The present rendering of _The Soul of the Great Bell_ undoubtedly far surpasses the Chinese version. The story has been appropriately introduced, amplified and given added poetic and dramatic effect by careful choice of words, descriptive passages, suspense, onomatopœia, and climax. Lafcadio Hearn was born in 1850, of Irish and Greek parentage, in Leucadia, of the Greek Ionian Islands. At 19 he came to America and engaged in newspaper work, living at various times in New Orleans and in New York. From 1891 until his death in 1904 he made his home in Japan, where he became a Buddhist and a naturalized Japanese citizen under the name of Yakumo Koizumi. He learned to know the oriental peoples as few others have known them. His literary work is marked by poetic treatment, and an atmosphere of the Orient. He wrote _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_, _Out of the East_, _Some Chinese Ghosts_, and many other books on oriental subjects. =Ta-chung sz’.= Temple of the Bell. A building in Pekin, holding the bell that is the subject of the story. The bell was made in the reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A. D. It weighs over 120,000 pounds, and is the largest bell known to be in actual use. =Kwang-chan-fu.= The Broad City. Canton. THE TEN TRAILS By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON The fable and the proverb are much alike in that both are highly condensed, and both are told to instruct. The short, direct, applied narratives known as “Fables” are among the oldest ancestors of the short story. Even in the most ancient times there were fables, those of Æsop having been told perhaps as early as the sixth century, B.C. Many familiar fables have animals for their characters, their known characteristics needing no comment. Thus the fox and the wolf appear frequently, their mere names suggesting traits of character. The fable, as a type of wisdom literature, is always short, simple, and emphatic. It always emphasizes marked human characteristics, and usually ends with a “moral” that adds to the emphasis. The influence of the fable helped to make the story short, condensed, vivid, pointed, and based on character. _The Ten Trails_ is a modern imitation of older fables. Its directness, simplicity, clear story, and appended moral are characteristic of the type. Ernest Thompson Seton, born in England in 1860, has written many stories in which he presents animal life with appealing sympathy. He has devoted himself particularly to cultivating a love for outdoors life, and for animate nature. _Wild Animals I Have Known_, _The Biography of a Grizzly_, and similar books, are full of original interest. WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD IS ALSO By COUNT LEO TOLSTOI