ture such as history, laws, government, commerce, botany, zoology, medicine, education, philosophy, and religion,which for size and cheapness stand unrivalled in the great mart of letters. We might exemplify this by many notices culled from their advertising sheets. If price be the question, we might single out the works of Confucius, with the comments of Choo-foo-tze, comprising six volumes, and amounting to 400 leaves octavo, which can be purchased for ninepence. Or, if another instance be needed, we may adduce the Historical Novel of the Three Kingdoms, amounting to 1,500 leaves, in twenty volumes, which may be obtained at the small charge of half-a-crown. If magnitude be considered, in this also they are far before the most literary of all European nations. On medicine, there exists one work of forty volumes, entitled 'A Golden Mirror of Medical Practice,' which was compiled nearly a century ago.-On Biography there is a modern work of 120 volumes.-On Statistics there is a Gazetteer of 240 volumes, which gives a detailed account of the Population, Geography, and Revenues of China Proper.-On Jurisprudence there is a Book of Law, comprising 261 volumes,but the most surprising of all, is a work, the subject of which has escaped our memory, which numbers no less than 3,000 volumes!

The golden age of Chinese Literature occurred under the dynasties of Tcheou, Han, Tang, Song and Ming. Under the Liang dynasty, the Imperial Library contained 370,000 volumes. Among the writings of antiquity, the most prized and celebrated are the records of the early traditions of the country, compiled by Confucius; the History of His Own Times, B. C. 720, by that eminent sage, and The Four Books,' in which is given, by some of his admiring disciples, a continuous history of his maxims, doctrines, and doings.

A little more than 200 years before the christian era, and about 300 after the death of that distinguished, though heathen, philosopher, a most audacious and fierce attempt was made by the Emperor of the Tsin dynasty, to destroy these valuable mementos of the early epochs of the empire. Having conceived the insane idea of establishing a dynasty, which should extend from the beginning of time to the end of it, She-wang-te, by decree collected and burned all the records of previous ages, and buried alive four hundred and sixty learned men, wishing to make posterity believe that the dominion of the world commenced

with himself, the First Universal Emperor of China. The object of obliterating all remembrances of antiquity was, however, defeated by the subsequent discovery of the books of Confucius in the wainscot of an old house, yet they were much injured, and, in many parts, defective, which has greatly detracted from the integrity, intelligibility, and, in the opinion of some, from the credibility of the whole.' Descending from that remote era of the land of sages' to one more modern, we find that about 1780, the Emperor, Kien-Lung, formed the plan of printing a complete collection of the best works in the Chinese language. To include them all, it was calculated that the number of volumes would amount to six hundred thousand. Works previously known were to be reprinted, and manuscripts unpublished, existing in different parts of the empire, were to be obtained from their owners, and after transcription, to be faithfully returned. The collection was commenced, and continued until it exceeded one hundred and sixty thousand volumes, when the undertaking was given up as impracticable.

On inspecting the present condition of Chinese Literature, it would not be hazarding too much to affirm that there are more books and more people to read them in China than in any other country. These modern books, however,' writes a contributor to the Indo Chinese Gleaner, 'indicate no effort of the human intellect to enlarge the sphere of knowledge; they are mostly voluminous compilations made in obedience to the commands of the sovereign, or the collectanea of industrious individuals; they are the production of the HAND, rather than of the MIND. The Authors have little more merit than that of being laborious transcribers.' Nor is this thirst for knowledge and taste for reading to be wondered at, as education in China is made as general as possible,-I mean the education of the male population,-for woman is there treated as 'a soulless being, notwithstanding the exhortation of a distinguished Philosopher to husbands not to desist from teaching them, for even monkeys,' he adds, may be taught to play antics, dogs may be taught to tread a mill; rats may be taught to run round a cylinder; and parrots may be taught to understand human affairs, how much more so may young wives, who, after all, are human beings!'-Education in China we have remarked is made as general as possible, -being strongly inculcated by the sacred maxims of their ancestors, encouraged by government in order to pluck out true talent' from the mass of the community for its

own service, and established as the very threshold of that gate which conducts to fame, honour, and civil office. From the earliest ages, attention seems to have been paid by the Legislators of China to the mental improvement of 'the flowery nation,' for in a work extant before the dawn of the christian era, we read of the ancient system of instruction; thus our thoughts wander back to a distant epoch in the annals of Chinese history, and in the sacred edict of the Emperor, Kang-he,-a translation of which we have before us, he observes, from of old, families, villages, districts, and provinces had their respective schools, and every person had the means of instruction within his reach. As there were certain fixed schools; so there were also tutors to instruct and guide the pupils; and hence a large number of illustrious characters was produced, and morals were greatly improved. The artful became honest; the ignorant, intelligent; the daring, mild; and the cowardly, spirited. Under the power of this renovating instruction, the various classes of the people in the empire were reduced to the law of uniformity. From these things it may be inferred, that Education cannot on any account be dispensed with; compared with food and clothing, it is vastly more important!' -How just and enlightened are these sentiments of this Monarch on the great subject of National Education, but what is the best contrived scheme for tutoring a people which acknowledges not God?-which does not furnish the enquirer with right conceptions of His Being and Government, of the Soul, of Eternity? Happily China is now open, and under the faithful instructions of our Christian Evangelists, labouring amongst a nation thirsting for information,-what may we not expect?

