Chap, xvii.] THE HONAM MONASTERY. 363 



the body of the condemned sinner and the descending mallet. 

 This struck me as a very quaint way of indicating merciful 

 interposition by the Goddess. At this temple some women 

 engaged in an act of religious devotion were pouring libations 

 of some kind of spirit at the foot of one of the pillars. 



At the bookshops close by the water-clock, a bookseller, 

 from whom I had bought some books, presented me with an 

 old wood block as a specimen at my request, and refused pay- 

 ment for it. Yet the Chinese are commonly accused of being 

 universally grasping in their dealing. 



The Government competitive examination buildings are 

 astonishing for the large area which they cover, and the vast 

 accommodation which they afford. It is singular that a similar 

 institution should just now be in course of construction at a 

 vast cost in Oxford. The Chinese examination halls cannot 

 but recall to an English University man the close analogy which 

 exists between Chinese methods of mental training and learned 

 thought, and those in vogue at home. As in our own Univer 

 sities, the main energies of the learned have been devoted to 

 the study and reiterated translation into English of the mouldy 

 and worm-eaten lore of a bygone age ; so in China successive 

 generations of students have for centuries devoted their lives 

 to the acquisition of the antiquated philosophy of their remote 

 ancestors, for the purposes of display in competitive examination. 

 The reformation of the English Universities proceeds but 

 slowly, and notwithstanding the hopeful movements now in 

 progress in that direction, a period of very many years must 

 necessarily elapse before all branches of knowledge shall be 

 equally and adequately represented in them. 



Like the examination halls, the great monastery at Honam 

 was full of interest from its close resemblances to similar 

 European institutions. We listened awhile to the evening 

 service, intoned and chanted by the monks in their priestly 

 vestments ; a gong and a kind of wooden bell giving out a 

 very sharp and short note when struck were used as an accom- 

 paniment. We were next shown the refectory ; here was a 

 small pulpit for the reading of pious books by one of the monks 

 whilst the others are at dinner, just, for example, as at Tintern 

 Abbey. Close by was the flower-garden of the monastery, 

 where bright flowers were carefully grown, to be used to 

 decorate the holy shrines. The principal flowers in blossom 

 were very fine large red and yellow Cockscombs {Amamnthus), 

 of which the gardener of the monastery was very proud, and 

 which displayed pyramidal masses of blossom three or four 

 feet in height. Not far from the garden is a fish-pond, and 

 near by a small cremation house, where the bodies of monks 



