foundation in their schools. a crisis fraught with difficulties and the country is most urgently in want of men of talents and abilities (of the modern sort). Owing to the fact that, of late, modern methods of education have been daily on the increase amongst us, we repeatedly issued our commands to all our viceroys and governors of provinces to lose no time in establishing modern schools of learning in such number that every member of this empire may have the means of going there to study and learn something substantial, in order to prepare himself to be of use to his country. We have indeed thought deeply on this subject.

Just now we are passing through

On a former occasion the Ministers of Education memorialised us, suggesting that the old style of literary examinations should be gradually abolished by extending by three times the period for them. Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai in his present Memorial, however, asserts that unless these old-style examinations be abolished once for all, the people of this Empire will continue to show apathy and hesitate to join the modern schools of learning. Hence if we desire to see the spread of modern education by the establishment of a number of schools, we must first abolish the old style of studying for the examinations. The said memoralist's arguments on the subject show the result of experience and knowledge, and we, therefore, hereby command that, beginning from the Ping-Wu Cycle (1906), all competitive examinations for the literary degree of Kü-jen and Tsing-shih (Master of Arts and Doctor) after the old style shall be henceforth abolished, while the annual competitions in the cities of the various provinces for the Hsiutsai (Bachelor of Arts) or licentiate degree are also to be abolished at once. Those possessors of literary grade of the old style Kü-jen and Hsiuts-ai who obtained their degrees prior to the issuance of this decree shall be given opportunities to take up official rank according to their respective grades and abilities. We also approve of the other suggestions made by the said Viceroy in his Memorial on the above subject and command that they shall be put into force as proposed. In a word, the methods and aims of our modern schools of learning have the same force as the ancient form of selection of men for office from the schools, as mentioned above, and the methods of rewards in rank and degrees are the same as those hitherto obtained by the old style of

literary competitions. The regulations and rules for the various modern schools of learning and their various branches of studies have for their aims the attainment of substantial and practical knowledge. We are certain that the official classes and gentry throughout the Empire, on learning of this will enthusiastically set about to start as many schools as possible, and thus give the blessings of modern education to every subject of the Throne. The Government being thus enabled to obtain men of talents and abilities, it follows that the cities and towns producing such bright lights of learning will also enjoy a reflected honor therefrom. We hereby further command our Ministers of Education on receiving this our Imperial Decree, to lose no time in distributing at once to the various provinces the text-books for schools that have been prepared, so that we may have a uniform system of teaching in all our schools. We also command our viceroys and governors to insist that their subordinates, the prefects, sub-prefects, and district magistrates, shall make haste to establish primary schools in all the towns, hamlets, and villages within their respective jurisdictions, and that the utmost care be taken to select intelligent teachers for them, so that the minds of all our subjects be open for the reception of modern knowledge. Let all our officials be earnest and diligent in obeying these our commands and let there be no lagging and carelessness, so as to avoid faults and mistakes in the administration of these schools. Let no one fail in deserving the confidence we have placed in each.

The above was followed on September 11th by another Imperial Edict which ordered that the provincial literary chancellors who formerly conducted the competitive examinations should spend their time in promoting schools, and that they should be responsible to the Department of Education, and not as formerly, to the Board of Rites.

It would be easy to show how much more carefully thought. out are the above memorial and imperial edict than the hasty ones prepared by Kang Yu Wei in June, 1898. It was nothing short of a revolution in 1898, which would have shaken the stability of the empire to its foundation. In 1905, it was the cul

mination of a process in which public opinion had begun to catch up with existing facts. One is forced to the conclusion that the delay of seven years in the abolition of the system has been for the good of China.

One curious fact about the abolition of the examination system is that a vast literature which had grown up around the standard essay (the eight-legged essay) is rendered valueless, and hundred of bookstores have been left with large stocks of books which can never be sold. It must be said that this literature was per se of no value, and that the philosophy, history, politics, and religion of China lose nothing by its vanishing.

