ight
hear him." Dr Legge lays no stress on the last half of this
story--though it is impossible to believe that its meaning can have
escaped his notice altogether. Lastly, when Confucius was once taken
prisoner by the rebels, he was released on condition of not proceeding
to Wei. "Thither, notwithstanding, he continued his route," and when
asked by a disciple whether it was right to violate his oath, he
replied, "It was a forced oath. The spirits do not hear such."

We shall not attempt to defend Confucius on either of these
indictments, taken separately and without reference to his life and
teachings; neither do we wish to temper the accusations we ourselves
have made against the Chinese, of being a nation of liars. But when it
is gravely asserted that the great teacher who made truthfulness and
sincerity his daily texts, is alone responsible for a vicious national
habit which, for aught any one knows to the contrary, may be a growth
of comparatively modern times, we call to mind the Horatian poetaster,
who began his account of the Trojan war with the fable of Leda and the
swan.

SUICIDE

Suicide, condemned among western nations by human and divine laws
alike, is regarded by the Chinese with very different eyes. Posthumous
honours are even in some cases bestowed upon the victim, where death
was met in a worthy cause. Such would be suicide from grief at the
loss of a beloved parent, or from fear of being forced to break a vow
of eternal celibacy or widowhood. Candidates are for the most part
women, but the ordinary Chinaman occasionally indulges in suicide,
urged by one or other of two potent causes. Either he cannot pay his
debts and dreads the evil hour at the New Year, when coarse-tongued
creditors will throng his door, or he may himself be anxious to settle
a long-standing score of revenge against some one who has been
unfortunate enough to do him an injury. For this purpose he commits
suicide, it may be in the very house of his enemy, but at any rate in
such a manner as will be sure to implicate him and bring him under the
lash of the law. Nor is this difficult to effect in a country where
the ends of justice are not satisfied unless a life is given for a
life, where magistrates are venal, and the laws of evidence lax.
Occasionally a young wife is driven to commit suicide by the harshness
of her mother-in-law, but this is of rare occurrence, as the
consequences are terrible to the family of the guilty wom