whom I had the honour of being introduced at Tientsin), the founder of the first arsenal on a foreign type in China, and the companion in arms of Colonel Gordon and Tseng-kwo-fan. Per- sonally Le is tall, resolute and calm, and altogether a fine speci- men of his race. Perhaps he entertains an exaggerated belief in the capabilities of his nation ; but at the same time he is deeply conscious of the power of Western kingdoms, and apparently desires to fathom the secrets of their superiority. On one occasion, when filled with admiration of the beauty and genius displayed in a piece of foreign mechanism, he exclaimed, *'How wonderful! how comes it that such inventions and discoveries are always foreign? It must be something different in the con- stitution of our minds that causes us to remain as we were. " But after all, perhaps he may have intended to compliment his auditors, rather than to give genuine expression to his opinions. He probably knows that for untold centuries there has been little or no opportunity for the development of genius in China. The light of truth has been sought for only in the dark pages of past history; and the Chinese, in their efforts to attain to the perfection of their mythical kings and of the maxims em- bodied in their classics, have set up an inquisition which perforce suppresses originality and uproots invention like a noxious weed. We are now at the grand cenotaph; but after all, what is there in its massive proportions, its grotesque sculptures, its golden crown and its shady groves of cypress and pine that will compare in interest with the daily life and aspirations of the meanest coolie who here comes to gaze with reverent awe and to place his simple votive offering before the temple shrine ! The story of this building is a short one. The broad white marble base which gleams in the sunlight covers the relics of a Mongol Lama who was esteemed an incarnate Buddha. Yonder
