ABSTRACT
The books of the Chinese have formed and confirmed their national taste, which consequently exhibits a tedious uniformity. The careful and candid discussions by Dr. Legge in the introduction to his translation furnish most satisfactory conclusions as to the origin, value, and condition of this venerable relic of ancient China. For his scholarly edition of the Classics he has already earned the hearty thanks of every student of Chinese literature. The literature contained in the language briefly described is very ample and discursive, but wanting in accuracy and unenlivened by much variety or humor. Chinese literature contains enough, indeed, to pollute even the mind of a heathen, but its scum has become the sediment. For the most part the Chinese, in worshipping Confucius, content themselves with erecting a simple tablet in his honor; to carve images for the cult of the sage is uncommon.
