ions, he thinks, argues the possibility of a future agreement as to the intellectual grounds for placing the boundaries as they are; and he proceeds to indicate the character of those grounds as they appear to him. Agassiz was peculiarly fitted for this work; not only by his marvellous knowledge of details, in which he was the peer of Darwin, but by his breadth of philosophical views, in which he was far superior, as it seems to me, to any of his noted contemporaries. In the university he had passed, with honor, a searching examination on the philosophy of Plato, learned from Plato's untranslated writings; and this had qualified him for these higher walks of his own specialty. Deficient in sharpness of self-conscious psychological observation, he was pre-eminent in quickness and accuracy of external sense; and pre-eminent in the rapidity, breadth, and soundness of his generalizations from external observation. His principles, in the form laid down in the Essay on Classification, may not stand the test of a careful comparison with facts, but they will, at some day, be slightly modified and reannounced by some grateful student; and will then stand the test. For their final vindication they will require a mathematical enunciation. This has been the destiny of other physical sciences; and the analogy of the physical sciences leads us to suppose that it must be the goal of biology also. The vagueness of arbitrary variation and survival of the fittest is a poetical dream; it must give way to the intellectual, scientific sternness of invariable law bounded by invariable conditions. As the four primitive forms of the embryo flow from necessary mechanical conditions, inflexible as the law of equilibrium in arches, so the classes, the orders, families, and genera are doubtless formed by the operation of sharply defined conditions, sharply defined in nature, although not yet defined in human thought. - Such seems to me to be the teaching of the history of the inductive sciences; and such the instinctive faith of the most truly scientific and courageous naturalists and mathematicians. The geometer will not willingly relinquish the hope of great triumphs in the future; when the new methods of the nineteenth century shall be as faithfully applied to the problems of organic form, as the methods of the seventeenth have been to those of inorganic matter. If the naturalists retreat at the sound of the Darwinian bugle, and the trumpet of Agassiz fails to rally them, the mathematicians will press forward and win the field. It is scarcely necessary to say to readers of the Bibliotheca Sacra that, with faith in the wisdom and truth of the Creator, to re-enforce geometric and scientific instinct, it becomes still more evident that the rhythm and symmetry of the organic kingdoms is not the result of accidental arrests and erasures in the remains of an insensibly slow variation. I have heard a deluded girl drum upon the piano, infatuated with the belief that she was possessed by the spirit of the mighty Beethoven; but in that monotonous succession of the simplest chords there was no rhythm in the higher sense; nothing to indicate the presence of any but the feeblest intellect, and the most uncultivated taste. I have, on the other hand, heard an indifferently trained orchestra play, I knew not what, except as the sounds themselves told me, and I instantly recognized the work as the work of a great mind and a noble heart. The rhythm and harmony of the organic world reveal the power, the wisdom, the love, of an infinite God. Even the system of Darwin, if it can be called a system, admits, by its doctrine of the survival of the fittest, the fact that each creature is, in general, fittest for the place it occupies; and only endeavors, with strange inconsistence, to show here and there a maladaptation. It is in poor taste, and less wisdom; it is worse than it would be for some sciolist in music to attempt to show that Bach's music did not come from a master mind, because here and there a passing note is introduced in a melody without connection with the funda mental harmony. It is better for the young student in music to assume in all his studies that Bach was a profound master, and that his works are the best models for harmonic effects. And so long as man is less than the universe in which he dwells he may safely assume that all is well and wisely put; and that it is his wisest and best course of study to seek everywhere, in every department of nature, not for discords and maladaptions, but for harmonies, correlations, adaptations. The universe is the sum of