Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-06-18

ciple of the State system can be imag
ined. Education, in China, is made the one
pathway to distinction. and it is open 10 the
meanest citizen. The Government is
literally and altogether carried on by COM
petitiye examinations. Every year the
scholars flock from all parts of their respective
districts and provinces to Peking, where
the examinations are held. They must first
pass similar ordeals in their own districts, SO
that process of wedding is established, and
only the most capable reach Peking. And
there is no limit to the trials 1t is quite
common to find men who have not succeeded
in passing the final examinations until age
has crept upon them. Success in these ex-
aminations confers distinction at once,
and insures government employment. Thus
| the best scholars are always chosen
for the most important offices, and it is evil
dent that if only the character of the institu.
ton were improved and the curriculum re.
organized. China would, through this system,
possess the most liberal and sagacious
method of government on the face of the
EARTH And DR.. Martin renders it apparent
that she is capable of making even go radical
change as this. For he shows that
the crust of conservatism has been broken
! in many places during the past twenty years,
and that the party of progress is steadily ad-
vancing and driving the Tories into the
background. The recent experiments in
sending legations to Europe and America
have had important results, and have done
much to convince the Government OF China
that the old condition of things viii have to be
discarded, and general new departure taken
Japan has done this already, and it is evi.
dent that with all her conservatism China
retains enough vitality and vigor to carry
successfully through the change whenever
she makes up her mind to it. What such g
change may mean for the rest of the world
is an interesting problem, but not to bt
| entered upon here.
CnlPs FROM A GKRMAS WORKSHOP By Max Muller
NJ. A. Volume " New York Charles Scribner.
| Sons. Price, =.
| The fifth volume of Max Muller's "Chips'
contains FIVE essays, "On Freedom" or
1.-The Philosophy of Mythology" on Falss
"Analogies in Comparative Theology or
"Spelling Reform" and on ''Sanskrit Text:
discovered in Japan" Perhaps the most
generally interesting of these essays-whict
by the way are collected from various publ
cations, or have been delivered as lectures
will be the third, on False Analogies ir
Comparative Theology. The object of thii
| lecture is to expose the futility Of the many
attempts made at the close of the last and be
ginning of the present century, when Ori
entail science was young and crude, tt
establish analogies between Asiatic re
ligions and Christianity, with a view
| to derive the resemblances in tht
former from an assumed imitation of the lat
ter. He shows that when this business wa
first entered upon. the Indian pandits, finding
themselves continually pressed for resem
blances to Christian traditions and dogmas
obligingly invented qualities of these re
semblances and inserted them in their sacred
books for the qualification of the foreign in
quirers. OF course the result was dreadful
series of blunders, ending with catastrophe,
exposure which effectually destroyed cont
dence in that line of research. The article OF
spelling reforms, being fer the most par
written phonetically, and in part with Pit
mans phonetic alphabet, is about as easy
reading as Anglo-Saxon, which the proposed
new alphabet resembles in several respects
On the whole the volume is a valuable ad
dition to the series of Professor Muller
90 Cb;v-D