of the Government. Verbiest was immovable. He answered that the withdrawal of the intercalated month appeared to him right and indispensable, and that as the heavens were out of harmony with the calendar it was not in his power to make them agree. As the heavens could not make concessions to the calendar it was for the calendar to give way. The Emperor, in his quality of Son of Heaven, settled the question by publishing an edict suppressing the intercalated month.

Great was the astonishment from one end of the Empire to the other, and amongst the neighbouring peoples, when they came to know that a certain Nan-hoai-jen, a barbarian from the depths of the West, had sufficient power to suppress a whole month in the calendar that had been launched into the world by the Son of Heaven. The reputation of the Europeans became considerable in China from that out, and the harassed Christians experienced an end to the evils with which they were overwhelmed. Father Verbiest made use of the confidence which the Emperor had in him to obtain the recall of the Missionaries from Canton to their several Mission stations. An opportunity for doing this presented itself very naturally. Khang-hi invited all who had suffered during his minority to have recourse to him. Father Verbiest presented a memorial, in which he stated that by a crying injustice the authority of the Emperor had been abused to proscribe the law of the true God and banish its teachers. This memorial was first rejected by the tribunal appointed to examine it. Father Verbiest asked for other judges and the Emperor acceded to his appeal. It was finally carried before a general assembly of the great mandarins. After studying the matter for seven days they declared that the Christian religion had been unjustly condemned, and that it taught nothing that was contrary to the good of the state or the duties of subjects. As a consequence the Missionaries were allowed to return to their former posts, but no permission was given to make converts, or to open new stations. This did not much matter as long as the Emperor was known to be so friendly, but it left a loop-hole, which was made use of with deadly effect, later on, by some powerful and bigoted viceroys. The Catholic mandarins who had been deposed were reinstated, and the memory of Father Schall was publicly vindicated. His honorific titles were restored and his ancestors ennobled. The Emperor granted a large sum for the erection of a splendid

monument in his honour, with marble statues and other symbolical figures, according to the custom of the country. This beautiful monument was still intact when Abbé Huc visited Peking in 1850, and was, according to him, worthy of the great monarch who caused it to be erected and of the illustrious Missionary in whose honour it was raised. In the year that the Missionaries were allowed to return no fewer than twenty thousand infidels were converted and baptized. Amongst these courageous and fervent neophytes was a maternal uncle of the Emperor and a high commander in the Manchu army. Father Verbiest was the heart and soul of every enterprise in China for the glory of God and the advancement of religion. At the same time he advanced daily in the good graces of Khang-hi. This untiring young prince had a decided taste for science. During five months the Missionary had to go every day to give him lessons in mathematics and astronomy. He had in his library all the scientific books written in Chinese by the Jesuits, amounting to one hundred and twenty volumes, and he wished for an explanation of the most difficult parts.

At the break of day [writes Father Verbiest] I went to the palace. I was at once admitted to the apartments of Khang-hi, and often I did not leave them before three for four in the afternoon. Alone with the Emperor, I used to read and explain. Frequently he kept me to dinner, and had the most exquisite meats served to me in vessels of gold. These marks of benevolence were truly extraordinary, when it is remembered that in China the Emperor is revered as if he were a divinity, that he is rarely seen, especially by strangers. Ambassadors from distant courts esteem themselves fortunate when they are permitted to see him once, and then they are allowed to do so only from afar. His ministers of state and nearest relatives pass before him in silence and with signs of great veneration. If they have occasion to speak to him they kneel down in front of him.

To lay a solid foundation the Emperor studied the six books of Euclid that had been translated by Father Ricci into Chinese, with astonishing application, under the direction of Father Verbiest. Though he had a thorough knowledge of Chinese, in order to feel more perfectly at home in them he had them translated into Manchu, and in order to be more free in his communications with Father Verbiest he appointed one of his most trusted servants to teach him that language. He got lessons from Father Verbiest, not only in mathematics but in all other branches of science, as well as music. The zealous Missionary gradually disabused him entirely of the fables and superstitions of the pagans, and, at favourable

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moments, made him acquainted with the truths of the Christian faith, and showed him their holiness and sublimity. The young Emperor was so impressed that one day he was heard to say that the Christian religion would insensibly destroy all other religions. Nevertheless, he did not dare to declare himself openly. He contented himself with protecting a religion of which he admired the purity and excellence. He had a real affection for the Missionaries, founded not only on the capacity of Father Verbiest, who was regarded as the ablest man in the Empire, but also on the certainty he had acquired, through his secret agents, of the innocence of their manners and the austere and laborious lives which they led at home. He knew everything that took place there, even to their private mortifications. He was, moreover, persuaded that their zeal in his service was disinterested, and that they had no other object but to accredit their religion and teach it to his subjects throughout his dominions. It was an immense step to have gained so much and to have convinced the Chinese that the Europeans had astronomical principles and instruments superior to their own, and thus to have disabused them of the vain and false idea they had of themselves.

