saint, is of infinite sublimity-far removed from us, far far away in heaven. But", he continues, "we are waiting for that man, the holy one, who will one day be sent. to us", and who, absolutely perfect, will disclose to us the Tao with infallibility and in all its completeness'.a

'Even the distant heathens', said Abington earnestly, 'nourished the vague expectation or prophecy that, in due time, there would arise in the west a holy Ruler, Teacher and Saviour of men; and readily did the three kings of the East follow the star that guided them to Bethlehem. Most memorable are the words employed by Lao-tse, Confucius' elder contemporary, with respect to the holy one: "He bears the dust of the world and yet is called lord of lords; he bears the misery of the world and yet is called king of the whole world" b

'However this may be', said Gregovius quietly, 'the belief in the advent of a perfect Saint disarms at least those who stigmatise Confucius' teaching as commonplace and trite; for that belief raises it into the sphere of the ideal, and the expected Saint may be taken as the exemplar who is to the follower of Confucius the embodiment of all perfection of mind and heart, and the exalted standard by which he measures everything human and earthly'.

'Did Confucius', enquired Attinghausen, 'conceive this Saint as a supernatural being'?

'I should hardly think so', replied Gregovius; 'for he says that "the testimony of the Saint who is to come. after a hundred generations, is as unerring as the testimony of the Divine mind immanent in the human intellect". The Saint is, therefore, only an absolutely sinless man'.

'Such a man', rejoined Attinghausen, 'is a fiction, and postulating one like him, leads inevitably to superstition and enthusiastic reverie'.

"This cannot well be denied', observed Gregovius; 'for the saint who has reached the complete wisdom of the Tao, Confucius contends, is able to predict the whole future, since his knowledge is equal to that of God'.d

"This aberration', said Attinghausen with an air of triumph, 'is the deserved punishment for extravagant assumptions. But now', he added more reverently, 'I am curious to learn the nature of the Chinese Trinity'. 'Whatever it is', said Abington with earnestness, 'whether it be elevated or not, it bears at least witness, like many other pagan theories of the Trinity, to the patent fact that "the reflecting mind of man, in a certain stage of its progress, must necessarily arrive at the conception and development of that idea" a

"The Persian Avesta also', added Humphrey eagerly, 'often invokes and praises together Ahura-Mazda, Mithra, and the holy Craosha, evidently forming a kind of Trinity, though it was perhaps only comprehended as in a dark image; for Craosha is probably the soul of Ahura-Mazda, that is, the Holy Ghost'.c

"This is new to me', said Asho-raoco pensively, ‘and I have never heard or read of it. True, true', he continued, lowering his voice, 'there are in our holy Books some remarkable passages where Ahura-Mazda is addressed in the plural and yet seems to be conceived as one person. Should it really be so? No, no', he added resolutely, 'I cling to that unity which has at last dawned upon my struggling mind: should I now thoughtlessly exchange it for a trinity'?

"The ancient Babylonians likewise', continued Humphrey rapidly, 'included in their large Pantheon the three leading gods Anu, Bel, and Hea, a trinity representing the deity under a threefold aspect-Anu, the god of heaven and father of the gods; Bel, the god of the earth; and Hea, the god of the ocean and of the forces of nature;d though the heathen confusion and arbitrariness are manifested in the fact that subsequently Bel was raised from the second to the first rank. I need not remind you that the Egyptians, besides cherishing a primitive monotheism, entertained no less clearly the idea of a divine trias, which appears under the most varied forms, and that, as one old document

declares, "Three were the beginning of the gods—Amon, Ra, and Ptah", or Amon, Ptah, and Kneph, that is, God the Father, the Creator or Logos, and the Divine Spirit. a Moreover'...

'What is, I ask again', interrupted Attinghausen impatiently, 'the nature of the Chinese Trinity'?

