ess thus to put to
death an innocent official is simply for your Highness to be made the
sport of men.' The Prince spared his life."

The later Taoist was not content with attempts to compound an elixir. He
invented a whole series of physical exercises, consisting mostly of
positions, or postures, in which it was necessary to sit or stand,
sometimes for an hour or so at a time, in the hope of prolonging life.
Such absurdities as swallowing the saliva three times in every two hours
were also held to be conducive to long life.

There is perhaps more to be said for a system of deep breathing,
especially of morning air, which was added on the strength of the
following passage in Chuang Tzu:--

"The pure men of old slept without dreams, and waked without anxiety.
They ate without discrimination, breathing deep breaths. For pure men
draw breath from their uttermost depths; the vulgar only from their
throats."

A Chinese official with whom I became acquainted in the island of
Formosa was outwardly a Confucianist, but inwardly a Taoist of the
deepest dye. He used to practise the above exercises and deep breathing
in his spare moments, and strongly urged me to try them. Apparently they
were no safeguard against malarial fever, of which he died about a year
or so afterward.

Associated closely with the elixir of immortality is the practice of
alchemy, which beyond all doubt was an importation from Greece by way of
Bactria.

We read in the Historical Record, under date 133 B.C., of a man who
appeared at court and persuaded the Emperor that gold could be made out
of cinnabar or red sulphide of mercury; and that if dishes made of the
gold thus produced were used for food, the result would be prolongation
of life, even to immortality. He pretended to be immortal himself; and
when he died, as he did within the year, the infatuated Emperor
believed, in the words of the historian, "that he was only transfigured
and not really dead," and accordingly gave orders to continue the
experiments.

For many centuries the attempt to turn base metal into gold occupied a
leading place in the researches of Chinese philosophers. Volumes have
been written on the subject, and are still studied by a few.

The best-known of these has been attributed to a Taoist hermit who
flourished in the second century A.D., and was summoned to court, but
refused the invitation, being, as he described himself, a lowly man,
living simply, and with no love for