Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/215

Rh brought on the back of a tortoise, coming up out of a river. These diagrams consist of a magic square, in which the figures are so disposed into parallel and equal ranks, as that the sums of each row, as well diagonally as laterally, shall be equal; according to the following form:—

Of these, every odd number represents heaven, or the superior principle; and every even number, earth, or the inferior principle: the odd numbers combined make 25, and the even ones, with the decade, 30; and by these 55 numbers, they fancy that all transformations are perfected, and the spirits act.

Their diagrams are arranged thus:—



the extreme point, or nullity, which is a mere speck, carried out, produces a line; that line, extended and separated, produces two, represented severally by a whole and a divided line; these lines, doubled and interchanged, produce four; and trebled, eight; which are the eight diagrams. When carried out to six lines, they constitute 64; and, increased to twenty-four lines, placed over each other, they make 16,777,216 changes. Finding that such extensive results could be produced, by a few combinations, they have been led to imagine, that all the manifold changes of nature, and the secrets