An Assyrian Grammatical Treatise on an Omen Tablet; C. T. 20, pp. 39-42.-By STEPHEN LANGDON, Columbia University, New York City.

ON page 43 of Raw. II was published under No. I what has been supposed to be a list of synonyms. It has been so taken by Delitzsch and Muss-Arnolt in their dictionaries, and by Meissner in his Supplement. The text has been republished by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson, M.A., in C. T. 20, pp. 39-42, as K. 2235, with variants of K. 4416, K. 4585 B, Rm. 2, 466 and Bu. 89-4-26, 168, with a small fragment of a Babylonian variant K. 4432 (Plate 41, margin). From a variant reading by Bu. 89-4-26, 168 we know that the series to which this tablet belongs was called summa mul-ta-bil-tum, and that it is the first tablet of the series. It is to be regretted, in view of our imperfect knowledge of this series, that Mr. Thompson did not publish the texts K. 6292 and D.T. 49, which belong to it.

The tablet is arranged, obverse and reverse, in three columns. The lines of the third column commence with summa, which indicates at once that we have here an omen tablet. The catchline at the end, rev. 33, šumma kakki-šu Šu-Ru šakin imitti Si kakku šulmu [[]]]]] niš kakka ilabbiši “if its arm places a Su-Ru at the right of its Si, arms, success in? he shall put on arms," shows that the tablet contains a list of presages taken over some organ of an animal, the liver, kidneys, stomach or intestines.

When the organ, over which the seer was about to take his omens, was placed before him ready for inspection, he began to observe its movements and the figures made by its parts. The tablets of the class to which the present specimen belongs give long lists of results which would follow upon certain phenomena. For example, choose any of the rules for saying omens over the stomach in the so-called Gar-Tab series, C. T. 20, 31 ff. I choose here for the sake of illustration the third rule, line 4.

Summa Gar-Tab imitti u šuméli ana šaplánu mitḥariš kapșat-ma Gir ina libbi-ša šakin rubú matsu ibbalkatsu. "If the

stomach on the right and left folds itself downward equally on each side and the Gir is placed within it-the land of the prince will rebel against him." Compare also the long list of rules for taking omens from mixing oil in water, edited by Hunger, Becherwahrsagung, Leipziger Semitistische Studien, Band I, Heft 1.

These rules consist of a protasis and an apodosis.. The scribe who composed K. 2235 has analyzed a tablet of such sentences in a most curious way. For column I, he has extracted the salient feature of the conditional clause, and for column II the salient feature of the result clause. Then for column III he has given the whole rule from which he has made his extract, or an abbreviated copy of it. Thus, suppose I should desire to make such an extract and arrangement from the above cited Gar-Tab omen, it might take the form:

Col. I

Col. II

Col. III

kapṣatum, nabalkattu, šumma ana šaplánu kapṣat |

rubu matsu.ibbalkatsu.

That is, I choose the verb kapsat, fem. perm. of kapáṣu, as the salient phenomenon of the omen, and make an abstract noun of it by adding tu. This I put in col. I. In turn, for col. II, I make an abstract of ibbalkat, and give a résumé for col. III. Thus I say: Folding-Rebellion, or Folding means Rebellion, and then give an illustration.

Inasmuch as the Assyrians and Babylonians delighted to play on words, we frequently find a pun between condition and conclusion. For example, zakáru means 'be high,' and zakáru to 'mention. A pun would then be made by giving the following omen: šumma réš Na zu-kur šum rubí izzakir "If the top of the Na be raised, the name of the prince will be glorified." From such an omen one could make, by choosing the two verbs, two nouns with exactly the same sound but with entirely different meanings. It is this which has confused the compilers of dictionaries in their extracts from this tablet.

Other methods of selecting salient points for cols. I and II besides forming abstract nouns from verbs will be noticed below, as soon as we shall have discussed more carefully the nature of the tablet from which this curious treatise has been compiled.