statements as these admit, unfortunately, of rhetorical support,
sufficient to convince outsiders that at any rate there are two sides
to the question, a conviction which could only be effectually
dispelled by placing before them a few thousand volumes translated
into English, and chosen by the writer of the article himself.[*]
When, however, our enthusiast deals with more realisable facts, and
says that in China "there is no organised book trade, nor publishers'
circulars, nor Quaritch's Catalogues, nor any other catalogues whether
of old or new books for sale," we can assure him he knows nothing at
all about the matter; that there is now lying on our table a very
comprehensive list of new editions of standard works lately published
at a large book-shop in Wu-chang Fu, with the price of each work
attached; and that Mr Wylie, in his "Notes on Chinese Literature,"
devotes five entire pages to the enumeration of some thirty well-known
and voluminous catalogues of ancient and modern works.

[*] Baron Johannes von Gumpach. Died at Shanghai, 31st July 1875.




EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE

A ramble through a native town in China must often have discovered to
the observant foreigner small collections of second-hand books and
pamphlets displayed on some umbrella-shaded stall, or arranged less
pretentiously on the door-step of a temple. If innocent of all claims
to a knowledge of the written language, he may take them for cheap
editions of Confucius, with which literary chair-coolies are wont to
solace their leisure hours; at the worst, some of these myriad novels