The members of the Board of Astronomy were so dominated by the superiority of their new president; they had such confidence in his talents that, forgetting their jealousy, they addressed a petition to the Emperor, begging of him to give an order to Nan-hoai-jen to cast new instruments for the Observatory according to European principles, and to supply means for the purpose. Khang-hi issued a public decree charging him with this important and difficult undertaking. The able Missionary set to work at once, and his efforts were crowned with complete success. He then explained the method of construction, the theory and the use of the instruments, in six volumes, written in Chinese.

In May 1674, he presented the six instruments which he had constructed. They were a quadrant, six feet in radius ; an azimuth compass, six feet in diameter; a sextant, eight feet in radius; a celestial globe, six feet in diameter; and two armillary spheres, zodiacal and equinoctial, each six feet in diameter. They were made of bronze, burnished to look like brass, and were so beautifully ornamented with dragons and other figures as to be real works of art. In spite of their great weight they were very easily manipulated, and,

considering the time and the means at his disposal, they were a triumph of the mechanical skill and mathematical knowledge of Father Verbiest. They were in a perfect state of preservation in 1900, the time of the Boxer rising, when the international troops admired them on the platform of the tower of the Observatory, where he had installed them more than two centuries and a half before. Verbiest, who was indefatigable and endowed with prodigious facility, was not long before he was able to offer to his imperial patron thirty-two volumes, in Chinese, on astronomy and mathematical sciences, and a calculation of eclipses of the sun and moon for two thousand years, ornamented with plates and explanations. Khang-hi received this monumental work with lively satisfaction and issued a decree in which he ordered that it should be kept in the archives of the Empire. In order to reward the author he promoted him to be supreme president of one of the sovereign courts in Peking. As soon as the modest priest had knowledge of this distinction he sent in a petition stating that his profession of religious did not allow him to accept such an honour. But he was not listened to, and his fear of giving offence and injuring religion caused him to submit, but with great regret, to receive the following diploma, and to hear it publicly read in the presence of the Emperor, in one of those magnificent and unrivalled halls of the imperial palace : Eulogium and Titles accorded to Nan-hoai-jen, in a General Assembly held to compliment the Emperor on the occasion of the birth of a successor to the Empire.

DECREE OF THE SON OF HEAVEN.

The form of a well-regulated State requires that good actions and services promptly rendered to the State should be recompensed and duly praised. It is also the part of a prince who governs wisely according to the laws to praise virtue and exalt merit. That is what we do by these letters patent, which, according to our will, are to be published every where throughout our Empire, in order to make known to all what regard we have for the services which have been rendered to us with such application and diligence.

That is why, you, Nan-hoai-jen, to whom I have committed the care of my imperial calendar, the rectitude and vigilance which you have displayed in my service, as well as the profound knowledge in every branch of science by the constant application of your mind-all these things have obliged me to establish you at the head of my astronomical academy. You have responded to our expectations, and by working day and night you have fulfilled the duties of your charge. Finally, you have happily brought all your designs to a successful issue, through indefatigable labour of which we ourselves have been the witness.

It is becoming that on the occasion of this great festival, in which all my Empire comes to rejoice with me, I should make you feel the effects of my imperial favour and the esteem in which I hold your person. This is why that, by a singular favour, we accord to you the title of Great Man, which ought to be rendered celebrated everywhere. We order that this title be sent to every portion of our Empire and to be published there. You are the only one on whom I have conferred this favour,' etc.

These marks of favour on the part of the Emperor had an enormous influence in promoting missionary work in the provinces, where the mandarins and people treated the Missionaries as brothers of Nan-hoai-jen.

Soon after this he was requested by the ruling Manchus to come to their assistance in a way that was extremely repugnant to him. Several provinces in the south rose in an attempt to drive out the Manchus. Fifty thousand conspirators were discovered in Peking; the excitement was great, and Father Verbiest had packed up in readiness for flight. Khang-hi continued throughout cheerful and confident. His better trained army defeated the first army of the rebels, but there were several other armies to be encountered in the south. At this juncture the great military mandarins and the members of the military tribunal petitioned the Emperor to get Nan-hoai-jen to cast cannon superior to those they had at their disposal. He excused himself to them by saying that he had little or no knowledge of such matters, that his profession of religious removed him from military affairs, but that he would pray to God for the success of their arms. This reply was badly received. He was told that he need have no more repugnance to undertake the easier task of casting brass cannon than to fabricate astronomical instruments, especially when it was a question of the safety of the State; that a refusal, with such little foundation, would lead the Emperor to suppose that the preachers of religion were but little devoted to the public good, and that they were, perhaps, in collusion with his enemies. When Father Verbiest understood the bad effect these suspicions had on the mind of Khang-hi, he at last consented to superintend the work, in order not to expose the Missions to utter ruin. Like all his undertakings, he accomplished this with remarkable success. Though the war dragged on for a couple of years in the mountains of Yun-nan, the spirit of the revolt was soon broken; and it was realized by all that the success was due to the artillery made under the direction of Father Verbiest. The Emperor