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.

enjoins the worship of Budha is by far the best and most important; and than it, there is no doctrine more conducive to a benevolent life.

(The Budha) Kúteh says, He who stands to the other doctrines, is like an ant ascending a lofty mountain, which in an hour gets only a single step in advance. But the doctrine which enjoins us to go to the western region, is like a vessel with full sails and favorable wind and tide, which in an instant advances one thousand miles. When we have once reached the western region, we are no more obliged to go out, or exposed to fall. The highest grade (of votaries) is able to ascend the Budha's ladder. The lowest grade is far superior in happiness to those who live in an emperor's palace. The worshipers of Budha's merits are very lofty; their duties are very easy. All, whether honorable or mean, talented or stupid, old or young, male or female, the eater of ordinary food, or he who restricts himself to vegetables, the man who has left his family, (the bonze) or he who still remains in it-all may discharge these duties.

I therefore exhort the virtuous males and believing females of the ten regions, (all the empire) into whose hands this may come, immediately to put forth a believing heart, and with the whole heart to worship Budha, and seek for a life in the western region. If perchance you are involved in family affairs, and endless worldly transactions, and cannot devote your whole mind to this, then you ought every day to recite Budha's name three thousand or five thousand times, and make a regular constant practice of this. If even this you cannot do, your recitation of this sheet will be reckoned as one degree of merit. Having recited this one hundred times,

then dot one of the circles on the margin, and when the dots are all made they will amount to one hundred and fifty thousand. Whether it is for yourself, or for your father and mother, that you are asking for life in the western region; or whether you are asking for your father and mother protection from disease, peace, increased happiness, or protracted old age-in all such cases, you must in the presence of Budha burn one of these sheets. If you pray for the happiness of your deceased parents, or for your six orders of relations and their relations, you must before the ancestral tablet, or over the graves, burn one of these sheets. Whether you worship the gods, or sacrifice to your ancestors, either at the festival of the tombs, the ninth solstice, the middle of the seventh month, or the end of the year, you must recite this sheet, and then burn it on the tombs of orphans or of those who are buried by charity, and thus provide for the happiness of destitute souls, who have no relations to sacrifice to them. In doing all this you may rely on the strength of Budha to secure their translation to the pure country. You may do this once or many times, according to your ability; and the merit you will obtain is inconceivable.

I fervently desire that you may together put forth a believing heart, be together virtuous friends, together see Budha, and together arrive at the extreme of happiness.

Hwui Chau, the head priest of the Drum Mountain (Kú Shán) monastery in Fuhkien, has respectfully printed this, bows and exhorts.

THE RATIONALISTS.

As this is a sect which had already come into existence and begun to exert some influence when Confucius was endeavoring to inculcate his doctrines, and as, in the foregoing pages, there has been occasional reference to the Rationalists and the tenets which they held, a brief notice of them may be desired by the reader.

Some portions of the article inserted here may be acceptable as showing what China has been able to produce in the line of TRANSCENDENTALISM. What we give on this subject is partly from "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM," by Dr. Williams.

The sect of the Rationalists, or Tau Kia, was founded by Lautsz' or Laukiun. He was born B.C. 604, in the kingdom of Tsu, now Hupeh, fifty-four years before Confucius, and is believed to have had white hair and eyebrows at his birth, and been carried in the womb eighty years, whence he was called Lautsz', the "old boy," and afterwards Laukiun, the "venerable prince." According to Pauthier, who has examined his history with some attention, his parents were poor, and after entering mature