Ldo - Tsze, the Great Thinker. By Major-General G. G. Alexander. (Kegan
Paul, Trench, and Co.)—General Alexander has followed up his excellent book on " Confucius, the Great Teacher " with a, companion volume. It has been a very different task, for while the personality of Confucius is distinct, Lilo-Tsze is little more than a name. Hence the writer's real work has been to give as nearly an equivalent as English modes of thought allow, of the book which has given the Chinese sage the title of the " Thinker." This was not easy. The translator is met with a great initial difficulty in rendering the very title of the work. Is "Tai,," in the expression " Tab-fih-King," to be represented by the word " God," or should it be left to stand as it is ? General Alexander has taken the first alternative, giving the whole as " Thoughts on the Nature and Manifestation of God ;" but he differs therein from the majority of his predecessors. One of these avows, how- ever, that but for the fear of seaming to prejudge a. great question, he would render Tao by " Word" in the Johannine use of Logos. It deepens our interest in Lao-Tsze if we can regard him as a reformer who would have brought back the thoughts of his countrymen to a simpler and nobler Theistic creed than they possessed.
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