storian Inscription in China.[29]

In 1625 some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a
house, outside the walls of the city of Si-ngau-Fou, the capital of the
province of Chen-si, found buried in the earth a large monumental stone
resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to
preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and
illustrious men. It was a dark-colored marble tablet, ten feet high and
five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese,
and also some other characters quite unknown in China.

* * * * *

Several exact tracings from the stone were sent to Europe by the
Jesuits who saw it. The library of their house at Rome had one of the
first, and it attracted numerous visitors; subsequently, another
authentic copy of the dimensions of the tablet was sent to Paris, and
deposited at the library in the Rue Richelieu, where it may still be
seen in the gallery of manuscripts.

This monument, discovered by chance amidst rubbish in the environs of
an ancient capital of the Chinese Empire, excited a great sensation;
for on examining the stone, and endeavoring to interpret the
inscription, it was with surprise discovered that the Christian
religion had had numerous apostles in China at the beginning of the
seventh century, and that it had for a long time flourished there. The
strange characters proved to be those called _estrangelhos_, which were
in use among the ancient inhabitants of Syria, and will be found in
some Syriac manuscripts of earlier date than the eighth century.

* * * * *

_Monument of the great Propagation of the Luminous Doctrine in the
Central Empire, composed by Khing-Tsing, a devout Man of the Temple of
Ta-Thsin._

1. There has always been only one true Cause, essentially the first,
and without beginning, supremely intelligent and immaterial;
essentially the last, and uniting all perfections. He placed the poles
of the heavens and created all beings; marvellously holy, he is the
source of all perfection. This admirable being, is he not the _Triune_,
the true Lord without beginning, _Oloho_?

He divided the world by a cross into four parts. After having
decomposed the primordial air, he gave birth to the two elements.

Chaos was transformed, and then the su