=I for the whole system of weights and is said to possess the advantages of greater measures. The following account of the hardness and uniformity than that of the origin of this system (says Dr. Wagener) gray and other kinds. The seed is pointed contains fact and fancy mingled, but it is at the ends, and from one point to the easy to distinguish between them. In the other the length is somewhat greater than reign of the emperor Hoang-ti, who ruled in the direction at right angles. Lyngover China in the twenty-seventh century lun now fixed the length of the pipe, before Christ, the scholar Lyng-lun was which gave the keynote at eighty-one commissioned to complete the musical grains of the seed placed lengthwise in a system which had been discovered two row. But when the grains were placed hundred and fifty years earlier, and par- breadthwise it took one hundred grains to ticularly to lay down fixed rules for mak- give the same length. Thus the double ing musical instruments. Naturally he division of 9X9 and 10X10 was naturally had to commence with the bamboo, which arrived at. According to the dimension had already been long used to give the in question, it was called a musical or an note for other instruments. He therefore ordinary foot, the latter being introduced betook himself to the province of Siyung with the decimal subdivision as a measure in north-western China, where, on the of length. The breadth of a grain of seed northern slope of a range of high moun was I fen (a line), 10 fen=1 tsun (an tains, a species of bamboo grew, which, inch), Io tsun: =1 che (a foot), 10 che: on account of its uniformity and its struc- chang, 10 chang = I ny. In subsequent ture, being neither too hard nor too soft, times the line was divided into tenths, was exceedingly suitable for a wind instru- hundredths, etc. Lyng-lun also laid down ment. He cut one down and tried it. rules for the breadth as well as for the Tradition says that it gave the same note length of the pipe, because, although the as his own voice when he was excited by note is essentially dependent on the length, no emotion; and the rippling of the it is nevertheless necessary for its purity sources of the great Hoang-ho, or Yellow that the pipe should be neither too broad River, which were in the vicinity, followed nor too narrow. He therefore fixed the in the same tone. At the same time the circumference on the inside at nine grains fabulous bird Fung-Hiang, accompanied laid lengthwise. With these dimensions, by his mate, flew to the place. Both namely, a length of eighty-one grains, and perched themselves on a neighboring an internal circumference of nine, the pipe branch, and commenced a song, in the which gives the keynote contains just course of which each of the birds gave six twelve hundred grains, and this volume separate notes. These are the notes which accordingly was made the unit of dry are called the six male and the six female measure, and was called a yo; 2 yo! tones in the scale discovered by Lyng-lun, ko, 10 ko 1 cheng, 10 cheng= 1 ten, 10 and which correspond to the ancient docten I hu. So far we see how the units trine of the male and female principles in nature. As a matter of course, the deep est of the male notes was the one already discovered by the philosopher himself. He now endeavored to reproduce the other notes with the help of bamboo pipes, and succeeded. His task was now to lay down fixed rules as to the length of the pipes, so that thenceforth they could be easily constructed everywhere. For this reason, and also because such a scale of notes depends upon slight differences of length, and there were scarcely at this time instruments to divide great lengths, he necessarily arrived at the notion of passing from the less to the greater, and of laying down an adequately small natural unit for his measurements. That could be nothing else but a grain of seed; and now the point was to get seeds of the greatest possible uniformity. He chose a sort of millet, the Sorghum rubrum, the seed of which is of a dark-brown color, and which of length and dry measure were connected with the musical keynote. The twelve notes of the scale are all derived from the keynote, and are to a certain extent comprehended in it. Hence if the twelve hundred grains contained in the pipe are divided among the twelve notes it gives to each a hundred, and the weight of these hundred grains was made by Lyng-lun the unit of weight. This was divided and subdivided on the decimal system until a single grain became the lowest weight of all. At a later period even the coinage became connected with this system, for one of the weights, the leang, correspond. ing to our ounce, became the weight of metal put into a coin, so that the modern teel, in which mercantile quotations are found every day in the Times, is merely an ounce of silver, and is thus directly connected with the musical scale. Finally, says Dr. Wagener, it appears from this account that, in China, weights, measures, From Progress. LAOU-TSZE AND THE TAOU-TEH KING. And coinage, and the tuning of musical instru-ures, appears as if he were poor, and that ments have been derived quite consist- the superior man, whose virtue is comently from a constant unit supplied by plete, is yet, to outward seeming, stupid. nature herself, and that the essentials of Put away your proud air and many desires, this system are over forty-six hundred your insinuating habit and wild will. years old. These are of no advantage to you. This is what I have to tell you." Confucius, when he left him, said to his disciples: "I know how birds can fly, how fishes can swim, and how beasts can run. the runner