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the name of Luifung-ta-the Temple of the Thundering Winds. Several genii, mounted upon serpents, and marching along the margin of the lake, opened the scene; a neighboring bonze shortly after made love to one of these goddesses, who, in spite of the remonstrances of her sister, listened to the young man, married him, became pregnant, and was delivered of a child on the stage, who very soon found itself in a condition to walk about. Enraged at this scandalous adventure, the genii drove away the bonze, and finished by striking the pagoda with lightning, and reduced it to the ruined condition in which it now appears."-Mr. Davis's Brief View, p. 29.

In the works of Confucius, there are specimens given of the songs and ballads of all the provinces of China. Four large books are devoted to these specimens, the largest and most interesting of which is entitled Kwofoong-" the manners of different states," and the compiler tells us that the object of collecting these songs and ballads was to enable the emperor to form a correct estimate of the sentiments and dispositions of the people, for whose gratification they were composed; so that Fletcher of Salton was not the first, after all, who suggested the idea that the popular songs of a people exercise more influence upon them than the wisest or best administered laws. It would be a fruitless task to attempt to classify these various kinds of lyrics. We must, therefore, content ourselves with selecting a short poem here and there, endeavoring to present as much variety as possible. Among the most ancient poems collected by Confucius, are effusions which give evidence of a high degree of refinement and culture. The following from the Seaouya, though admitted to be only a feeble paraphrase, will serve as an example; it seems to be a remonstrance on the part of the poet, addressed to a former friend, who had wronged him or who had proved ungrateful:

"Now scarce is heard the zephyr's sigh

To breathe along the narrow vale:
Now sudden bursts the storm on high,
In mingled rush of rain and hail;
While adverse fortune low'ring frown'd,
Than ours no tie could closer be;
But lo, when ease and joy were found,
Spurn'd was I, ingrate-spurn'd by thee!

"Now scarce is felt the fanning air

Along the valley's sloping side,
Now winds arise, and lightnings glare,
Pours the fell storm its dreadful tide:
While fears and troubles closely prest,
By thee my love was gladly sought;
But once again, with quiet blest,

Thou viewest me as a thing of naught!

"The faithless calm shall shift again,
Another gale the bleak hill rend;
And every blade shall wither then,
And every tree before it bend;
Then shalt thou wail thy lonesome lot,
Then vainly seek the injured man,
Whose virtues thou hadst all forgot,

And only learn'd his faults to scan!"

Much of the earlier poetry of China is of the plaintive kind. A large number of swains bewail the hard-heartedness or faithlessness of their mistresses, and the superior influence of their rivals; and, in doing so, fill the imagination with the boldest, often the most beautiful imagery. We have now before us an ode of this character. A beautiful girl is courted by two youths; one the heir of a large estate, the other the heir to nothing except poverty and love for the Muses. The former, as is too often the case in the West as well as the East, succeeds; and the only consolation of the latter is to pour forth his grief in song, comparing his successful rival to the Kiew, or robber-bird of China, the emblem of all that is rapacious and cruel:

"The nest yon winged artist builds

The robber-bird shall tear away:
So yields her hopes the affianced maid,
Some wealthy lord's reluctant prey.

"The anxious bird prepares a home,

In which the spoiler soon shall dwell:
Forth goes the weeping bride constrain❜d,
A hundred cars the triumph swell.

"Mourn for the tiny architect,

A stronger bird hath ta'en its nest:
Mourn for the hapless stolen bride,

How vain the pomp to soothe her breast!"

Compilers of hand-books of literature often tell us that the Chinese have neither satires, pastorals, nor epics. We could not prove here that they have each; but that they are not altogether strangers to the first will sufficiently appear from an extract which we take from a novel, entitled "Dreams of the Red Chamber," the verses being a specimen of those poetical embellishments introduced into prose works, as intimated above. We need only premise that the piece is translated line for line, and almost word for word-being as nearly literal as the radical dissimilarity between the two languages would admit:

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"The paths of trouble heedlessly he braves,
Now shines a wit, and now a madman raves;
His outward form by nature's bounty drest,
Foul weeds usurp'd the wilderness, his breast;
And bred in tumult, ignorant of rule,
He hated letters, an accomplish'd fool!
In act deprav'd, contaminate in mind,
Strange, had he fear'd the censures of mankind!
Titles and wealth to him no joys impart,
By penury pinch'd, he sank beneath the smart;
Oh wretch, to flee the good thy fate intends,
Oh, hopeless to thy country and thy friends!

In uselessness, the first beneath the sky,
And curst, in sinning, with supremacy!
Minions of pride and luxury, lend an ear,
And shun his follies, if his fate ye fear!"

