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 poems, codes of rites, music and laws which they had in the middle states, while yet rebellion and disorder were of frequent occurrence, and asked how good order was secured among the wild people, who had none of those appliances. The envoy smiled, and replied that the troubles of China were occasioned by those very things of which the duke vaunted, and that there had been a gradual degeneration in the condition of its states, as their professed civilization had increased, ever since the days of the ancient sage, Hwang Tî, whereas in the land he came from, where there was nothing but the primitive simplicity, their princes showed a pure virtue in their treatment of the people, who responded to them with loyalty and good faith. “The government of a state,” said he in conclusion, “is like a man’s ruling his own single person. He rules it, and does not know how he does so; and this was indeed the method of the sages.” Lâo-tsze did not need to go further afield to find all that he has said about government.

We have confined ourselves to the Tâoism of the Tâo Teh King without touching on the religion Tâoism now existing in China, but which did not take shape until more than five hundred years after the death of Lâo-tsze, though he now occupies the second place in its trinity of “The three Pure or Holy

Ones.” There is hardly a word in his treatise that savours either of superstition or religion. In the works of Lieh-tsze and Chwang-tsze, his earliest followers of note, we find abundance of grotesque superstitions; but their beliefs (if indeed we can say that they had beliefs) had not become embodied in any religious institutions. When we come to the Ch’in dynasty (221–206 ), we meet with a Tâoism in the shape of a search for the fairy islands of the eastern sea, where the herb of immortality might be gathered. In the 1st century a magician, called Chang Tâo-ling, comes before us as the chief professor and controller of this Tâoism, preparing in retirement “the pill” which renewed his youth, supreme over all spirits, and destroying millions of demons by a stroke of his pencil. He left his books, talismans and charms, with his sword and seal, to his descendants, and one of them, professing to be animated by his soul, dwells on the Lung-hû mountain in Kiang-si, the acknowledged head or pope of Tâoism. But even then the system was not yet a religion, with temples or monasteries, liturgies and forms of public worship. It borrowed all these from Buddhism, which first obtained public recognition in China between 65 and 70, though at least a couple of centuries passed before it could be said to have free course in the country.

Even still, with the form of a religion, Tâoism is in reality a conglomeration of base and dangerous superstitions. Alchemy, geomancy and spiritualism have dwelt and dwell under its shadow. Each of its “three Holy Ones” has the title of Thien Tsun, “the Heavenly and Honoured,” taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti or God, taken from the old religion of the country. The most popular deity, however, is not one of them, but has the title of Yü Wang Shang Tî, “God, the Perfect King.” But it would take long to tell of all its “celestial gods,” “great gods,” “divine rulers” and others. It has been doubted whether Lâo-tsze acknowledged the existence of God at all, but modern Tâoism is a system of the wildest polytheism. The science and religion of the West meet from it a most determined opposition. The “Venerable Philosopher” himself would not have welcomed them; but he ought not to bear the obloquy of being the founder of the Tâoist religion.

