The Doctrine of Lao-Tzu.

We owe the following account to the kindness and enlightened zeal of one of our correspondents from Saigon (Cochinchina).

In the sixth century before our era, thus almost at the same time as Pythagoras, and two centuries before Socrates and Plato, there lived in the province of Loulan, in China, Lao-Tzu, one of the greatest philosophers who ever existed. Sprung from the most humble origin, Lao-Tzu had no other means of instructing himself than reflection and numerous travels. Having reached about fifty years of age, whether because his philosophical dispositions, developed by study, had at last produced their fruits, or whether, unconsciously, he had combined those fruits with a particular revelation, he wrote his book The Supreme Reason and Virtue, a work regarded as authentic, despite its antiquity, by the Chinese historians of all the sects, and with all the more authority since, certainly, it was not included in the burning of books ordered by the Emperor Loang-Ti, two hundred years before the Christian era. For greater clarity, let us say, first of all, what Lao-Tzu designated by the word tao. It was a denomination given by him to the first being; powerless as he was to call it by its eternal and immutable name, he qualified it by its principal attributes: tao, supreme reason. At first sight it appears that the Chinese term… (Here our correspondent transcribes this word in Chinese characters, which our printer was unable to reproduce), whose figured pronunciation is tas, has some analogy, from the phonetic point of view, with the Théos of the Greeks, or the Deus of the Latins, from which came our word Deus [God]. And yet, no one believes that the Chinese language and the Greek language ever had common points. Besides, the recognized priority of the Chinese nation and civilization suffices to prove that this expression is a Chinese idiotism. n The tao, or the universal supreme reason of Lao-Tzu, has two natures or modes of being: the spiritual or immortal mode and the corporeal or material mode. The spiritual nature is the perfect nature; it is from it that man emanated; it is to it that he must return, freeing himself from the material bonds of the body; the annihilation of all material passions, the withdrawal from worldly pleasures, are efficacious means of becoming worthy of returning to it. But let us listen to Lao-Tzu himself speak. I shall make use of the translation of Pauthier, a sinologist as erudite as he is conscientious. His works on Chinese philosophy and its doctrine are all the more remarkable and free from suspicion since, having died long ago, he was unaware even of the name of the Spiritist Doctrine. In the twenty-first section of the supreme reason, Lao-Tzu established a true cosmogony:

“The material forms of the great creative power are but emanations of the tao; it is the tao that produced the existing material beings. (Before) there was nothing but a complete confusion, an indefinable chaos; it was a chaos! a confusion inaccessible to human thought. “In the midst of that chaos there was a subtle, vivifying principle; that subtle, vivifying principle was the supreme truth.

“In the midst of that chaos there were beings, but beings in germ; imperceptible, indefinite beings.

“In the midst of that chaos there was a principle of faith. From antiquity to our days, its name has not disappeared. Examine with care the good of all beings. But we, how do we know the virtues of the multitude? By that tao, that supreme reason. “The beings of corporeal forms are formed of the first, confused matter.

“Before the existence of Heaven and Earth there was an immense silence, an immeasurable void without perceptible forms.

“It alone existed, infinite, immutable. It circulated in space without undergoing any alteration.

“One may consider it as the mother of the Universe; I am ignorant of its name, but I designate it by its attributes, and I call it Great, Lofty.

“Being (recognized as) great, lofty, I call it: great in the far distance.

“Being (recognized as) great in the far distance, I call it: distant, infinite.

“Being (recognized as) distant, infinite, I call it: that which is opposed to me.

“Man has his law on the Earth;

“The Earth has its law in Heaven, “Heaven has its law in the Tao or the universal supreme reason;

“The supreme reason has its law in itself.”

Elsewhere Lao-Tzu says:

“One must strive to reach the last degree of incorporeality, in order to be able to preserve the greatest possible immutability.

“All beings appear in life and accomplish their destinies; we contemplate their successive renewals. These material beings show themselves incessantly with new exterior forms. Each of them returns to its origin.

“To return to one's origin means to become at rest, “To become at rest means to fulfill one's mandate;

“To fulfill one's mandate means to become eternal;

“To know that one becomes eternal (or immortal) means to be enlightened;

“Not to know that one becomes immortal is to be given over to error and to all sorts of calamities;

“In knowing that one becomes immortal, one contains and embraces all beings;

“In embracing all beings in a common affection, one is just, equitable toward all beings;

“In being just and equitable toward all beings, one possesses the attributes of the sovereign;

“In possessing the attributes of the sovereign, one has the divine nature;

“In having the divine nature, one comes to be identified with the tao;

“In being identified with the universal supreme reason one subsists eternally; even though the body be put to death, one need fear no annihilation.”

Let us now see what is the morality of Chinese philosophy.

“The holy man does not have an inexorable heart; he makes his heart according to the heart of all men.

“We must treat the virtuous man as a virtuous man; we must also treat the vicious man as a virtuous man: This is wisdom and virtue.

“We must treat the sincere and faithful man as a sincere and faithful man; we must also treat the insincere and unfaithful man as a virtuous man: This is wisdom and sincerity.”

These maxims correspond to what we call indulgence and charity. Spiritism, in demonstrating that progress is a law of Nature, makes this thought more precise, saying that it is necessary to treat the vicious man as one who can and must one day, in consequence of his successive existences, become virtuous, for which we must furnish him the means, instead of relegating him among the pariahs of eternal damnation and thinking that we ourselves might perhaps have been worse than he. The whole doctrine of Lao-Tzu breathes the same gentleness, the same love for men, joined to an extraordinary elevation of sentiments. His wisdom is revealed above all in the following passage, in which he reproduces the celebrated axiom of ancient wisdom: Know thyself, without having had knowledge of the formula of Thales: “He who knows men is instructed;

“He who knows himself is truly enlightened.

“He who subjugates men is powerful;

“He who masters himself is truly strong.

“He who accomplishes difficult and meritorious works leaves a lasting remembrance in the memory of men.

“He who does not dissipate his life is imperishable;

“He who dies and is not forgotten has an eternal life.”