density of the population. When the people are overcrowded and consequently poor, girls who must cease to belong to the family if they marry, and who have to support their future mothers-in-law rather than their own parents, are looked on as useless burdens to be put out of the way as quickly and quietly as possible. In the less thickly populated parts of the empire infanticide is rare. In other words it is common in the South and centre of China, uncommon in the North.

I would refer to the files of the IIankow Times for 1866-67, where the subject was well threshed out by Rev. Griffith John of Hankow and Dr. Dudgeon of Peking; the one arguing from his own observation that infanticide was common all over the empire, and the other contending from his experience and that of Dr. Lockhart that it was almost as rare in China as in England. No doubt they were both right as regards the province with which each was acquainted, but what was true in Hankow was false in Peking and

vice versa.

In Pakhoi and the neighbourhood, a poor but by no means populous section of China, female infanticide is practically unknown, but I fear I must ascribe this state of things to the abominable custom of selling young girls for immoral purposes so prevalent in this part of Kwang-tung."

T. L. Bullock, Esq., H. B. M.'s Consul, says: "I have never made serious enquiries as to the prevalence of the practice of killing newly-born female children. But wherever I have resided, that is to say, in the provinces of Chihli, Hupei, Anhui, Kiangsu, Fukien and Kwangtung, I have talked to Chinese on the subject to some extent. If what I have been told is worthy of credence the practice is almost unknown in the North, comparatively rare in the central provinces and common in the South. In Central China it seems to be most frequent in certain parts of Chekiang."

III. Is the Chinese Language a Fit Medium for New Ideas? On the " Advisability of endeavouring to convey Western knowledge to the Chinese through the medium of their own lanmy first impulse was to decline to give an opinion, on gnage account of the indeterminate character of the question.

Is it intended to elicit a discussion of the qualities of the Chinese language, or to have a practical bearing on benevolent work undertaken for the benefit of the Chinese? Is the "know

ledge" referred to limited to science, or does it include religious knowledge? Is the "language" the written language, or does it include oral speech? In the absence of limiting or qualifying terms the question ought to be taken in its widest sense, were it not that I am compelled to understand it differently by a well-known canon of interpretation, which forbids us to take the words of a document in a signification that will make it absurd. For how can I imagine that a learned society should suggest, even in the form of a question, that persons desirous of imparting knowledge to the Chinese should wait till the Chinese language is superseded by a more convenient medium-that like the rustic they should sit still until the stream runs dry, or like a king of whom Herodotus tells us make the passage easy by directing the waters into other channels.

That the fitness of the written language to serve as a medium. for the conceptions of modern science should be called in question is not surprising, but are its defects so grave and obvious as to throw doubt on the wisdom of any "endeavour" to utilize it?

If we were reducing the spoken language to writing we should never think of representing it by such cumbrous symbols as those now in use which, like Topsy, were not made but "growed." Crude and unscientific in their inception they have been licked into shapes of beauty by the tongues and pens of many generations, as pebbles are rounded by the attrition of countless ages. To write them well is the highest of the fine arts, and among the decorations of temple, dwelling-house and school-room the productions of the caligraphic pencil hold the most conspicuous place.

Difficult of acquisition they confessedly are, but millions of students do acquire them, and that being the case how can we entertain the question whether it is worth our while to attempt through them to convey new ideas to the minds of the learned?

Are they like old bottles that cannot bear the infusion of new wine? Nothing is further from the truth; for no language, not even the German or the Greek, lends itself with more facility than Chinese to the composition of technical terms. Its elements being devoid of inflection form compounds by mere juxtaposition-each component reflecting on the other a tinge of its own colour. It is not therefore an achromatic medium such as we require for some of the purposes of philosophy, but its residuary tints in most cases offer aid rather than hindrance to the apprehension and the memory.

A few examples will be sufficient to set forth the neatness and precision of these new terms. When Ricci translated Euclid he called the work Chi-ho-yüan-pên, like "geometry" a word of four syllables, but the Chinese expresses the idea that it is the "fundamental principle of the science of quantity." This term.

is so well-known that it can hardly be displaced, though a more exact idea might be conveyed by the two characters Hing-hio. the science of form." In chemistry we say Yang-chi, Ching-chi, Siao-chi, for oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, expressing their characteristics of supporting life, of lightness and of derivation from nitre; terms more elegant and expressive than the Greek, to say nothing of the awkward imitations Sauerstoff, Wasserstoff, &c., which we find in German. On taking up a recent Greek magazine my eye fell on an article entitled Αμαξαι ἀτμοκινητοί, "Carriages moved by steam." In Chinese instead of these eight syllables we express the idea by two-Ho-chü "Fire cars." In a Latin work describing a modern battle we find such expressions as imber ferreus, grando plumbea, the "leaden rain and iron hail" of our American poet slightly transposed. In Chinese Tie-yü-chienpo gives the idea with more conciseness and equal precision. Not to multiply illustrations, as a matter of fact, in the translation of books, no serious difficulty is experienced from the want of ready made terms. Aut inveniam aut faciam; if they cannot be found they can be made to order.

To conclude, the Chinese language in my opinion offers an adequate vehicle for the communication of all kinds of knowledge; its chief drawback being the difficulty of acquisition.

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Rev. Dr. Mateer says on this question: "It seems so plain that it scarcely needs saying that if Western knowledge is to be conveyed to the Chinese at all it must be done in the use of their own language. Who that looks at the history of Chinese civilization and the vast and varied literature which the Chinese language embodies can doubt for a moment its general capability of expressing human thought. The development it has had in the past gives sufficient guarantee of its capabilities for the future. No language has beforehand words suitable for the expression of really new truth. It is always necessary either to coin them or to import them. To this the Chinese language is no exception. In proportion as Western learning comes into China, in the same proportion will the Chinese language be enriched. I am aware that the average Chinese scholar is averse to the introduction of new words and foreign terms into Chinese. This aversion is no greater than his aversion to Western learning itself, and has in fact just the same origin. The onward march of events will, however, be too strong for Chinese conservatism. Western knowledge is coming into China despite all protest, and the language will be compelled to open its doors to receive such words aud terms as will express the new knowledge.