paring this volume, my necessities have been confined mostly to the Works of Sze-ma Ch'ien, and his successor, Pan Ku (班固), the Historian of the first Han dynasty. 歷代統記表, 'The Annals of the Nation.' Published by imperial authority in 1803, the eighth year of Ch'ia-ch'ing. This Work is invaluable to a student, being, indeed, a collection of chronological tables, where every year, from the rise of the Chau dynasty, B.C. 1121, has a distinct column to itself, in which, in different compartments, the most important events are noted. Beyond that date, it ascends to nearly the commencement of the cycles in the sixty-first year of Hwang-ti, giving -- not every year, but the years of which anything has been mentioned in history. From Hwang-ti also, it ascends through the dateless ages up to P'an-ku, the first of mortal sovereigns. 歷代疆域表, 'The Boundaries of the Nation in the successive Dynasties.' This Work by the same author, and published in 1817, does for the boundaries of the empire the same service which the preceding renders to its chronology. 歷代沿革表, 'The Topography of the Nation in the successive Dynasties.' Another Work by the same author, and of the same date as the preceding. ___________________________ The Dictionaries chiefly consulted have been:-- The well-known Shwo Wan (說文解字), by Hsu Shan, styled Shu-chung (許慎, 字叔重), published in A.D. 100; with the supplement (繫傳) by Hsu Ch'ieh (徐鍇), of the southern Tang dynasty. The characters are arranged in the Shwo Wan under 540 keys or radicals, as they are unfortunately termed. The Liu Shu Ku (六書故), by Tai T'ung, styled Chung-ta (戴侗, 字仲達), of our thirteenth century. The characters are arranged in it, somewhat after the fashion of the R Ya (p. 2), under six general divisions, which again are subdivided, according to the affinity of subjects, into various categories. The Tsze Hui (字彙), which appeared in the Wan-li (萬歷) reign of the Ming dynasty (1573-1619). The 540 radicals of the Shwo Wan were reduced in this to 214, at which number they have since continued. The K'ang-hsi Tsze Tien (康熙字典), or Kang-hsi Dictionary, prepared by order of the great K'ang-hsi emperor in 1716. This