ABSTRACT
TIlE illustrations contained in the last chapter of the influence of Buddhism on the literature and national life of the Chinese will now be continued by the citation of a curious passage from a scientific tract published some years ago at Hangchow. The author is treating upon modern European astronomy. He had read of the discovery of Uranus and Neptune, of the motion of the sun attended by his planets among the fixed stars, and of the statement that the fixed stars themselves are suns shining upon planetary systems of their own, He is trying to comprehend this for himself, and to make it plain to his reader, He first takes for comparison a scene very familiar to a Chinaman's eye. He irnagines the-hall of a rich man's mansion ornamented by a large number of hanging lanterns. They are seen by the visitor as he walks under them to be hung from the ceiling in lines and circles according to a regular plan, but when looked at from a distance, the rows of Ianterns appear to cross each other in a very confused manner, He does not give in his adhesion to the modern European astronomy without an attempt to show how much of it was known to his countrymen before. He quotes ancient Ohinese authors who had said that the earth is round, and that it moved from west to east; that in winter it travels to the north-west, and in summer to the south-east, passing over the middle points of its journey at the equinoxes. These things are said in very old books, and we mnst allow the ancient Chinese all the credit they
deserve for them, although, like the theories of Nicetas and Pythagoras, they were not commonly believed in at the time.
