igh
position which he occupied," and continuing with unstinted praise of the
early rulers. His oration, which showed much more erudition than
discretion, ended by advocating a reversal of the emperor's action, and
a redivision of the empire into feudal principalities.

Hoangti, hot with anger, curtly reminded the speaker that that point was
not open to discussion, it having already been considered and decided.
He then called on Lisseh, his minister, to state again the reasons for
the unity of the empire. The speech of the minister is one of high
importance, as giving the ostensible reasons for the unexampled act of
destruction by which it was followed.

"It must be admitted," he said, "after what we have just heard, that men
of letters are, as a rule, very little acquainted with what concerns the
government of a country,--not that government of pure speculation, which
is nothing more than a phantom, vanishing the nearer we approach to it,
but the practical government which consists in keeping men within the
sphere of their practical duties. With all their pretence of knowledge,
they are, in this matter, densely ignorant. They can tell you by heart
everything which has happened in the past, back to the most remote
period, but they are, or seem to be, ignorant of what is being done in
these later days, of what is passing under their very eyes. Incapable of
discerning that the thing which was formerly suitable would be wholly
out of place to-day, they would have everything arranged in exact
imitation of what they find written in their books."

He went on to denounce the men of learning as a class uninfluenced by
the spirit of existing affairs and as enemies of the public weal, and
concluded by saying, "Now or never is the time to close the mouths of
these secret enemies, to place a curb upon their audacity."

He spoke the sentiments of the emperor, who had probably already
determined upon his course of action. Having no regard for books
himself, and looking upon them as the weapons of his banded foes, he
issued the memorable order that all the books of the empire should be
destroyed, making exception only of those that treated of medicine,
agriculture, architecture, and astronomy. The order included the works
of the great Confucius, who had edited and condensed the more ancient
books of the empire, and of his noble disciple Mencius, and was of the
most tyrannical and oppressive character. All books containing
historica