 LA PAZ, a western department of Bolivia, bounded N. by the national territories of Caupolican and El Beni, E. by El Beni and Cochabamba, S. by Cochabamba and Oruro and W. by Chile and Peru. Pop. (1900) 445,616, the majority of whom are Indians. Area 53,777 sq. m. The department belongs to the great Bolivian plateau, and its greater part to the cold, bleak, puna climatic region. The Cordillera Real crosses it N.W. to S.E. and culminates in the snow-crowned summits of Sorata and Illimani. The west of the department includes a part of the Titicaca basin with about half of the lake. This elevated plateau region is partially barren and inhospitable, its short, cold summers permitting the production of little besides potatoes, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and barley, with a little Indian corn and wheat in favoured localities. Some attention is given to the rearing of llamas, and a few cattle, sheep and mules are to be seen south of Lake Titicaca. There is a considerable Indian population in this region, living chiefly in small hamlets on the products of their own industry. In the lower valleys of the eastern slopes, where climatic conditions range from temperate to tropical, wheat, Indian corn, oats and the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone are cultivated. Farther down, coffee, cacao, coca, rice, sugar cane, tobacco, oranges, bananas and other tropical fruits are grown, and the forests yield cinchona bark and rubber. The mineral wealth of La Paz includes gold, silver, tin, copper and bismuth. Tin and copper are the most important of these, the principal tin mines being in the vicinity of the capital and known under the names of Huayna-Potosi, Milluni and Chocoltaga. The chief copper mines are the famous Corocoro group, about 75 m. S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca by the Desaguadero river, the principal means of transport. The output of the Corocoro mines, which also includes gold and silver, finds its way to market by boat and rail to Mollendo, and by pack animals to Tacna and rail to Arica. There are no roads in La Paz worthy of the name except the 5 m. between the capital and the “Alto,” though stage-coach communication with Oruro and Chililaya has been maintained by the national government. The railway opened in 1905 between Guaqui and La Paz (54 m.) superseded the latter of these stage lines, and a railway is planned from Viacha to Oruro to supersede the other. The capital of the department is the national capital La Paz. Corocoro, near the Desaguadero river, about 75 m. S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca and 13,353 ft. above sea-level, has an estimated population (1906) of 15,000, chiefly Aymará Indians.

 LA PAZ (officially ), the capital of Bolivia since 1898, the see of a bishopric created in 1605 and capital of the department of La Paz, on the Rio de la Paz or Rio Chuquiapo, 42 m. S.E. of Lake Titicaca (port of Chililaya) in 16° 30′ S., 68° W. Pop. (1900) 54,713, (1906, estimate) 67,235. The city is built in a deeply-eroded valley of the Cordillera Real which is believed to have formed an outlet of Lake Titicaca, and at this point descends sharply to the S.E., the river making a great bend southward and then flowing northward to the Beni. The valley is about 10 m. long and 3 m. wide, and is singularly barren and forbidding. Its precipitous sides, deeply gullied by torrential rains and diversely coloured by mineral ores, rise 1500 ft. above the city to the margin of the great plateau surrounding Lake Titicaca, and above these are the snow-capped summits of Illimani and other giants of the Bolivian Cordillera. Below, the valley is fertile and covered with vegetation, first of the temperate and then of the tropical zone. The elevation of La Paz is 12,120 ft. above sea-level, which places it within the puna climatic region, in which the summers are short and cold. The mean annual temperature is a little above the puna average, which is 54° F., the extremes ranging from 19° to 75°. Pneumonia and bronchial complaints are common, but consumption is said to be rare. The surface of the valley is very uneven, rising sharply from the river on both sides, and the transverse streets of the city are steep and irregular. At its south-eastern extremity is the Alameda, a handsome public promenade with parallel rows of exotic trees, shrubs and flowers, which are maintained with no small effort in so inhospitable a climate. The trees which seem to thrive best are the willow and eucalyptus. The streets are generally narrow and roughly paved, and there are numerous bridges across the river and its many small tributaries. The dwellings of the poorer classes are commonly built with mud walls and covered with tiles, but stone and brick are used for the better structures. The cathedral, which was begun in the 17th century when the mines of Potosi were at the height of their productiveness, was never finished because of the revolutions and the comparative poverty of the city under the republic. It faces the Plaza Mayor and is distinguished for the finely-carved stonework of its façade. Facing the same plaza are the government offices and legislative chambers. Other notable edifices and institutions are the old university of San Andrés, the San Francisco church, a national college, a seminary, a good public library and a museum rich in relics of the Inca and colonial periods. La Paz is an important commercial centre, being connected with the Pacific coast by the Peruvian railway from Mollendo to Puno (via Arequipa), and a Bolivian extension from Guaqui to the Alto de La Paz (Heights of La Paz)—the two lines being connected by a steamship service across Lake Titicaca. An electric railway 5 m. long connects the Alto de La Paz with the city, 1493 ft. below. This route is 496 m. long, and is expensive because of trans-shipments and the cost of handling cargo at Mollendo. The vicinity of La Paz abounds with mineral wealth; most important are the tin deposits of Huayna-Potosi, Milluni 