all symmetries, and contains all geometries, architectures, sculptures, and pictorial arts. It is the sum of all rhythms, melodic or harmonic, and contains all algebra, poetry, music, and dance. The divine Word which created it is wisdom and love, and manifests wisdom and love in every syllable and tone in which it utters itself; not least in the wondrous series of the forms of plants and animals, swaying in the responsive rhythm of growth and decay, sleep and activity, generation and succession, to the periodic march of the planets, the moon, and the sun. ARTICLE VII. THE CONTROVERSY AMONG THE PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES ON THE PROPER TRANSLATION OF THE WORDS GOD AND SPIRIT INTO CHINESE. BY S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN YALE COLLEGE. The following list enumerates the principal pamphlets and articles on this discussion which have been written by Protestants: An Essay on the proper rendering of the words Elohim and Theos into the Chinese Language. By William J. Boone, D.D. pp. 69. Canton. 1848. Defense of an Essay on the proper rendering, etc. By William J. Boone, D.D., Missionary Bishop. pp. 169. Canton. 1850. Remarks on the best Term for God in Chinese; also on the proper Basis of Compromise on this subject. By Rev. L. B. Peet of Fuhchau. pp. 31. Canton. 1852. Shin vs. Shangti. A review of the Controversy and Statement of the Evidence, etc. By a Life Member of the Bible Society [Rev. Jacob Tomlin, of the L. M. S. Mission at Malacca]. pp. 20. London. 1854. Letter from the Bishop of Victoria on the Chinese Version of the Holy Scriptures, to T. W. Meller, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. pp. 26. Hongkong. 1851. Report on the Chinese Version, presented to and adopted by the Directors of the American Bible Society. Signed by S. H. Turner and R. S. Storrs, Jr. pp. 4. New York. 1850. The Term Question; an Inquiry as to the Term in Chinese which most nearly represents Elohim and Theos, etc. By W. A. Russell, D.D., Missionary Bishop. pp. 47. Shanghai. 1877. The Chinese Term for God. A letter to the Protestant Missionaries of China. By J. S. Burdon, Bishop of Victoria. pp. 17. Hongkong. 1877. Another was addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The above are the leading pamphlets in favor of Shin as the translation of Elohim. Besides them, the Chinese Repository, Missionary Recorder, and China Review, periodicals printed at Canton, Shanghai, and Hongkong during the last thirty years, contain other articles on both sides. The following list contains the leading pamphlets in favor of Shangti as the proper word for God in Chinese. An Inquiry into the proper Mode of rendering the word God into the Chinese Language. By W. H. Medhurst. pp. 170. Shanghai. 1848. Letter to the Protestant Missionaries laboring in China (proposing the transfer of Aloah as a rendering of Elohim and Theos). By W. H. Medhurst, and five others. pp. 22. Shanghai. 1850. On the true Meaning of the word Shin as exhibited in the Imperial Thesaurus. By W. H. Medhurst. pp. 88. 1850. Inquiry into the proper Mode of translating Ruach and Pneuma into Chinese. By W. H. Medhurst. pp. 75. 1851. Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese, etc. By W. H. Medhurst. pp. 280. Shanghai. 1847. An Inquiry as to the proper Mode of rendering the word God into Chinese, etc. By Sir George T. Staunton, Bart. pp. 67. London. 1849. Argument for Shangti as the proper Rendering of Elohim and Theos into the Chinese Language. By J. Legge, D.D. pp. 73. Hongkong. 1850. Letters on the Rendering of the name God in Chinese. By James Legge, D.D. Hongkong. 1850. Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits, etc. By James Thoughts on the Term proper for Translating Elohim and Theos in Chinese. Teachings of Experience in the use of Terms for God at Foochow. By Who is God in China, Shin or Shangti? By Rev. S. C. Malan of Baliol College, Oxford. pp. 310. London. 1855. THE discussion which has been going on among the Protestant missionaries in China, respecting the most suitable words in the Chinese language to translate the Scriptural terms for God, god, and spirit, has probably attracted the notice of those persons in this country who are interested in the progress of missions among that people. It is in many respects a most important discussion, and well deserves careful inquiry by those who like to know the details and results of the mission work in that empire. I do not know that any full account has been published for the information of such persons in this country, and a summary of the leading |