conduite grave et modeste est excellente, mais si l'on agit avec empressement et se met au-dessus de ses parents alors cela n'est pas conforme à la vraie doctrine. C'est pourquoi si l'on se met à étudier la nature des choses, à perfectionner sa science et à d'autres actes semblables et que dans les actes journaliers, scrutant, distinguant avec soin, on sache parfaitement agir de manière à manifester dans ses actes la loi du ciel, par cette conduite ou verra certainement le vrai et le faux, le noir et le blanc; ils se distingueront chacun clairement, on verra profondément en son intérieur que la vérité suit cette loi et que l'erreur la viole; il n'y aura plus le moindre sujet de doute ou d'obscurité. Alors sachant aussi. tôt toute chose et capable de rendre sa science parfaite on pourra également assurer la vérité à son intelligence, la rectitude à son cœur et l'on sera en état de gouverner le monde, l'empire et les familles. Ce ne sont pas, en effet, deux choses différentes. Tous les saints et sages du temps passé parlant de la nature-décret du ciel, l'ont tous reconnue conformément à la vérité; conséquemment parler de perfectionner la nature c'est (dire d') accomplir les lois des trois relations et des cinq vertus des princes et sujets, des parents et enfants sans y manquer en rien. S'il s'agit de soutenir et développer la nature, c'est faire fleurir la loi morale et ne lui nuire en rien. Le droit est chose inapparente, les choses sont au contraire trèsvisibles; si on les apprécie également bien, rien n'y manquera, et les paroles seront exemptes d'erreur. Il est encore dit: les erreurs du Bouddhisme, quand on se les rappelle sont telles; elles sont innombrables et bien grandes. Si on les écrit on ne peut en épuiser le nombre, si on les énumère on ne peut les citer toutes. Si l'on continue longtemps à se les mettre bien dans l'esprit et qu'on s'y mûrisse, alors, de quelque côté qu'on veuille se tourner pour les fuir, on ne parvient point à les éviter.2 1 Il ne suffit pas de servir ses parents il faut le faire avec gravité et respect, et c'est ce que Pang Kui-Shi ne distinguait pas. 2 Les doctrines de Bouddha sont séduisantes par leur profondeur et beauté apparentes et trompsuses; quand on s'y livre, elle se rendent maîtresses de l'intelligence. Ayant compris Voici cependant ce que j'ai fait jadis. que le vrai essentiel n'était point en lui, je l'ai subitement et complètement abandonné; seul, je me suis appliqué à l'étude des livres, des règles et de la morale et j'ai lu tout comme si je commençais à aller à l'école des enfants. J'appris ainsi à connaître petit-à-petit le sens et les principes d'une ou deux sections et j'en ai reconnu les erreurs. Ayant à la longue approfondi cette doctrine je reconnus parfaitement que la vérité n'y était ni peu ni point, je n'eus pas besoin d'efforts pour m'en éloigner; par soi-même cela ne pouvait m'entrer dans l'esprit. Mais si prenant ce qu'elle a de mieux on cherche à le rapprocher de la vérité, on ne saura plus l'abandonner, parcequ'on ne la connaitra qu'imparfaitement. 1 Négligeant tout ce qu'elle a de faux et d'irrationnel, on l'épure et ainsi la comprend mal. Alors elle séduit. CORRESPONDENCE. 1. ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA. Camp, Rohe-Ashtami, Kolaba District, Bombay Presidency, 18 Feb., 1888. SIR,I have read with great interest Mr. Simpson's suggestions as to the origin of certain forms in Indian Architecture (JOURNAL, Vol. XX. Part I. pp. 49 et seq.), and hope that the following rough notes may be of some use in confirming his valuable conjectures. The origin of the Chaitya form of roof may now be considered, I think, as proven by his deductions from the works of Col. Marshall and Mr. Breeks; and reduce Mr. Fergusson's remarks about the probable result of exploration by “a man with an eye in his head" to a prophecy. It is worth noting that somewhat similar wooden forms appear to have been similarly adapted to rock-cut architecture in ancient Lycia; but there we have not, as in the Nilgiris, got the almost primitive hut still extant in striking resemblance to the rock-hewn monument. As regards the connection of Hindu temples with tombs, it still exists over a great part of Western India. Throughout the Deccan and Konkan, when an ascetic of unusual sanctity is buried, instead of being burnt (as is common), a small monument