may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the flyer may be shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Laou-tsze, and can only compare him to the dragon." The dragon being the Chinese symbol of power, this was intended as a compliment. The Taou-teh King, the only writing of the old philosopher, is a short but very noticeable product of ancient philosophy. It is not half the size of the Gospel of Mark, yet is full of pithy though often obscure utterances. Laou-tsze is a mystic in the sense that his thought goes deeper than his language. Essentially he is a Quietist, with the quietist's disregard of aught save equanimity. "There is nothing like keeping the inner man," he declares (Chap. 5, Rev. J. Chalmers's translation). "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. He who conquers others is strong. He who con. quers himself is mighty. He who knows when he has enough is rich" (chap. 33). Of a personal God Laou-tsze knew nothing. The supreme thing with him is Taou, the right way or course of nature. The title of his book may be compared to the Buddhist Dhammapada, or Footsteps of Virtue. The word Taou is not the invention of Laou-tsze. It was often in the mouth of Confucius, and with him it meant the "way." Buddhists also used it in the sense of "intelligence" and "reason." Many Christians are under the delusion that humility, forbearance, and forgiveness are peculiarly Christian virtues, though they were taught both by Chinese and Indian moralists ages before Christ. The doctrine of returning good for evil, so distinctly enunciated by Gautama (Dhammapada 5, 197, 223), is as certainly enforced by Laou-tsze. He says: "The good I would meet with goodness. The not good I would also meet with goodness. Virtue is good. The faithful I would meet with faith. The not faithful I would also meet with faith. Virtue is faithful.” "Recompense injury with kindness" (49 and 63). Upon this doctrine being mentioned to IN China three religions exist side by side: Confucianism, which is the religion of the State and the educated classes, Buddhism, which was introduced into China from India in the century before the Christian era, and Taouism, which claims as its founder Laou-tsze, author of the Taou-teh King. The doctrines of Laou-tsze, however, are no more to be gathered from the practices of the Taouists than those of Jesus from the Jesuits. It is with the sage and his thought we have to do, and not with the corruptions of those who call themselves his followers. The name Laou-tsze signifies either "the old son" or "the old philosopher." The former is derived from a fabulous account of the sage which makes him to have remained seventy-two years before birth in his mother's womb. He is said to have been born from her side, and to have had white hair at birth. "The old or venerable philosopher," however, is the more reasonable account of the designation. Ac cording to the great Chinese historian Sze-ma-Tseen, Laou-tsze's name was Uhr (an ear) and his surname Le (a plum-tree). From this have arisen myths of his having large ears and being born under a plumtree. The date of his birth is usually given as 604 B.C., and as he lived to a great age he was probably contemporary with Pythagoras, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Gautama, as he certainly was with his fellow-countryman Confucius, though the latter was his junior by fifty years. There was little in common between the meditative recluse and the practical sociologist. The interview between Confucius and Laou-tsze might be compared to a talk between Comte and Carlyle. Confucius had been expatiating on the wisdom of the ancients. Laou-tsze said: "Those whom you talk about are dead, and their bones mouldered to dust; only their words remain. When the superior man gets his opportunity he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him he moves as if his feet were entangled. I have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich treas. Confucius, that practical-minded philoso- | while in course of construction, were expher remarked: "With what then will hibited at the Lyceum, Exeter Change, you recompense kindness? Recompense Strand. We learn from the description injury with justice, and recompense kind-given by the inventor that the balloon was ness with kindness" (Lun-Yu xiv., 36). composed of five hundred and twenty yards Very similar to the Christian gospel, too, of oiled silk, in alternate stripes of blue are his exhortations to humility. "The and red. It was one hundred and two feet Taou of heaven may be compared to the in circumference, and was enclosed within extending of a bow. It brings down the a strong net, from which an open gallery or high and exalts the low." "He that hum- car was suspended by means of forty-five bles himself shall be preserved entire. cords. It was originally the intention of He that bends himself shall be straight- Lunardi to employ both wings and oars. ened. He that is low shall be filled. He They were in the form of large rackets, that is worn out shall be renewed. He covered with loose flounces of oiled silk, that is diminished shall succeed. He that and with these he hoped to be able to is increased shall be misled" (76, 22). steer his balloon. In the preparation of Like Jesus, Laou-tsze deprecated riches, the hydrogen gas or "inflammable air," and even more strongly denounced war. as he terms it, he was so fortunate as to He says, "To wear fine clothes and carry obtain the assistance of Dr. George Forsharp swords to eat and drink to satiety dyce, who devised an apparatus consisting and lay up superfluous wealth this I call of vats and casks in which zinc was