dispenses to them. The sole idea in which this astonishing system rests,
is that of the State, whose office is to care for all that can contribute
to the public good, and which regulates the action of every individual
with a view to this end. In his organization, Tscheu-Kong excelled every
thing that the most centralized governments of Europe have devised.

The Tscheu family remained in power for five centuries, and was finally
broken down by the feudal element they had preserved. But so deep was the
impress of Tscheu-Kong upon the nation, that after centuries of
revolutions and civil war, it returned to his institutions and principles,
and it is by them and in a great degree in their exact forms, that China
is now governed.

In form the _Tscheu-li_ is like an imperial almanac of our own times. It
is, however, much more complete, because Tscheu-Kong gives in it a mass of
detailed instructions, in order to make the officials aware of their
duties and the precise limits of their authority. Thus the work affords a
quite exact picture of the social condition of China at that time. There
is no other monument of antiquity with which it can be compared, except
the _Manus_, the Indian book of law. The difference is, that in China the
intellectual activity was altogether political, and the public
organization altogether imperial and political; while in India the mental
activity was metaphysical, and the public organization altogether
municipal.

The translation of the _Tscheu_ was not published till after M. Biot's
decease; it was brought out by his father, with the assistance of M.
Stanislas Julien.

The library of the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti is about to be sold, and the
catalogue is already printed--in Italian, of course. It is one of the most
extensive and valuable collection of works in various languages ever made,
and it is to be hoped that it may not be disposed of at the sale, but pass
all together into some public library--that of some university would be
most appropriate. To indicate the contents of the catalogue, we give the
titles of the different parts: Books in Albanian or Epirotic, Arabic,
Armenian, American (Indian dialects of Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru,
United States), Bohemian, Chaldaic, Chinese (Cochin-Chinese, Trin-Chinese,
Japanese), Danish (Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Laplandic), Hebrew
(Antique, Rabbinic, Samaritan), Egyptian, or Coptic-Egyptian and Coptic,
Arabic, Etrusean, Phoenician