upon themselves; their wives and children when living will separate from them.

Heart.

Those who only use this transverse heart madly lose the good heart. When in hades they fall into hell; when in the world they are changed into brutes.

Heart.

They who only use this slanting heart plot and scheme secretly to hurt men. Heaven's net has no holes to let them pass through; and their sons and grandsons are destroyed.

In order to become virtuous, read this "heart and destiny" song, and as a matter of course you will have a repentant heart and aroused reflections.

When one's heart is good, and his destiny (or lot) is also good, he will be both rich and honorable, and attain to old age.

When the heart is good, and the destiny bad, heaven. and earth will certainly protect.

When the destiny is good and the heart bad, there will be premature death when only half way.

When the heart and the destiny are both bad, there will be poverty and weariness, enduring grief and sor

row.

The heart is the destiny's origin; the most important thing is to preserve the benevolent course (or benevolence and doctrine).

Destiny is the root of one's body; it is difficult to ascertain previously whether it will be adverse or prosper

ous.

If we believe in destiny, and do not cultivate the heart, it will be in vain to attempt to constrain heaven and earth to our purposes.

We ought to cultivate the heart and leave our destiny to heaven; he who made things will certainly requite us. Lí Kwáng slew the soldiers who surrendered to him; though he was made a marquis, he soon emptily vanished.

Sung Káu saved the lives of ants, and early reached the highest literary rank.

Virtue is the foundation of happiness, but wickedness is the omen of misery.

We ought secretly to accumulate virtue and merit; and preserve fidelity and filial piety.

Riches and honors have their origin in our past conduct. Happiness and misery come on men's own invitation. If we act benevolently, and assist those who are in danger and misery, we act far better than if we were to fast and get up idol festivals.

Heaven and earth exhibit vast kindness, the sun and moon do not shine with partiality.

When ancestors attain to a long life, (in doing good) their descendants receive abundant happiness.

My heart and other men's hearts all desire honor and splendor; when this man and that man have the same desire, why should they strive with others to obtain it?

In the first place, do not deceive; in the second place, do not cheat.

If in our hearts there sprout up the desire to hurt men, spirits and gods will secretly deride us.

If our destiny is five parts better than others, our hearts ought to be ten parts better.

To have both the heart and the destiny amended and protected, is the precious concern of one's whole life.

In former times Liú Yuentsiáng, who had been long afflicted with a lingering disease, wrote this heart and destiny song, and distributed one thousand copies of it. Suddenly he dreamed that a sien (a superior angelic being) clothed in red garments, in company with an old man, arrived and said: Because you have composed this song and exhorted many to repentance, God has pity on your severe disease, and has on purpose sent a heavenly physician to cure you. Your life was originally to be only forty, now it will be lengthened by two dozen of years. Having said this, they disappeared. He then took medicine and got quite better. Afterwards he died at the age of sixty-four.

If in consequence of exhorting others to repent, men are thus rewarded, how much more if they reform their own hearts. For happiness and misery come by our own invitation.

The reader of this tract ought not to despise it. He ought immediately to vow that he will practice virtue, and thus protect his family, produce good fortune, harmony, peace and happiness. If by our efforts one man is induced to arouse his heart to virtuous conduct, we shall have ten merits. If ten men do so, we shall have one hundred merits; if one hundred men, we shall be marked as having one thousand merits. We ought immediately to correct our hearts and practice virtue. This

is the excellent mode of securing what is good and avoiding what is evil.*

Má Tsán-yuen (distributes this).

Printed in Amoy, blacksmith's jetty at Kom Kok Ku, the Divine Heaven Shop.

*This is called a Confucian Tract, but there are several doctrines alluded to which are not Confucian, but Budhistic; such are the references to accumulating merit by saving the lives of animals, by repeating religious formulas, by making, printing, or distributing religious tracts; such also are the references to hell, or the prison of the earth, and to transmigration. Transmigration is also a doctrine of the Tauists. The pure Confucianists do not profess to teach anything at all in relation to a future state. The rewards and punishments which Confucius discoursed about had reference only to this life, though he spoke of them both as descending to posterity, and as flowing backwards to affect deceased ancestors.

A BUDHIST TRACT.*

OMITA FUH (Amidha Budha) receives and leads those who worship Budha and are virtuous, to go far away and be born in the western region.

In comparison with the repairing of great and small roads with the rendering to others of various kinds of assistance-with whatever is most straight forward, rapid, comprehensive, and easy, (in order to secure our future happiness)-everything is inferior to the worship of Budha. The whole object of the worship of Budha is to seek for life in the western region, and is to obtain a pure country. This means that the western region is an extremely happy world, and is the pure country of Budha. There are twelve classical or sacred books of the three Tsáng, (a name of Budha) and each of these leads to the great happiness. There are eighty-four thousand doctrines, (or law gates) each of which exhorts us to go to the western region. But the doctrine which

*Chinese Repository, Vol. XV.

This is a translation of a sheet Tract, of the kind which are posted on the walls along the streets of the city, at the gates and market places, and in the covered resting places for travelers on the country roads.