CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Life and Teachings of Confucius. By James Legge, D.D. (Triibner.)—This volume, the work of a well known Chinese scholar, gives us a most complete and, as far as we can judge, most trustworthy account of Confucius and his philosophy. It contains a notice of the Chinese classics generally, and a more particular account of the works which are attributed to his authorship, or are supposed to contain the tradition of his teaching. Dr. Legge attributes both the Analects and the Great Learning to the fourth century-, and consequently to schools which were separated by more than one generation from the " master " himself. This does not, of course, hinder them from containing much of his genuine teaching, and sometimes, it may well be, his ipsissima verba. With regard to the Doctrine of the Mean, he adopts the general opinion of the native scholars, and attributes it to K'ung Keil; the grandson of Confucius, a sage whose life pretty nearly coincides with the fifth century B.C. This date synchronizes sufficiently with that of Aristotle, who makes the same idea the basis of his ethical philosophy, to constitute a curious instance of the simultaneous independent move- ments of the human mind. Besides these Prolegomena we have a very full life of Confucius, and a translation of the three works which have been mentioned, illustrated and explained by a continuous commentary. A good index completes the work. Dr. Legge has made himself thoroughly acquainted with his subject, which indeed he has had opportunities of studying such as come in the way of few mon. We. heartily recommend to our readers his volume, which has the additional advantage of being of a most reasonable size.
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