Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-29
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

TIE CHINESE CLASSICS: translatlon By james
Legge D D. Part l. Confucius part 3, Aencius.
New York John B. Alden Co., Publishers.
! vol, Svo.
In this volume we have Ansletics,
"Great Learning and Doctrine of the
Man" Of Confucius, and the works of
Mencius. To each division there are COM
plete induces of subjects and proper names.
It ia estimated that when DR.. Legge shall
have completed his translation of the Chi
nese classics the result will fill about ten
royal octave volumes. Two of these are
embraced in Alden's reprint, go that the
American reader will be enabled to possess
the whole in the compass OF five ordinary
sized octavos of about 200 pages. Con-
fucius, the celebrated Chinese sage,
was born sol years before Christ,
in the kingdom of Lu, By his
disciples he was called King, the master or
teacher. From his earliest years he mani.
tested extraordinary love for learning and
generation. Even as boy he was lofty
model of prudence, rectitude and phlio-
sophie gravity. He became Government
official at II, and by his zeal and wisdom
attracted wide attention. On the death OF
his mother he restored the ancient burial
honors of his race, in her memory. and
from that time the long disused funeral
customs were restored, and continue to
this day. CoDfucius thus was reverenced
as authority as to ancient things. he
mourned three years for his mother IN soil
tude, and devoted the whole time to philo-
sophical study, rejecting deeply upon the
eternal laws of morality, tracing them to
their source, stored his mind with sense
of the duties they impose on all men, and
made them the ruler of his actions. His
career, say his biographers, was thence
forth only an illustration of bis ethical
system. He devoted himself to the in
struction of his people, exemphfying
the morals he taught. His disciples in
creas ed rapidly. They were generally
of the middle-aged and thoughtful classes.
His scholars he divided into four classes,
teaching to one morals, to another rhetoric,
to another politics. and to the last the per-
lection of style in written composition. He
revised and edited, and often abridged Tor
the use of his followers, the works OF an
Gent literature. He travelled much, and
entered many districts where mis- doctrines
of morality were refused, and the people
declined TO be advanced in understanding.
He died 479 B. c., in the SEVENTEEN year
of his age. Ever since he has been veneer
ated. His family to this day is distin-
guished by various honors and privileges,
and constitute the only hereditary aristoc-
racy in China. The doctrines of Confucius
relate principally to the ethics of political
and social life" the attainment of perfect
virtue is the true aim of living none can
live well who do not so regard it" DR..
Legges translation is very full, and ia per-
fectly clear. There is no confusion or am
biguity in any part OF the text
Part second is given up to the works Of
Mencius. He was born B c. 81, and
died at the age of S4. DR., Legge says {:
Between Meucius and the rise of the
Ts'in dynasty hourished the philosopher
Scum King, OF whose writings enough is
still preserved to form large volume.
By many he is regarded as the ablest OF
all the followers of Confucius. He makes
frequent reference in his works to Men
cius, and one OF his productions was adj
dressed in opposition to Mencius' doctrine
of goodness" The first twenty three
years of the life OF Mencius was synchro-
nized with the last twenty three of Plato's.
He was contemporary with Aristotle,
Zeus, Epicurus and Dsmosthenes. AS
DR.. Legge says, when Mencius is
placed with these, he can look
them in the face = he does not
need to hide a diminished head. The
great forte of Mencius was the instruction
Of princes. Agriculture and education
were the great themes of his life. " The
great object of Mencius was to rectify
mems hearts, teaching them to preserve
their heart and nourish their nature and
to recover their lost heart" When he dis
courses of benevolence, rights pro-
priety and knowledge, he refers to The
principles of these in the heart.
commissioning, feeling shame and the
like, affected with modesty and COM
plaisance, approving and disappearing.
When he speaks of the evils springing
from perverted speaking he says-'grow
ing frat in the mind, they prove injurious
to government When he shows how
Prince sh ould be served, he says correct
what is wrong in his mind Once reetify
the Prince, and the kingdom will be set
tied The subjects treated of in this
volume of the works of Mencius are nearly
three hundred in number. The same clear
ness and explicitness in translation marks
the work of DR.. Legge in this, as in the
first part.
THE HEssIASs AND THE OTHER GERMAN AUXIIIARIEs
OF GREAT BRITAIN N THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
By Edward J. Lowell. With maps and plans.
New York Harper Il Bros, San Francisco: A.
L. Bancroft & Co. vol, svo.
No one contends that the history of the
American revolution has been fully written.
There are phases of it concerning which
the people are but little informed. For
instance, the popular idea of the Hessians
is very vague, very ambiguous and very
limited in scope. 1t is deemed quite
enough by the general reader of American
history to know that of England's forces
German auxiliaries were material factors.
In this pleasant and very interesting
volume, Mr.. Lowell has undertaken to tell
us something in Diet all OF the men, by whom
commanded, what service they rendered,
and for what they deserve to be distin-
guished or condemned. 1t is important to
learn much about these auxillaries that we
may know all the forces against which the
American troops had to contend, and thus
better estimate our revolutionary soldiers,
and better measure their devotion to
cause on which so big with fate. By this
book we get very clear insight into the
causes which led to the employment of the
Hessians. The princes who farmed them
out to England, to use as food for rebel pow.
der, appear in very repulsive light. They
sold their men as truly as ever the negro
went down under the hammer in the South,
They first drove the men they ruled over,
by the authority of heaven, from the
homes OF the country into the army, and
then shipped them off to America to en-
gage in a contest in which they had no
heart, and in q matter in which their own
people had no concern. They were
literally hirelings, objects of con-
tempt and loathing, and yet innocent
Of provocstion for hatred. Out of the
%, 900 OF these unhappy but brave and
manly German soldiers, whose hearts were
sacrificed when their bodies were sold,
Il, 000 never returned to the Fstherland
The men, II is made clear, in no case were
willing servitors in arms. When enrolled
they had to be dragged into the army, and
q =