nature) in order to adjust the mid-autumn,
when the people would be more at ease and the birds and beasts would be
sleek and plump. He further directed Ho's third brother to dwell at the
northern region, called the dismal city, where he might properly examine
the reiterations and alterations and see whether, when the days were
shortest, the culminating star was Pleiades (this culminates in the
evening at winter solstice, which is the extreme of dark principle in
nature and midnight seat of that principle) in order to adjust midwinter,
when the people would remain at home and the birds and beasts get their
down and hair. Thus careful was the sage in reverently observing heaven
and labouring diligently for the people, in order that his plans might not
contradict the designs of heaven nor the government miss the proper season
for human labour." It is further said that "the bright influence (of
Yaou's qualities) was felt through the four quarters (of the land) and
reached to (heaven) above and (earth) beneath" (Shu King, book I, p. 32).
Legge cites Pritchard's (Savilian Professor, Oxford University) chart as a
proof of the correctness of the chronology which places Yaou in the 24th
century B.C. The precession of the equinoxes was not known in China until
more than 2,500 years after the time assigned to Yaou.

Pausing to renew the foregoing data, it is with particular satisfaction
that I point out how clearly they reveal the basis and origin of the
"Quadriform Constitution" and idea of central government. In China the
pole star is designated as the Imperial Ruler of Heaven and a temple to
the God of the North Star stands in the sacred enclosure which marks the
centre of the empire. The opposite positions assumed by Ursa Major at
nightfall divide the year into four quarters and this quadruplicate
division caused by rotation, assuming absolute dominion over the native
mind, is applied to heaven and earth and pervades every detail of civil
and religious government, as in ancient America.

Forced to recognize that the primitive inhabitants of China and America
derived their first principles of organization from the identical
light-giving source, a fact which also indicates a community of race and
of place of origin, let us now review some data which prove that the two
civilizations must have been separated and isolated from each other at an
extremely remote period of time.

Certain conceptions, common to all primitive people,