尔之安行，亦不遑舍。
尔之亟行，遑脂尔车。
壹者之来，云何其盱。
尔还而入，我心易也。
还而不入，否难知也。
壹者之来，俾我祇也。
伯氏吹埙，仲氏吹篪。
及尔如贯，谅不我知。
出此三物，以诅尔斯。
为鬼为蜮，则不可得。
有腼面目，视人罔极。
作此好歌，以极反侧。
2. The sun and moon announce evil, Not keeping to their proper paths. All through the kingdom there is no [proper] government, Because the good are not employed. For the moon to be eclipsed Is but an ordinary matter. Now that the sun has been eclipsed, — How bad it is! FICEK OVER THE PRODIGIE8, CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL, BETOKENING THE KUIN OF Ch〇W. He expounds the true causes of these and THE ABOUNDING MISERY； NAMES THE CHIEF CULPRITS ； AND DECLARES HIS OWN DETERMINA- TION TO REMAIN AT HIS POST OF DUTY. St. 1. LI. 1 一 3 give us a certain date for the belonging to the reign of king Yew, and not, as Ch{ing Heuen maintained, to that of his grand- father Le. The eclipse is verified, by calcula- tion, as having occurred, on Aug. 29, B. C. 775, the very day and month assigned to it in the text. This was the 6th year of Yew^ reign. The 10th month is that of the Chow calendar ; and not to question the common view of the critics tliat 1 the sun was eaten by some- thing/ All the eclipses mentioned in the ( Spring and Autumn* are reported in this way, with the addition of when the eclipse was total. — We have here the earliest date in Chinese history about which there can be no dispute. L. 4. 醜 >= 惡 ， 4 bad,’ evil. ‘ The 亦 and the 之 must both be disregarded as mere ex- pletives. LI. 5, 6. The critics all interpret these lines, as if they compressed in brief space what is said in 11.5 — 8 of the next stanza; but I cannot find all that meaning in them. Bather, the writer is referring in 1. 5 to eclip- ses of the moon which had occurred, so that ‘that and this,’ are equivalent to 4 then’ an(l 4 now.， In 11. 7, 8 we have the in- ference of his superstition, confirmed, no doubt, by the state of things existing around him. St. 2. LI. 1, 2 are the judgment of supersti- tion. Eclipses happen because the sun and moon keep their proper paths ; and they do not portend evil. LI. 3, 4. 四 國 may refer to all the feudal States as well as to the * middle State* itself, or the characters may, as is more likely, under the 7th year of duke Cli4aou, we read,