But a few brief extracts, in the form of translations, taken at random, can give no adequate idea of the true characteristics of Chinese poetry. As our space will not admit long passages, we may as well, therefore, confine ourselves to the above for the present, especially as we have more to speak of, besides, than we can find room for. A few general observations are as much as we can add now. First, let us remark, that of nothing, which we cannot see, do we feel more certain, than that the day will yet come when the literature of China will prove a rich mine, and attract more attention than any other literature has done, with, perhaps, the sole exception of that of Greece. We are well aware that many will smile at this-remembering only the sneers which they have so often heard against the civilization of the "Celestial Empire," &c., &c. But let those who will indulge in self-complacent ridicule of a people whom they cannot understand, say what they will, it is not the less true that the Chinese have a series of wellconnected annals, that extend back, without interruption, at least 4,000 years. None who have paid due attention to the subject venture to deny this; but, even those who do, admit that at least the records of 2,000 years are authentic and reliable. This is more than can be said of Hindoo annals; although it is so much the fashion, just now, to represent the antiquity of Hindoo civilization as far higher than that of China. But the truth is, that the former can hardly be said to have any authentic annals; since the Vedas can only be regarded, when duly put to the test, as a series of fables. Even the genealogies of the Hindoos are without date. The earliest books of the Chinese refer to their cycle of sixty years, which they retain to the present day, and which serves to regulate

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the inequalities between the lunar and solar year. Hindoos have the same cycle, but make little use of it, and there is no account of it in any of their books, which can be said to be more than a thousand years old. The former are acknowledged on all hands to have been acquainted with the art of printing more than two thousand years ago; they were the first to make paper, as well as to print books; whereas, the latter were unable to do either, until within a comparatively recent period. As long as the Hindoos were governed by their own sovereigns, or had what might be called a native government, quite as little was known in Europe, about their language and literature, as there is now about those of the Chinese. But it is known that the latter have an excellent code of laws; a code founded on good sense and practical wisdom-one that treats all according to their capabilities and deserts; while the former adhere, to the present day, to the caste system, the most unjust and odious that has ever existed in any civilized country.

ART. II.-1. The Demon of Socrates. Plato's Works. London. 1854.

2. Demonology and Witchcraft. By JAMES N. WELLES. Edinburgh. 1829.

3. The Koran. Translated by GEORGE SALE. London. 1861.

A BELIEF in the existence of angels and demons-that is, of two intermediate orders of spiritual intelligences, -on the one hand, between the Supreme Highest and man, and, on the other, between man and the Evil One, distinctively termed, in its two phases, angelology and demonology, is by no means peculiar to the Jewish or Christian religions; it has been inherent in the minds of every nation from the birth of human intellect. In fact, such a belief seems to be the inseparable adjunct of even a partial discrimination between good and evil. It is enwrought, with countless modifications, in the Egyptian, Roman, Grecian, Brahminical, Persian, Mohammedan, and all the other false systems of theosophy; and hence the fantastic stories

of ancient mythology, and the many sentimentalities and gross absurdities of modern mysticism. In them all,

"Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth,

Both when we wake and when we sleep."

Of the origin of the first-born sons of God, or the purpose or data of their creation, nothing is revealed to us. Whether they were the inhabitants of by-gone worlds, which, long antecedent to the birth of our earth, had completed their destined orbits, and been resolved into rudimental chaos; or whether, myriads of ages back into eternity, ere the chronometer of Time had been set in motion, or the revolving spheres had sounded the key-note of their celestial hymn, the All-Wise had created them to be the attendants upon His own illustrious state, the recipients of His bounty and love, and the executants of His decrees-are secrets no better known to the wisest savant than to the simplest student of revelation.

Origen, Bede, and various other reverend fathers of the early Christian Church, maintain that the creation of angels was coeval with that of the heavens and the earth; others, of equal authority, conjecture that they are intended by the term light, created on the first day; that at the fiat of God, "Let there be light!" this glorious order of creatures sprang at once into vigorous existence. Some Hebrew writers suppose them to have been created on the first day, others on the fifth. To none of these theories, however, do the verses succeeding the third of the first chapter of Genesis afford sufficient support; and also conflicting with them, are those of as wise and more experienced commentators, who contend for the high antiquity of angels, and aver that their birth was long previous to the creation of this terrestrial sphere. That this latter assumption is grounded upon Scripture, distinct proof is given by the Lord himself, in the book of Job, when, out of the whirlwind, He demanded of the patriarch where was he, "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." passage implies that the angels were interested spectators of the quickening into teeming life of the rude and shapeless mass of matter; although it gives us no inkling as to whether, as alert ministers, they were allotted any participation in the mighty work; whether, at the command of their King, they reared the luminous sapphire dome that spans the heavens;

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