is apt to be raised over his grave, and this will generally take the form of a model temple shrine, containing, if he was a Saiva, a lingam in a "shalunkha," or in some cases the "padam" (two feet in low relief), more rarely other sacred emblems or even images. The erection of such monuments over the site of a cremation is more rare, and is, I have been told, not strictly orthodox; but I have known several cases. One of the most famous is the so-called "tomb" of Raja Sivaji, on the hillfortress of Raigarh in this district, which was surveyed and repaired under my own direction two years ago, by order and at the expense of Government. I know another said to commemorate the cremation of one of the Angira sea-kings, and to have been erected by himself before his death, just as a Musalmán chief erects his own tomb. As often happens, the work remained unfinished by his successors, but he is said to have been burnt close to the spot, which is sacred; forming part of the "curtilage" of a group of temples. I should have said that Raja Sivaji's cenotaph is close to a temple erected by himself. Another similar cenotaph marks the place where a Brahmin lady became "sati" in 1818, near Brahman Wáde in Ahmadnagar; and at Chinchwad, in Poona, the founder of a still existing line of Avatars of Ganpati is said to have been interred alive inside the principal temple. This is a large building; and, indeed, wherever the survivors were wealthy and pious, such buildings are usually not distinguishable at a glance from ordinary temples of the smaller temples of any important group, and they go in conversation by the same name "dewal." The above are modern instances, but throughout the same region we find old monolithic sepulchral monuments of small size, generally from 2ft. 6in. to 4ft. high. Their purpose is often indicated by their position in unmistakeable cemeteries still in use, or where abandoned, still crowded with unmistakeable grave mounds, and recorded to be ancient cemeteries. In many cases these have only been abandoned under pressure of authority, which in that country has of late years set its face against intramural burial, and appointed new cemeteries and burying-grounds at some distance from the dwellings of men, for sanitary reasons. Further, their sculptures commonly represent the death of the deceased, his judgment before Yama, and his final appearance in heaven, where he worships the lingam or otherwise, according to his creed on earth. Such sculptures are almost always enclosed in a sort of frame, representing a section of a temple, just as in Europe. A mural tablet or relief would perhaps be framed in a "pediment" borrowed from classic religious art. And very commonly the whole stone is itself a model of a temple, usually of Dravidian form. I have, I think, said enough to show the close connection between temples and the tombs and cenotaphs which often cluster around them in this region, both ancient and modern, and have only to add that it seems to be closest and commonest in Saiva remains. The whole of the facts correspond with Mr. Simpson's observations and quotations on pp. 56, 57 of his article. I am not prepared, however, to draw any positive deduction as to whether the tomb sprang from the temple or the temple from the tomb; though, looking at the almost universal ancestor-worship in one form or another, the latter appears the more likely hypothesis. Again, taking Mr. Simpson's remarks about the cars or raths of the gods, I am able to say that several exist (or lately did) in Western India, which are by no means temporary structures, nor dismantled after each procession, though for it they may be "dressed" (like a ship in gala trim) with additional ornaments. And these are usually wooden representations of Sikra-spires. Mr. Fergusson mentions and figures one at Vijayanagar (Ind. and East. Architecture, p. 375), which is monolithic and fixed, but has moveable wheels. Very likely the turning of these was part of the performance on feast days. In Khandesh and parts of Central India, when I served there a good many years ago, there were private bullock carriages, covered, not indeed with bamboo, but with a high roof of wooden lattice applied just as bamboo would be, and very probably derived from a bamboo original. This was supported on four corner posts, and if this structure had been |