fortunately it soon drifted into superstition, intolerance, and vulgarity.
Attempts have been made to provide the Chinese with translations of noted European works, and among those which have been produced may be mentioned "The Pilgrim's Progress," with illustrations, the various char- acters being in Chinese dress ; Mr. Herbert Spencer's " Education," the very first sentence in which is painfully misrendered; the "Adventures of Baron Munchausen/' and others. In every case save one these efforts have been rejected by the Chinese on the ground of inferior style. The exception was a translation of ^Esop's Fables, pub- lished in 1840 by Robert Thorn as rendered into Chinese by an eminent native scholar. This work attracted much attention among the people generally ; so much so, that the officials took alarm and made strenuous efforts to suppress it. Recent years have witnessed the publica- tion in Chinese of "Vathek," in reference to which a literate of standing offered the following criticism : "The style in which this work is written is not so bad, but the subject-matter is of no account." The fact is, that to satisfy the taste of the educated Chinese reader the very first requisite is style. As has been seen in the case of the Liao Chai % the Chinese will read almost anything, provided it is set in a faultless frame. They will not look at anything emanating from foreign sources in which this greatest desideratum has been neglected.
The present age has seen the birth of no great original writer in any department of literature, nor the production of any great original work worthy to be smeared with cedar-oil for the delectation of posterity. It is customary after the death, sometimes during the
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