а

'Well', resumed Gregovius placidly, 'Confucius teaches: "Only the saint, who has on earth received the knowledge of eternal truth, obtains the faculty of comprehending his Divine nature in its innermost depths; but if he has gained that faculty, he will also be able to comprehend the Divine nature of mankind in general and to penetrate into the true character of all creatures. When he has advanced to this stage, he acquires the power of assisting heaven and earth in their glorious and all-beneficent works; and then he may be said to form, together with heaven and earth, the Trinity".b

'Hence the Trinity of Confucius consists of the transcendental Deity who is enthroned in heaven and has created the world; the immanent Deity who appears visible or rules on earth and in nature; and the holy ideal of human dignity and perfection'.

'I am somewhat relieved', said Attinghausen; 'it is at least not more abstruse than might be expected in any venturesome roamings into the visionary realms of transcendency and immanency'.c

'Confucius could not essentially err', said Melville, 'as he was thoroughly imbued with the principles of a sound pantheism, which constitutes his strongest affinity with Spinoza. I do not remember his exact words, but pantheistic ideas pervade all his profounder writings'.

'True', said Subbhuti with zeal; 'in a remarkable passage of the Tchong-yong he says:

"As the numberless beings that grow up on the earth simultaneously without injuring or disturbing one another, have their prototypes in the heavenly bodies which simultaneously move in their orbits without ever being brought into confusion, so also the power and virtue inherent in the creatures are emanations from the superabundance of the one mighty power and virtue by which all is created,

endowed with life, and led onward towards its final purpose. And it is this that invests heaven and earth with an aspect so truly sublime"".a

"This is indeed your dear Pantheism', said Attinghausen, 'refulgent in the roseate hues of your no less dear Optimism, though distorted by the Procrustean principle of design'.

'We may well overlook the one theoretical mistake', rejoined Melville; 'for in a life of eager action the sage of Confucius preserves purity and tastes constant joy. "Penetrating into his heart with a searching eye, he finds nothing that can cause him pain or grief, for he feels himself free from all baseness in his pursuits, aspirations and intentions". He needs neither blush before himself nor others, for he is true in word and deed. He is fortified by the inspiring thought that he is one with Sublime Truth, the incomparable Tao of heaven and earth, which, uncreated and imperishable, is unfathomable and infinite in majesty and wisdom, itself unchangeable yet the cause of all change, the Source and Preserver of all beings." The Tao is the jewel he carries in his bosom from his birth; he has the duty to preserve it in its brilliancy and to make it shine in all the radiance of its light and beauty, so as to illumine his own soul and to warm the hearts of his fellow-men. If he succeeds, his Tao becomes the celestial virtue, the ming-te, which strives to bestow upon all mankind peace, righteousness and felicity; and he has gained the road to the highest perfection. Beautiful goal, transforming earth into heaven'!

No one felt inclined to speak after these earnest words, to which Melville's manner imparted a religious solemnity, and which seemed so well to reflect the ethical elevation of his own noble Pantheism; and as the hour was unusually late, the friends dispersed soon afterwards, Wolfram alone remaining for some time longer in close conversation with the host.

EE

X. PESSIMISM.

WHEN the company met again the next evening, it was long before they were able to collect their thoughts for a systematic discussion. That morning's papers had reported a whole budget of terrible catastrophes-a colliery explosion in the north of England, a railway accident in the Midland Counties, and a tornado in the East, all attended with a frightful loss of life. Attinghausen seemed, therefore, to be in harmony with the prevailing mood, when he said in a lugubrious tone of voice:

'Alas, alas, we poor mortals! We ever remain the sport of blind chance and cruel elements. But this is not the worst. We appear to be doomed to the hopeless lot of the Danaids: the sieve of our knowledge is being constantly filled, yet it is never full. Errors that were deemed to have been thoroughly uprooted, grow up again with a ranker luxuriance, though perhaps in a modified form; and we have to begin anew the old weary round of toilsome labour'.

'I wonder', said Berghorn tartly, 'what this dreary threnody portends, and what doleful idea it is meant to herald'.

'I cannot help', continued Attinghausen with the same melancholy, which he made comical efforts to sustain, 'I cannot help deploring the wilfulness of men who, undeterred by the luckless fate of a host of Icarian adventurers, persist in reckless flights into the impalpable ether of metaphysics, and thereby threaten to consign even our fine and healthy Pessimism to a fathomless grave'.