A STARTLING FACT.

An American Statistical work states that the number of persons who have lived upon the earth is about 27,000,000,000,000,000, or 27 quadrillions. This number divided by 27,864,000, the number of square miles of land, gives 1,314,522,076 to each square mile, and 1283 to each square rod. If a square rod will furnish 12 graves, it follows that each grave must have held 100 persons, so that the whole surface of the earth must have been dug over one hundred times, supposing the bodies to have been equally distributed. Were the bodies laid upon the surface of the land, they would cover it to the height of many feet. What a rebuke to pride and ambition!

REVIVAL IN THE SABBATH SCHOOL AT CHARLINCH.

(Continued from p. 55.)

It may not be amiss to mention here what we mean by converted. By this term we do not signify such as are anxiously concerned about their souls, diligent in their attendance on the means of grace, and reformed in their outward character. We did not consider the most sincere concern about salvation an evidence of conversion, but only of conviction: nor did we regard a diligent attendance on the means of grace by those who had before neglected them, an evidence of conversion, but only of awakening: and in the same light we viewed an amendment of life outwardly, not as a token of conversion, but of sincerity in seeking. All these signs accompanied every instance of conversion, and, without them, of course, we could not have received the parties as converted; but we never looked upon them as sufficient proofs in themselves of conversion. There may be very great concern about the soul, without any real dependence upon Christ; and the individual concerned may even draw back unto perdition: we saw many such. There may be the most diligent attendance on the means of grace, and yet no worshipping of God in the Spirit: we saw much of this, too. There may be the most decided amendment of life outwardly, and no real change of heart inwardly; we saw such as these, also. No, we draw a very broad line of distinction between the awakened and the converted; and we regard this distinction as important in the highest degree. By the awakened we mean those who are anxiously concerned about their souls, diligent in their attendance on the means of grace, and reformed in their outward life by the converted we signify those who, in addition to all these things, had been stripped of all dependence on them, and brought, as utterly ruined and undone sinners, to the cross of Christ for refuge, Matt. xi. 28; those who had really received Christ into their hearts, and, by faith in His blood, had obtained peace with God, Rom. v. 1; those who walked in the light even as he is in the light, and whose fellowship was with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, 1 John i. 7; in a word, those who were 'in Christ,' and so 'new creatures.' 2 Cor. v. 17.

The total number of those who have been fully received as converted, is 102. Of these, we have had reason to doubt the soundness of the conversion in but three cases! two, however, have been put out of fellowship with us, and three

have died rejoicing in the Lord; the rest are walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost; a few of them not very spiritually-minded, most of them with their affections really set on things above, many of them bringing forth much fruit, showing forth the virtues of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light.

The minister examined very closely into the grounds upon which the young people were resting for salvation; lest they should be deceiving themselves. His principal object was to discover whether the peace they professed to have found, proceeded from faith in Christ; or whether it had been produced by some subtle acting of a self-righteous spirit, leading them to depend unconsciously on any change in their feelings, their being able to pray better, or any impression made on their imagination. Of a case of delusion of the last description, the most remarkable was that of C. C., an intelligent boy, ten years old. He stated to the minister, that he had been made to feel his sins seven or eight days before, in the school, that he had ever since felt the weight of his sins, the fear of God's wrath, how hard his heart was, and how far he was from God, and that all this made him pray a good deal, but that he was told by one of the believing children, that, all this would not do, and that he could not be saved if he did not believe on Jesus Christ.' This made him feel his sins still more: on the same evening, however, he had a light come into his mind, when he saw the figure of a cross, with Christ upon it, and the blood flowing out of His side: on the following day when at the lecture, he saw the same again, when all his sins went away; he felt quite happy, was sure his sins were forgiven, and that he should go to heaven if he died. The poor boy told all this with great simplicity, and appeared to have no doubt that he was a true believer, and a child of God. It was clear enough, however, that this was merely an impression made on the imagination, and that the boy was in reality depending not on Christ, but on his own impression; in fact, he had not been previously brought to a state of hopelessness and self-despair, nor taken off a trust in his own righteousness; he was evidently building on a false foundation. When the real character of his experience was pointed out, and he was shown that it was a delusion from the enemy, it caused him some trouble; but he said he would go home, and ask God to show it to him.

When the Spirit works chiefly on the understanding,