acted magnificent robbery. This is not Taou upon with dilute oil of vitriol, and the gas, sure enough" (53). Nations fond of mili- after being purified, was passed into the tary display may note the saying, "As the balloon. Arrangements had been, in the fish cannot leave the deep and live, so the first instance, completed for an ascent warlike weapons of a nation cannot be from the gardens of Chelsea Hospital, displayed before the people without deadly about the middle of August, but in conseperil" (36). Conduct," says Matthew quence of the failure of a Frenchman, Arnold, "is three-fourths of life." It is Monsieur Moret, to make an ascent, as he more. It is the basis of society and makes had undertaken to do, from a garden at civilized society possible. The influence Chelsea, a few days previous to the date of such a teacher as Laou-tsze for twenty-fixed for Lunardi's attempt, and owing to five centuries is incalculable. His maxims must have done much to form the solid and imperturbable character of the Chinese. 66 From The Pall Mall Gazette. THE FIRST BALLOON ASCENT IN ENGLAND. THE name of Vincenzio Lunardi, secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador, will long be remembered as "the first aerial traveller in the English atmosphere," as he is grandiloquently styled on the frontis. piece to the account published by him of his voyage in 1784. A hundred years ago to-day Lunardi ascended in a balloon, filled with hydrogen gas, from the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, in the presence of the Prince of Wales and of a company estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand spectators. Signor Lunardi appears to have encountered many difficulties in the construction of his balloon and in securing a place from which to make his ascent. The necessary funds were obtained by means of public subscription, and the baĺloon, the car, and the other apparatus, a riot which took place on that occasion, Lu most allowance for some favorable circum- | Regent's Park, where Lunardi tells us he stances, they must have condemned, when received "the compliments and congratuthe balloon appeared, and a general in- lations of two or three thousand persons attention and confusion ensued. The jury in a day." Lunardi apears to have atwere perplexed with considerations on the tached his name to numerous copies of case, which their curiosity would not his book, which were sold to visitors to suffer them to weigh, and being under a the Pantheon. On a subsequent occasion necessity to determine before they de-namely, on December 20, 1785 - Lu. parted, they took the favorable side and nardi ascended from Heriot's Hospital acquitted the criminal, immediately on gardens at Edinburgh, and was blown out which the court was adjourned to indulge to sea. He was, however, rescued by a itself in observing so novel a spectacle." fishing-boat, with the loss of his balloon. But a still more dignified assembly was The balloon was afterwards picked up dissolved in order to gaze upon the trav- by the "Royal Charlotte," cutter, while eller; for we read that" His Majesty was drifting on the surface of the water, and in conference with his principal minis- returned to him. Lunardi soon had imiters." On being informed that Lunardi tators. Messrs. Blanchard and Sheldon was passing," the king said, we may re- ascended from Chelsea, October 16, 1784; sume our deliberations on the subject and Blanchard and Jeffreys crossed the before us at pleasure, but we may never Channel from Dover to Calais January 7, see poor Lunardi again.' The conference 1785. Sir Edward Vernon and Count was broken up, and his Majesty, attended Zambecarri, with a young lady whose name by Mr. Pitt and other great officers of is not given, ascended March 23, 1785, state, viewed the balloon through tele- and sailed from London to Horsham. Mr. scopes." Lunardi appears to have been a Thomas Baldwin has written a very cir handsome and rather effeminate-looking cumstantial narrative of his ascent in Luyoung man, and mightily enjoyed the nardi's balloon from Chester, September, sensation he created. The balloon was 8, 1785. Lunardi's portrait was painted afterwards exhibited at the Pantheon in by Sir Joshua Reynolds. He died in 1799. POOR FRENCH COOKING. - A returning | tus and various appliances, the difference is tourist launches out into bitter complainings of the miserable fare that is furnished to visitors at hotels and inns, making out a terrible list of grievances against hotel dinners and cooks, accusing the latter of homicidal intentions towards the world at large, mine host being party, willing and active in the crime. He dates indispositions without number, and prolonged digestive disturbances to the fatal table-d'hôte, to the coarsely made, greasy side dishes, to the cold, tough, unwholesome entrées, to the sticky sweets and fossilized des serts. Having suffered much, he not only takes the public into his confidence by way of relieving his own mind, but gives them the benefit of his own sad experience, hoping it may profit them somewhat. The English_reader may also not be sorry to hear what a Frenchman has to say on this really important subject. It is popularly supposed that all French people know how to cook; but this, like many another general axiom, is very far from being the truth. They used certainly to be miles ahead of the average English in the matter; but since so much has been said and written about cookery in England, and above all, since improvement was made in the kitchen appara infinitely less, and likely to go on reducing, Ladies' Gazette of Fashion. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. |