The Forrest City times., 1913-04-18

| igin. The first letter, for example concludes with: The ways of our God are many. On the righteous he show. CTS blessings: on the evil he pours forth misery This is from the Book of History, or 'Shu King, in which are the documents edited by Confucius himself. It usually has been rendered in this way; The ways of God are not inVariable. On the good doer he sends down all blessings, and on the evil deer he sends down all miser- les' That is the more exact render Ing. And again. In the second letter We nnd-- He paused a moment, talk ng up the second sheet. and focusing his dim eyes upon the lines. We md, he went on, Fine words and l smiling countenance make not vir- ue,' which Is from the Lunhu, or Analects' of Confucius, in which the Jews and maxims of the sage are etailed by his disciples Smiling ountenance' is hardly the best trans atlon. lnsinuating appearance is nore nearly the English equivalent, nd l should prefer are rarely con- lected, or associated, with virtue to make not virtue"
 Those. of course, are unmistakably ranslations." I agreed.
 And so are the concluding sen- tences of the third, the autograph, letter. he assured me "'Say not Heaven is high above! Heaven ascends and descends about our deeds. daily inspecting us, wheresoever we are l find it in one of the sacrificial odes of kau, and 1t Is the best rem dered of all the excerpts"
 So your conclusion as to the au- thorship ts-?" 1 queried.
 Chinese, undoubtedly" he an- swered These were written. I shouId say, by a Chinaman, educated, prob ably. in this country His English is the English of the educated Oriental. but the quotations from Confucius and hls commentators are characteristic. With the average Chinaman, to know Confucius is to know all; what he said is all-sufficient; what he did not say is not worth saying. Another identifying feature is the effort to make afraid. Their religion Is fear"
 Having concluded his exposition, Professor Griffin was disposed to en- ter upon a more or less lengthy dis course on Chinese character and lit erature Tn general. However illumi- native this might have been under ordinary conditions, I was assuredly in no mood to listen to 1t at this time. The information he had given me, while 1t merely verified suspicious which l had held from the first. Set me to speculating on the individual source of the letters; and with so modern an instance at hand was nat urally disinclined to consider the au- thorship of writings dating back often a thousand years and more beyond the Christian era.
 With what grace I could, therefore. l discouraged a continuance of the theme, and having thanked him most heartily, pocketed the notes with which he was good enough to furnish me, and prepared to depart. But as l stood at his study door, his lean, scholarly hand resting in mine, he de tained me for a final word.
 The symbol" he exclaimed, his pale eyes lighting at the recollection. We forget the symbol"
 "Oh. yes," I returned, my interest revived. that silhouette at the bot. tom"
 Tt is unmistakably Chinese" he said. T am not very familiar with the symbolism of the East, not as fa- miliar as l should be, possibly; but Chinese writing, you know, in its or igiu, is picture writing with the addi- ton of limited number of symbolical and conventional designs. This figure. l should say, represents a lorcha, or small Chinese coasting junk, and you can rest assured that the threats con- tained in the letters were with a view to reparation for some crime or injury connected in some way with such A vessel That Is as near as I can in. terpret 1t. But if you would like to know more-if you would like to get
 
 something more nearly defnite-I can refer you to one who can. think, give you the information"
 By all means" I implored. q shall appreciate it greatly"
 An authority on this subject is liy- ing not very far from here. He spent many years in China. is something of an artist himself, and made. under stand. & study of Oriental symbolism. He lives at Cos Cob, and his name ts-"
 Murphy" I interrupted. as flood of illumination swept over me.
 "Philetus Murphy. Yes. Do you know him?"
 q have met him." returned short. ly.
 And thanking the professor once more, hurried away, with course of action already shaping in my mind.
 CHAPTER xI.